100% cast iron stove showing light orange surface rust...procedure to fix/polish?

[Jonsered]

Well my new (to me) stove does have some areas where some light surface rust is showing. I was wondering how I should go about taking care of this before I start burning it? Should I lightly wire brush the areas and then hit them with stove polish or is there a common way to take care of this with/without wire brush etc.

Please recommend method and materials!

Thanks,

Nate

 

[karri0n]

Soft cloth and Rutland stove polish works fine for me, even with surface rust that I considered a step above minor.

I would make sure you go with the Rutland polish, though. I heard FirefighterJake used some relatively unknown brand of stove polish and it left a bit of a gross yellow film on his stove after the polish burned off.

I don't think you will need to use the wire brush, but if you really want to do some scrubbing I think a scotch brite pad with some water will take it off.

 

[Jonsered]

Thanks Pyro,

Is that stove polish common at local stores like Sears/Walmart/Tractor Supply?

 

[LLigetfa]

Don't hit it hard with a wire brush as it will put a shine on it that will be hard to cover. Just a soft cloth to take of the loose rust and then stove polish. Test the stove stove polish on a spot in the back in case you don't like the look. Some brands of polish are more of a shiny gray than black.

 

[Battenkiller]

Don't hit it hard with a wire brush as it will put a shine on it that will be hard to cover.

I want to use stove polish on my VC next year when I rebuild it. I've read that you need to apply stove polish over bare iron since it won't work over paint. I was going to use a wire brush on an angle grinder to get all the old paint off. What should I do instead?