Electrolytic pickling stainless steel

I bought sparex #1 thinking I could pickle high carbon stainless
steel with it. But the container says I need to use the electrolytic
method.

Could someone give me a quick rundown on what I need to purchase to
do this properly. What do I use for the electrodes? Should I use a
car battery for the power source or is there something cheaper/more
convenient?

thanks,
Jessica

going to answer my own question here. Since I’m on a tight schedule I
just went ahead and tried it.

I went out and bought a car battery charger that puts out 6A. I
filled a large tupperware with Sparex #1 pickle. Connected the
cathode of the charger to the stainless steel piece I needed to
clean and the anode to an expendable steel object. I placed these in
the pickle and turned the charger on. After 1-2 minutes the piece was
sparkling clean!

Very easy way to clean my high carbon stainless steel pieces!

I went out and bought a car battery charger that puts out 6A. I
filled a large tupperware with Sparex #1 pickle. Connected the
cathode of the charger to the stainless steel piece I needed to
clean and the anode to an expendable steel object. I placed these
in the pickle and turned the charger on. After 1-2 minutes the
piece was sparkling clean! 

I guess this turns your pickle into an ionic cleaner! Anybody tried
this on other metals?

Noel

Noel it is not really an ionic cleaner, it is basically an electro
etching process. With the stainless and Sparex # 1 the etching
pretty much stops once the oxides of iron and nickel from heating are
gone. With other metals or other electrolytes you will get other
etching or even polishing results.

James Binnion
@James_Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

360-756-6550