[Unclenick]

Rusters is what another tool maker I knew used to call them. He said you go into their shops and every tool they own is rust brown. Keeps the bacteria count on their hands down, though.

Stainless resists rust in part due to a chromium oxide layer that forms on its surface during passivation. If you bead blast it or corrupt that surface in any way, you have to passivate it over again because free iron has been exposed. In addition to nitric acid passivation, I understand citric acid will passivate, albeit very slowly. Just something to consider trying, since that could be done safely at home. I have no idea what the concentrations of duration of exposure would have to be? You would need to get up to some experimenting with stainless drill rod or other samples to find out.