How To: Removing Rust from Chrome
This one’s quick, easy, and involves zero chemicals!
If your chrome is rusty, don’t throw it out—clean it with aluminum foil. Yep, that simple. Here’s how…
I recommend you do this work outside or while wearing a mask as it creates a lot of tiny pieces of aluminum foil that you won’t want to inhale.
Clean your chrome—just a quick wash with soap and water.
Find a piece of used aluminum foil. You can use new, but why not reuse?
Wad up enough of the foil to use it like a scrubby sponge. For me, that’s a piece about the size of my thumbnail (see video below).
Rub the rust with the foil until it disappears.
That’s it. As you can see in my example—a chrome basket that had been stored in a basement for years—if the rust is bad, it will leave some scarring in the metal (photos 5 and 6). I also had difficulty removing the rust from the joints (photos 3 and 4), but I’ve still used this method to reclaim scissors, baskets, bottle openers, trays, and much more without worrying about putting more chemicals (like CLR or Naval Jelly) into the environment.
