Molasses as a Rust Remover

I saw this posted somewhere online that molasses could be used as a rust remover. Seemed pretty incredible to me, in other words I was extremely doubtful. The recipe is 2 parts water to 1 part molasses. Spread it on whatever you want to remove rust from, let it dry to a sticky mess and wait. The theory is that the molasses forms a bacteria or yeast or something that eats the rust.

I tried it on a very rusty Favorite Piqua griddle that I probably shouldn't have bought. But I'm a sucker for hopeless causes, found it in a junk shop marked $40 (Actually couldn't read what the price was and asked the guy at the counter and he told me $40 and I said I would put it back. He said he would see what he could do so I went on shopping and when I got back to the counter he asked me what I would pay for this rusty mess of a griddle (my words) and I foolishly said I could go as high as $10 and that is what he had written on the tag which he had hidden under the griddle.) I bought the griddle for $10 and have had it sitting around for about a year with quarter inch thick rust on it. The griddle has been fun to use for my experiments though.

On the sections with light rust it cleaned up nicely after several weeks of sitting around with the molasses on it. The heavy rust loosened quite a bit and could be scrapped off. This griddle may be salvageable after all. It seems very smooth so far and I'm pleased with how it is coming out. A lot of work to go on it though.

This method actually works! It took quite a while but did a fantastic job of removing the rust. Would I recommend this method, probably not, unless you had only one piece to work on every 2 or 3 months. As for removing all of your rust from multiple items at a time no way. I might use this on my Griswold Rabbit Mold.

I should have taken some before pictures so I could show you what I was dealing with and what I have now. Hindsight is 20/20. More experiments to come.