I'm not all too sure if Rust Brushes is actually what these bad babies are called but I can't seem to think of a more suitable name for them.
Just recently I moved into a 100 year old home in the middle of Los Angeles, and with it came some very old furniture in need of some serious love and care... and also hardware! I love hardware especially old ones, which is exactly what this new old-home came with, old crystal finial door-knobs, brass hooks and towel bars, all of which I would love to reuse of course. Needless to say, being that these hardwares were much older than I they were in need of some cleaning and scrubbing.
I picked up the kitchen towel bar and was enamored with it's simplicity and shape, only to be bought sometime way back when. The poor thing was rusted over, dusty and grimy! I filled my kitchen sink with 1/2 water and 1/2 vinegar and soaked the bar for about 4-5 hours, to my pleasure the sparkle was coming back to the old kitchen towel bar. I drained the sink and dried the towel bar and left it aside to be hung for later only to discover later that night the towel bar was beginning to rust anew! Imagine my surprise!
However, lucky for me I have a very handy husband equipped with very handy tools and a very handy brain. He handed me three Rust Brushes, the bristles all different, each coarser than the other. The very next day I tried my luck with the Rust Brushes and... of course they worked! Like a dream too. The rust simply brushed off, I couldn't believe my eyes! I always thought rust was rust and once it was there there was just no getting away from it. I might have ended up hanging the beautiful vintage towel bar somewhere in the back of my shed I suppose had it not been for these rescue Rust Brushes... *sigh, my heros.
