Rusted Lorica slates!!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Gahh! My centurion left a bunch of precut Lorica slates in his truck, and now they have water damage (rust,and tarnish). He brought them to me and my brother to be cleaned up. We've cleaned of the dirt, and the spilled pop (yuck) that was on them, and are wondering about what to do next. Apparently we can use fine sandpaper or steel wool to get the rust off. Does anyone know some secret trick that would help??? <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Depending on how badly it's rusted, I've had a lot of luck with WD-40 and scotch brite green scrub pads.<br>
<br>
Cavetus <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

The rust amount depends on the plate. Some have only a few spots, others have bloths about as big as the palm of a hand. I thought Wd-40 was an oil?? Maybe I'll try that <p></p><i></i>

[Matthew Amt]

Ave!<br>
<br>
Well, loose plates are a lot less trouble to clean than a finished lorica!<br>
<br>
I'd use my electric drill with the sanding disc, with either 150 grit sandpaper or a Scotchbrite pad on it, and go to town. Wear a dust mask, seriously. By the way, you can get scrubby pads now in hardware stores and Home Depots, etc., in the sandpaper area. They even make them bigger than the regular Scotchbrite pads so that the cover the whole sanding disc.<br>
<br>
Good luck! And you might want to find a better storage method for your materials, eh?<br>
<br>
Vale,<br>
<br>
Matthew/Quintus <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

WD-40 is an oil. I don't know how it works, just that it has been helping me remove rust for years.<br>
<br>
Cavetus <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

I talked to my dad, who had to remove rust from a breast plate he uses in a play. He recamended Autosal, a car cleaner from germany (which is available in North america) and steel wool <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Lysadra<br>
Listen to your Father!! <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

Soak them in white vinegar for a couple of hours, scotch pad the rust off and if there is still rust, give them another soak. I have piles of rusty steel that I do just this to before turning it into armour. <p></p><i></i>

[Matt Lukes]

Ave!<br>
<br>
WD40 or any other oil really just provides a liquid medium for the rust particles you're scrubbing off with the abrasive pad. It also helps loosen the particles to some extent. I've found plastic sanding pads to be the best method of getting off rust with a minimum of elbow grease- you do have to polish the steel afterwards to get the scratches out, but a little work with high-grit sandpaper (320, for example).<br>
<br>
You are indeed lucky the plates are just loose- it'd be far worse if you had leather to deal with too!<br>
<br>
Vale<br>
<br>
Matt <p></p><i></i>

[Crispvs]

I used to use autosol but it tends to produce a (probably) inauthentic mirror finish.<br>
<br>
Crispvs <p></p><i></i>

[Anonymous]

We are going to switch to something called Neverdull, but we had a bunch of autosal left over. My dad was right though, the steel wool and Autosol works really well! For the deeper stuff I just have to let it sit for a bit. <p></p><i></i>