I have been buying the regular silver cookie cutters at Michaels, etc. (I guess they are tin?)

Anyway, I just went to look and see what I had in the way of Easter cutters and a whole bunch of mine are rusted. Do I have to throw them away or is there a way to salvage them? How do I prevent this?

Try a product called Bar Keepers Friend. I found mine at Wal-Mart. It's very inexpensive and works wonders. All of my cake pans were covered in all kinds of things after Katrina and the Bar keepers took off rust and goodness knows what else!

Rather than a chemical cleaner, try a Magic Eraser first.

I have used them to remove rust (as well as marker on wood, food coloring on my wood floor, stains on my counters, crayon on walls, scuff marks on my linolium.......I LOVE the Magic Eraser)!!

Best of all--you only wet it with water--no chemicals at all.

Also--make sure you do not put your cutters in the dishwasher and make sure they are super dry before you store them. Hopefully that will eliminate rust in the future.

Lisa

Never thought of a magic eraser! Very cool!

I got to thinking about the Magic Eraser and looked it up because I wondered how it worked without chemicals ( I always want to know how things work-used to take stuff apart as a kid-I could just never get it back together!). I found this on epinions. Now I don't know if this person is correct or not but it does say not to use with chlorine bleach which would make me think it does have some type of chemicals in it. This reveiwer says they just aren't as strong as we consumers are typically used to.

http://www.epinions.com/content_131343748740

I just wanted to include this in case anyone is sensitive to chemicals, they would have this info too.

I love the Magic Eraser. Anything that can get my grandma's kitchen clean is a winner in my book! They have a new one out that is supposed to be great for cleaning a textured bath tub. We live in an apartment and have that texture on the botton and I can't get it clean to save my life so I have to get the new kind and try it!

I believe you can't specifically use bleach with it because it will break down the sponge itself. You know--like if you soak your socks or your washclothes in it too long or too concentrated, they totally rip apart? I think it's the same principle.

I "melted" another kind of sponge with bleach before. That's probably why.

Maybe when I get close to using another one up and tossing it, I'll do a little experiment and let you know. (If I remember! lol!)

Lisa

The lady said it had some kind of ammonim salts in it. I think that is in the same family with ammonia. I'll ask dh-he knows lots of nerd stuff like that. If it is ammonia, don't experiment!! We don't want you to pass out from the fumes!!! We like having you around here!!! You always have lots of good stuff to say!

This won't help with the current rust, but for the future after you wash them, stick them in the oven for a few minutes after your cookies are done to dry them out completely. Same for anything tin, like tart molds.

I usually just wipe my cutters off with a damp cloth so that they don't get too wet. I'll have to see if any of them have rust and try the magic eraser and see how it works.