A little rusty reed
May. 22nd, 2024 12:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
merrileemakesI'm still working away at learning how to restore fibre equipment. The loom I have to restore is still sitting in the shed. But before I derust a whole 90cm of reed I thought I'd start with a smaller sample.
This little reed was part of a whole pile of equipment donated to Canberra Spinners and Weavers. This reed was so very carefully wrapped in tissue paper and then multiple layers of stocking. It broke my heart a little when I got down to the last layer and saw the hints of red spots on the paper.
Rust. And quite a bit, which has started to eat away at the metal. All it takes it a bit too much moisture for a bit too long and these old reed can just start to disappear.
This reed was destined for the bin but I offered to bring it home and test out my new rust removal product on it. Who knows, maybe I can make it useable again. Let's see.
I got some Evapo-Rust Spray Gel from Supercheap Auto. I sprayed the reed pretty liberally with the gel and then left it under a bucket for two hours (mostly to make sure that if the cats got into the yard they wouldn't touch it).
Then I rinsed the reed off.
And wow.
There's still a few smidges of rust, but overall it looks fanastic. And very usable.
Let's see if another round of Evapo-Rust helps.
Yep, that was worth a second treatment. In this photo the reed is the same position as the first photos, with the major rust patch on the top left. You can see that it's really come good!
I'm very pleased. With this experiment. This reed went back to Canberra Spinners and Weavers for our recycling room for someone else to take home. And now I'm feeling confident enough to tackle the big reed I need to derust.
This newly restored reed went back to the Spinners and Weavers recycling room to find a new home.
This little reed was part of a whole pile of equipment donated to Canberra Spinners and Weavers. This reed was so very carefully wrapped in tissue paper and then multiple layers of stocking. It broke my heart a little when I got down to the last layer and saw the hints of red spots on the paper.
Rust. And quite a bit, which has started to eat away at the metal. All it takes it a bit too much moisture for a bit too long and these old reed can just start to disappear.
This reed was destined for the bin but I offered to bring it home and test out my new rust removal product on it. Who knows, maybe I can make it useable again. Let's see.
I got some Evapo-Rust Spray Gel from Supercheap Auto. I sprayed the reed pretty liberally with the gel and then left it under a bucket for two hours (mostly to make sure that if the cats got into the yard they wouldn't touch it).
Then I rinsed the reed off.
And wow.
There's still a few smidges of rust, but overall it looks fanastic. And very usable.
Let's see if another round of Evapo-Rust helps.
Yep, that was worth a second treatment. In this photo the reed is the same position as the first photos, with the major rust patch on the top left. You can see that it's really come good!
I'm very pleased. With this experiment. This reed went back to Canberra Spinners and Weavers for our recycling room for someone else to take home. And now I'm feeling confident enough to tackle the big reed I need to derust.
This newly restored reed went back to the Spinners and Weavers recycling room to find a new home.
