Clean Stainless Steel for $.10

While getting the rudder cage fix, I decided it would be a good time to clean it. Beside the normal surface dirt, the stainless steel rudder cage also had rust and rusty water spots. I thought that stainless steel wasn't suppose to rust. Well, I was wrong. It can rust if it gets infected with less noble metals. The rusty water spots, I discovered were caused by trace metals in water.

So how do you clean stainless steel. There are a lot of expensive boat stainless steel cleaners. I beginning to believe that if the words boat or marine are on a product the cost automatically goes up by $10 to $15.

I decided to do a little research and discovered that I could clean the stainless steel for pennies. First, obtain regular baking soda and add a little water to make a paste. Smear the paste onto the stainless steel and let it set for a couple of minutes. Then take a piece of regular aluminium foil and scrub the stainless steel, going with the grain (if you have a grain). The rust comes off with little effort.

Works great, not only on boat stainless steel, but also on stainless steel appilances!

Below are before and after pictures.