How to clean rust off of an old, large cast iron kettle?

Use a half potato to scrub it with salt. Depending on what you plan to use it for, you could season it just like a frying pan (food preparation) or spray it with a plastic coating (decoration).

Hi Belinda! I've never done it , but I found this link for you:

https://www.hunker.com/13421860/how-to-clean-rust-from-a-cast-iron-kettle

Hi Belinda,

Is the rust inside or out? How do you is it?

My kettle for my fire place developed it on the inside and to fix that I used a mixture of sea salt, water and elbow grease. I swished it around first to get it coated then I just took a clean rag scrubbed it.

When all the rust was gone I rinsed it really well and then seasoned it like any other piece of cast iron that I have.

Since I don't drink out of it it worked ok. To keep the outside nice I pulled it also with vegetable oil during the seasoning process and since it gets used a lot during the winter, after each fire I pulled the outside again and check the inside. Sometimes you have to oil the inside if it drys out from the water.

The second option is to paint the outside to keep rust at bay. But the inside will still need something. If you paint it you can't use it.

Try a wire brush not a very hard one thena cleaner like brass then a lite coat of cooking oil on it to keep it from rusting