How to Clean and Restore Old Rusty Weights with Oxalic Acid

How you restore a weight involves a lot of factors to include the condition of the weight as well as your personal preference. If a plate is rusty, I almost always prefer to use Oxalic Acid to see what is underneath the rust, because I prefer to retain original paint if possible. If a weight has been repainted several times, then I will strip it to bare iron and repaint. It’s for this reason I think Oxalic Acid is a much better choice for rusty weights than vinegar. Usually, vinegar will strip the paint off of a weight along with the rust and leave you with a completely bare iron weight. 

In the case of these Jackson weight plates, the Oxalic Acid revealed a lot of bare, dark grey iron, but there were also some patches of patina forming. Patina is a dark brown, “good” rust that forms over decades and is quite desirable by most collectors. Original black paint appeared on all four plates, some more than others, and white lettering came through on a plate as well. After using Oxalic Acid and oiling, I could then decide to paint these, but my personal preference is to keep them as is. I like the worn look. They’re vintage, aren’t they? 

If you’d like specific written directions for using Oxalic Acid, you can find them here. 

After watching the short project video and tutorial, please drop a comment and let me know what you think. Does the process seem easy enough? What do you think of the finished weight plates?