How to Remove Rust from Knives

I noticed the other day that my knives look absolutely terrible. I have no idea if there are any health reasons not to be using rusty knives, but they sure look unpleasant.

 I googled my problem and everyone recommended lemon juice. Who knew? So here are my unappealing knives before I tackled the rust.

I did not have gallons of lemon juice to spare so I poured about half a cup into a baking pan and then added water to cover them for a proper soak. I left them in there for about half an hour. When I removed them, I dipped a regular scrubby sponge into the lemon/water concoction and scrubbed the rusty spots. This worked well for the smaller spots, but the big rusty marks on the tip were still apparent. My solution was to pour some lemon juice into a cup.

 This cup is half lemon juice, half water. A much stronger combination. These soaked for another half an hour or so. I also flipped them over and let the end of the handles soak for a bit. They also had spots that I did not take pictures of. I did not notice them until I was scrubbing them after they were in the pan. Just a 10 minute soak removed the rust easily from the handles. For some of the tougher spots that seemed to be embedded into the "grain" of the knives, I just used my fingernail to scratch them off.

 I would recommend not even trying to big pan step and going straight to the mini soak in a cup.

 Tada! My knives now look as good as new! In my reading, I discovered that you are not suppose to put knives in the dishwasher? Again, I had no idea that was the case. Good to know! Hopefully these should stay sparkly and awesome for a long time now. =)