Reading about ladle problems.

[Willyp]

I have problems,more often than not,too. As i set here,i remember what ihave done when i was a hard core fur trapper!
One thing,was to boil my traps,to remove rust or other stuff. The way we did it was to boil them in LYE! Man,it cleans everything off of the metal,die,rust and stains. I think i will try this on a couple of old ladles,i have.
LYE is dangerous! I don't know if it can be bought,these days. I think it was known as Red Devil lye. Do you guys remember when it was used as a drain cleaner and sold as this?

[GhostHawk]

It still is, although I think Red Devil is gone.

I recently bought 6 lbs of high quality lye.
Lye is still used by us soap-makers.

Most "soap" sold in the USA is no longer what I'd call "real" soap. They have removed the Glycerin to be sold separately. What remains is mostly detergents and chemicals. Real soap contains almost half glycerin and leaves skin soft and smooth.

It isn't hard to learn how to do, and there are a ton of resources out there on the net.

You do need to be careful working with lye, it can hurt you.
But the results are worth it.