HCL in cooking oil?

Flyingwing12

I recently gave my hand tools a bath in " right from the bottle" strength HCL. I had previously known about the naughty flash rusting that occurs, so to combat the rust, I quickly plunged the tool in water, gave it a quick wipe and then plunged it into extremely hot cooking oil.

The tools stayed clean for about a day and then "POOF", the rust was back.

TO make this simple and sweet. Could the HCL have been dissolved into the cooking oil?

I have a high school background with Chemistry so I am trying to get an alleged knowledgeable opinion.

Thanks a bunch.

chemisttree

It's more likely that the HCl found it's way into pores present on the tool. Your rinse didn't completely remove it. Should have rinsed the tool under running water for at least 5 minutes but even that might not work. The rust already present on the tool created cracks and deep pores into the steel which you contaminated with HCl. Cooking oil does almost nothing except keep water off of the tool somewhat.