Thread: onion and sugar to clean or polish

I've read in another forum (not in english) that some people (successfully) used an onion cut in half and dipped in sugar to clean/polish off rust or water marks from a straight razor blade...

anyone here has already heard of it or even tried it?

No, I haven't. I suspect using onion and sugar would be resorted to where things such as toothpaste, Maas, Flix, and rubbing compound were less widely available.

I've heard that a dried monkey paw works if you use it on a night with a quarter moon.... Or you can just spend three bucks and get some flitz..

Originally Posted by Wintchase

I've heard that a dried monkey paw works if you use it on a night with a quarter moon.... Or you can just spend three bucks and get some flitz..

Yeah, that. Just do it right. However, if you wanted to try it and report back, I bet a lot of people (myself included) would be interested to see how it works.

Interesting, and that's where the thread drops off. Onions have been used as a lightly acidic vegetable for developing a patina on carbon steel cutlery. Pretty sure they aren't anything as hardcore as citrus fruits, but they are intended for creating some form of oxidation. And having sugar present would also make it more acidic.

Merry (or possibly not) Christmas, christophe!

I have read about the "Potato bath" which Sham tried some years back and the "Molasses bath" which is also documented on here, both of which worked to some degree, but not to a degree that everyone jumped on board with the systems...

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that if the patina is light then a simple polish takes it off and leaves a shine.. But if rust is present then you have pitting under that, so even if you could magically take off just all the rust, you are not going to have a clean shiny surface left

Onions used with a little bit of water becomes sulphuric acid. A beet absorbs iron in soil and when made into a molasses will become a natural rust remover. The beet molasses was tested by one of our members with some good results but not stellar.

I have tried the potato system to clean woodworking tools and it does work, but it does tarnish the metal to black,
so i dont think it would be a good system for straight razors, the metal is so thin i really dont think it would be advise
to use this system, you would need to do some heavy buffing afterwards and i dont believed the edge could take it.