How To Rust Craft Store Metals like Jingle Bells & Safety Pins

A. Perhaps try some diluted muriatic acid [on eBay or Amazon] (Hydrochloric acid), which should be available at your local hardware store. Make sure you wear rubber gloves [on eBay or Amazon], and eye protection ([on eBay or Amazon]).

A. Safer and simpler is kitchen salt [adv: bulk quantities on eBay or Amazon] solution, it must be sprayed or brushed on grease-free objects! Good luck!

A. TRY BLEACH [adv: bleach/sodium hypochlorite in bulk on eBay or Amazon] .

A. Hi. Okay, I have done this. First thing is to cover it with bleach all day or overnight... maybe even set it in a window or outside, for the heat. Then after you drain it, cover with vinegar [in bulk on eBay or Amazon] and salt. Put it outside again all day or over night but check on it later in the day. I hope this helps you.

A. Try 1/2 cup bleach, 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar and 1 tsp of salt. Put in a jar, cover loosely and let sit for 2 days. Remove with old fork onto paper towels. Set items outside to dry and turn them occasionally, so all sides dry. Piece will rust while drying.

It can be dangerous to mix bleach and vinegar ... please don't do that!!

Donna Stearns
- Hecla, South Dakota
February 8, 2023

A. Take a plastic shoe box type container.
Add safety pins. You can purchase these from a 99 cent or dollar store. You can do a couple hundred at a time. Just so long as it's a single layer of pins. The more pins, the bigger the plastic bin.
Cover with salt. Literally, COVER with SALT [adv: bulk quantities on eBay or Amazon].
Also usually available 2 for a dollar at the dollar mart.
Then add peroxide [on eBay or Amazon] . And yep, you guessed it, 2/1.00 at the dollar mart. Usually, 3 bottles should do it. You want about an inch of liquid peroxide above the salt layer.
Store in a non humid area. NOT OUTSIDE, and not anywhere where the solution will evaporate too fast. The process takes about 2 weeks BUT it's well worth it. You actually get rusted pins, not pins that appear to be rusted and then the rust rubs off.

A. I went through the same trouble as you! My Mom gave me this "recipe". I use only the cheapo gold pins and bells and this works like a charm.
It does take time but is well worth it.

1/2 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup bleach
1 teaspoon salt

Mix in a one quart Mason jar. Cover loosely and put in a safe place. I let mine sit for a couple days and then dry them in a paper towel and let them sun dry. They may not look all that rusty but they will rust more as they dry.

A. Hi Sharon. We appended your question to a thread on the subject. First, never mix bleach with vinegar or any other acid :-(

But check that the items are magnetic because, if they are not, then they are not steel and will never rust. Assuming that they are steel, I suspect that they may have a clear lacquer or clearcoat on them which is preventing your chemicals from reaching the metal.

If you have an electrical testing meter/VOM multimeter [on eBay or Amazon] , you can check for the resistance between two spots on the objects to see if there is a non-metallic coating on them. Try lightly sanding the area on one item as a test of removing the coating, and check the resistance again, and/or see if the sanded area rusts. You can put them in acetone [on eBay or Amazon], which will strip lacquer. If they do have a clearcoat that isn't removed with acetone, it can be removed with Aircraft Stripper, but that's truly noxious toxic stuff.

Then they should rust with any procedure you see on this page. Good luck.

Regards,

A. I decided to take handmade paper and rust it with the vinegar and salt method. Worked wonderfully overnight (with my already rusted objects on the paper).

Q. NOW, how do I stop any continuing rusting. I am letting the paper dry out ... it is beautiful.

A. I've tried many different things to get the rusted look also. I've been successful using bleach for 24 hours, then wash them off, dry them, then put them in apple cider vinegar for 24 hours. Remove, rinse, then let them set in the sun to dry and set the rust. This works great for me every time. Hope this helps some of you who're just as discouraged as I was.

A. Toilet bowl cleaner ... On a cheap cookie sheet, pour toilet bowl cleaner on desired item to rustify and set out in sun

A. Hi Judy. Deborah's posting was from 2-1/2 years ago, so I don't know if or when she'll reply. But in the meanwhile I'd interpret her instructions as "let partially dry / let dry to tackiness".

I don't know about the longevity of the cinnamon. Back when my son was in grammar school his class had a project to make scrapbook albums with a different grain on each page: rice on one, corn on the next, rye on a third, wheat on a fourth, oats on the fifth. When we brought it down from the attic some years later, it was a scrapbook of which grain different species of grain worms preferred :-)

Luck & Regards,

A. The cinnamon rusting technique I use is this: Spray paint item desired color. Let dry. Spray with spray adhesive [adv: adhesive spray on eBay or Amazon]. IMMEDIATELY sprinkle with cinnamon. Then spray with a clearcoat of some sort [on eBay or Amazon] . Repeat adhesive/cinnamon until you achieve look you want. Finish again with clear coat.

A. The cinnamon when you put it on an object it looks like glitter; once the item dries, take a paint brush and loosely, very lightly, brush the item. The loose cinnamon will come off ... but you must seal your item to stop it flaking or coming off more! You can use a clear coat spray or mod podge to seal them.

A. Hi Dwanna. Yes, you certainly need something -- I think some of the wording has been unclear, but J Beltz suggests spray adhesive, and mod podge is probably okay too..

Luck & Regards,


Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey

A. Hi Ms. Mojo. The nickel plating itself can't rust, and it deters the underlying steel from rusting, but it does not prevent it if there is porosity or pinholes in the plating, which there usually are. The rust will appear in the form of pimples through that porosity, but you won't get an even rust finish. Here's a pic of a nickel plated bicycle fender where you can see the pimply nature of the developing rust, and a nickel plated bathroom rack for sale at a big box store already rusting if you look closely.

Several folks on this page suggest using cinnamon to imitate rust; I personally haven't seen it, but it sounds like a good way to go when dealing with nickel plating which isn't rusting :-)
Luck & Regards,

Ted Mooney, P.E. RET
Striving to live Aloha
finishing.com - Pine Beach, New Jersey