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I tried to get rid of some mild rust on a couple of steel elements (cases, screws and whatnot). My intention was to get rid of physical rust by manually scraping it off, perhaps sandblasting and then, with help of chemicals, to get rid of all traces difficult to reach by physical means.

Unfortunately, I haven't done my homework and I got myself a rust converter instead of rust remover. The former bases on phosphoric acid which turns rust into iron phosphate that results in black coating on steel elements that's supposed to be some form of rust protection, while the latter is supposed to physically decouple rust from steel.

To the point, now that I'm left with bunch of blackened elements, is there any solution in which I can soak those metal elements to get rid of this black iron phosphate coating (it not only leaves black traces on my fingers, it also stinks horribly) so that I can apply proper rust removal product (hopefully I'll get it right this time) and get those elements galvanised as I initially planned?

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    $\begingroup$ Try standard rust removers, e.g., those with oxalic acid and/or EDTA, which might attack through the phosphate layer. Sulfuric acid dissolves it, but might not be good for the underlying steel (pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/…) $\endgroup$ Commented Oct 27, 2022 at 18:32

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