Restoring polished iron tea kettle

[StueySF]

I bought a small iron tea kettle that appears to have been polished at one time to a bronze colored finish, but 98% is covered by rust. (It closely resembles the Sidney Hollow Ware skillet shown in the 'blue book', but that may be too much to hope for...)

After electrolysis, is there any way to restore this finish? The little white knob on top looks to be riveted, so I'm not confident I should attempt a standard seasoning process in the oven and risk damaging the knob.

I'll try to attach a photo, but there is so much rust it likely won't show anything useful, but any speculation on the age or source of the kettle would be welcome.

 

[Doug D.]

Certainly looks quite like the SHW toy tea kettle, only unmarked. The loops in the bail ends aren't quite closed the same, but otherwise... You can de-rust in in electro w/o harming the ceramic knob. Just use mineral oil on the outside to keep the rust at bay.

 

[StueySF]

Thanks Doug! Much appreciated, as usual. If the SHW mark happens to appear under the rust, I'll be sure to share my good luck. It's a nice little kettle, either way.

 

[StueySF]

So, it is a SHW kettle. After two and a half days in the electro bath, there was not a lot of progress, but the letters on the lid began to appear after some wire brushing.

I'm not sure why the electro isn't working better, except maybe getting good metal: metal contact. Would it be safe to use lye on it? I don't know what material the knob is made from.

Here is a photo of the lettering:

 

[Steve Stephens]

You can use lye; just don't submerged the knob under the lye. It's porcelain and lye can etch porcelain in time. Lye will not remove rust; just old cooking oils.