During a recent discussion on the MorseCode mailing list about rust removers, several commercial products were mentioned. One was Evapo-Rust, which, according to the manufacturer, was safe to use, was fast, and could be disposed of right down the drain. I bought a gallon of it to try out on some rusty parts of a telegraph key I wanted to restore. The lowest price I could find at the time was $15.00 per gallon plus shipping.

While searching the web for more information about chelation, I came across a list of a few things that are chelators, one of which is molasses.