• Home
  • About
  • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Browse

Stow&TellU

  • Home
  • DIY & Crafts
    • Craft Projects
    • Home Decor
    • Furniture
    • Storage and Space Saving
    • Holiday Ideas
    • Seasonal
    • LIghting
    • Rooms and Redesign
    • Garden & Outdoor
  • Daily Life
    • Recipes
    • Travel
    • Route 66
    • Perspective
  • Faux and Tell U
    • Faux Round-Ups
    • Faux Techniques and Projects
  • Resource Library
  • Freebies
Home » DIY & Crafts » Craft Projects » Non-Toxic, No-Nonsense, No Foolin’ How to Make Metal Rust with Potatoes

Non-Toxic, No-Nonsense, No Foolin’ How to Make Metal Rust with Potatoes

March 19, 2013 By Amy 10 Comments

19 Mar
5.0K shares
  • Share
  • Email

How to make rust with potatoes

Once considered junk, rusty old items have become trendy furniture, garden art and home decor. I myself haven’t mastered this look, but I have needed to make newer nails and hardware look rusty from time to time,  and along the way, I discovered a non-toxic, no-nonsense method to make rust, using potatoes! There are plenty of ways to make nails and metal rusty, so I have included a list of several other methods, too, but if you want to know how to make rust with potatoes, here is how:

standard-nails

potatoes

how-to-rust-nails

Soaking Method for Vinegar, Salt, and Oxidized Potatoes
  • Pour some vinegar into a glass or plastic container then add some salt
  • Use this ratio: ½ cup vinegar to 1 tablespoon salt
  • Slice a few pieces of potato. Allow slices to sit out uncovered to oxidize (turn reddish, brown)
  • Once potato slices have oxidized, drop them in the vinegar/salt mixture.
  • Next, drop in your nails or other metal objects.
  • This method works quite fast. You will see the metal darken right away.
  • Let soak for about an hour or so.
  • Remove and dry on paper towel or cloth, and rust will begin to appear.

rust-will-form

This method will work on standard metal items with iron properties such as steel or cast iron nails, screws, hardware, chains, and other unpainted decorative items. If item is metal, but has paint on it, you may want to sand down some of the paint and then try to use a rusting method.

Avoid  trying to rust metals such as stainless steel, heat-galvanized, zinc and aluminum, as these metals are designed to be rust-proof.

Is there a spray method for Vinegar, Salt, and Oxidized Potatoes?

I haven’t tried making a spray solution with the potato method, so I cannot tell you that it would work, but I will be giving it a try once the weather warms up and provide an update. In the meantime, if you happen to try it yourself, let me know how it goes!!

how-to-rust-metal-vinegar-salt

Alternative Rusting Methods:

If you don’t have a potato handy or just want to try another method, here are several ways for how to rust metal that I have used in the past and several others, as well.

Salt and vinegar

Ratio 1:1

This method is slow, but it has worked for me in the past

Try any of the following in combination with salt & vinegar:

  • Add a dash of baking soda
  • Place jar in warm place to speed up the process.
  • Use a tin can instead of a jar
  • Use less liquid and partially expose the nails to air at the same time, the exposure should also speed up the process.

mix-vinegar-bleach

This post contains affiliate links. See full disclosure, here.

Iron Oxide Paint Method

From Leslie @ Hometalk.com

Works great for larger pieces and galvanized metal

A Combination of Household Products:

Six step process from Laral @ Instructables.com

Works great for larger items.

Using a paint and chalkboard paint combination:

How to age or create a rusty look on chicken wire with chalkboard paint

Other products I would recommend for making faux rust:

I hope these are helpful on how to rust metal, or at least how to make metal look rusty. Some of it is trial and error, because you don’t always know what type of metal you have, just make sure to research and read all directions for any method you may try.

Happy Rusting and let me know how it turns out!!
Follow my blog with Bloglovin

5.0K shares
  • Share
  • Email

Filed Under: Craft Projects, Faux Techniques and Projects, Popular Posts Tagged With: Quick Tips

« Hail to West Cork Ireland – Nail Head Foot Stool
Dune Buggy Memories: Souvenir Photo Serving Tray with Envirotex Lite »

Comments

  1. Anne@DesignDreams says

    March 21, 2013 at 9:53 pm

    Wow, the things we’ll do! I can’t believe how many ways there are to do this – so cool!

    Have a great weekend!

    Reply
    • Amycha says

      March 22, 2013 at 6:11 am

      What we do for DIY!! Thanks for stopping by, Anne, and you have a great weekend, too!!

      Reply
  2. Mel says

    March 28, 2013 at 6:56 pm

    Fascinating who knew it was that easy!

    Reply
  3. Bliss says

    April 20, 2013 at 8:46 am

    That’s crazy! My son said at dinner once, who ever thought of pulling on “those things” to get milk from a cow?, and I’m thinking, who ever thought to put nails in taters to get rust!
    Bliss

    Reply
  4. Misty says

    July 31, 2015 at 12:27 pm

    Am I missing something. For the potato method there is no step for when to put in the nails. Please add this essential step!!

    Reply
    • Amy says

      August 1, 2015 at 8:01 am

      Thank you Misty, for pointing that out. I have corrected the directions and added that step.

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dune Buggy Memories: Souvenir Photo Serving Tray with Envirotex Lite | Stow&TellU says:
    August 2, 2013 at 10:08 am

    […] I soaked the metal washers in salt and vinegar.  I was trying to get them to rust, but wasn’t having much luck, they did eventually rust up a bit, however, they did darken enough to look aged, and it wasn’t until days later that I discovered How to Make Metal Rust with Potatoes. […]

    Reply
  2. How to Make a Pumpkin out of Chicken Wire | Stow&TellU says:
    September 30, 2013 at 5:35 am

    […] Add more detail with craft paint or make them rusty with one of these rust causing techniques!! […]

    Reply
  3. Rust and Vinamold Experiments | Nymla says:
    April 21, 2014 at 6:49 am

    […] wanted to try and make them rust. There are many ways to do this but I decided to use this tutorial. All you need is potatoes, vinegar and salt. I sanded down some spots to expose the metal. To the […]

    Reply
  4. How to Age Chicken Wire with Chalkboard Paint | Stow&TellUStow&TellU says:
    May 19, 2014 at 4:33 am

    […]  And more rust technique ideas, here. […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Looking for Something

Hey! We’re Ken and Amy and we’re here to help you inexpensively turn your home into a cozier living space one DIY project at a time. Read more

Browse by Category

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
  • Home
  • About
  • Disclosure and Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Browse

Amazon Associates Disclosure

Stow and Tell U is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an associate, we earn from qualifying purchases designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com.

Copyright

You’re welcome and encouraged to link to StowAndTellU.com or use a SINGLE image with a brief description and a visible link back to any post. Republishing posts in their entirety is prohibited. Please feel free to pin on Pinterest!

Disclaimer

We love sharing ideas and projects with you, however, we cannot guarantee everything will also work for you. As the reader, you assume any risks involved when completing projects seen on this site. We are not personally liable for projects that are completed based on the ideas and inspiration shared here.

Copyright © 2023 · Stow and Tell U

4950 shares