About Rust

What is rust? In steel, what is rust is the creation of oxides of the iron - deliberate as in hot bluing salts, (Then it will smack brown on top if it is not immediately sealed - the better the seal, the more brown is not on it) or rust on its own. Destroy the iron, destroy the steel. (Brown on carbon steel = bloomed rust). But all metal rusts - not just steel. The way metals degrade is through rust.

What are the ingredients to rust in all metals (the electrical process)?

Corrosion of all metals (rust process - no acid (Fizz effect) involved) is an electrical process at some level whether it be localized pitting or the entire item (as in Automotive).

The reason I say this is it has been discovered for metal in contact with earth (As in bridges or ships) it is possible to eliminate corrosion with the outside surfaces - but that takes deliberate DC Power, and elimination engineering which includes analysis of the earth, long term replacement of the sacrificial surface (Deliberately corroding a separate protection item beyond the rate the steel itself would corrode on its own) care, etc.

Once black is achieved, the only way to slow down brown appearing on top (which lives homogenously with black) is by starving the surface for oxygen, water, or electricity. Without a battery and current flow in a liquid with a sacrificial surface (a specialized rust study), that leaves dry and film.

The more brown there is - if it penetrates under the black, then you have problems. (In the case of bluing - though Stainless steel corrodes too.)

The more the surface volume (area) is prevented from either moisture/water/humidity or oxygen, the better it will fare.

This is the reason solids that either sacrifice themselves immersed in oil (Zinc) or a solid film tight in on the metal - like wax give long term protection - but rust occurs 24 hours a day. It can only be slowed.

So what?

It can be only be eliminated for a short while - and only if you can interrupt one of the two angles: electricity (atom to atom elecricity) or fuel.

This is the reason I suggest wax (no oil on top) as of more immediate value than solids. Anything that behaves like a solid coating on top of a rust free surface gives some protection for a period of time, or until parts of it fail (Due to itself failing). Otherwise there is little to no protection. If there is moisture between metal and a solid surface, any trapped air or oxygen starts the procuess, and if it can "wick" more in - via wick-it-in effect - bubbling, than corrosion rages along a surface until the solid fails. (As in a clear coat, paint with clear coat on top (clear coat to slow absorption of elements).)

What you see (either brown or loss of metal) is only the result of rust. The process is something it likes to do. No matter the field, rust is rust. It just happens, and if there is a variable like chlorine or humidity in the air, the air is vastly more corrosive than no chlorine, and percipitating humidity gives you the water requirement for rust - whether chlorine or not.

That's my opinion, Jonathan