Thursday, October 4, 2012

homework [tips]: how to remove a rust stain

Blog Rust RemoverPhoto Sources: photo 1photo 2, photo 3photo 4

I love crisp white linens and towels - like these beautiful vintage linens found on Pinterest. Nothing looks cleaner than bright whites. Unless of course, you get a stain. Most stains can be removed with a spot remover or by bleaching the heck out of it. But not a rust stain.




I love to use white bar mops in my kitchen to do dishes. I usually have one sitting on the counter under my hand washed dishes, pots and pans and cooking utensils. Every now and then, a rust stain will appear. No amount of bleaching or soaking will get them out. You know why? Because they’re not true stains. They’re little chemistry experiments gone bad and living on your towel. Bleach will actually make the stain worse by reacting with the iron oxide (rust). Here’s how you can remove a rust stain.




You’ll need salt.



And some lemon juice. I didn’t have any fresh lemons so I used the bottled lemon juice.




Pile a good amount of salt over your rust stain.




Cover the pile of salt with lemon juice. Place your towel in a sunny location. I put mine up on the window ledge. Ignore it for several hours. When you do check on it, you can add more lemon juice if you still see the stain.




After 24 hours, carefully rinse the spot in cool water. Ta-dah! Your stain should be gone. On this towel, you can still see the tiniest stain that I can probably get out with a second treatment. I’ve done other towels where the stain is completely gone. I feel so much better now that my white towels are bright white again.


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18 comments :

  1. Thanks for the tip! I have a white towel with a rust stain that is driving me crazy! I'll be trying this!

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  2. Great tip! Do you know if this works with other stains? I have a bunch of lace and crochet doilies that belonged to my grandma, they're all discoloured with various marks/stains/age spots but I'm hesitant to use bleach on them--some of the lace especially is pretty fragile.

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    Replies
    1. Don't use bleach on antique fabrics! It will destroy the fabric! Try washing with a gentle detergent and spreading on the grass in the sunshine to dry. You'll probably have to wait for longer days and you may have to repeat. You can use a mild Borax solution on some lace fabrics. Read the directions on the box. It's the sun that does the trick. The lemon juice and salt only works on certain chemical stains, like rust and baby iron drops.

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  3. BRILLIANT. I had no idea. You just saved my sanity. Thank you for sharing this much needed tip.

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  4. Wow!! I had no idea this was so easy!! Thanks so much Carolyn!!

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  5. What a wonderful tip, Carolyn. I had not idea! Thanks for sharing. : )

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  6. Fabulous! and if you can tell me how to get rust off of porcelain and acrylic surfaces, I'll love you forever! (not that I won't love you forever anyway...)

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  7. Thank you ... great lesson. Greetings

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  8. Wow - great tip! I can't wait to try it on some vintage linens I have.

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  9. Carolyn, this is brilliant and so useful...thank you so much for sharing...pinning...xo

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  10. Would White Vinegar work instead of Lemon Juice?

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  11. Or you can just use that little brown squeeze bottle of Rust Stain Magic that you buy at the grocery. : ) You are right about not bleaching. It will set in the stain.

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  12. Excellent to know, Carolyn!! Definitely something I can use.

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  13. Wow, I didn't know salt could be used as an alternative stain remover. I've heard about lemons and vinegars being used to remove rust stains, but they don't work right on ingrained corrosion, so I still rely on rust removal products.
    Regards,
    Tanner =)

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  15. I only use sea salt so will that work?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Merlyn,
      I'm actually not sure about sea salt. It would have to have the same chemical reaction with the lemon juice that table salt does.

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