Quote Originally Posted by Patrick Chadwick View Post
"Bluing" - whatever the actual color - is basically iron oxides of various flavors and intensity. So non-aqueous organic solvents will have absolutely no effect whatsoever on the metal. In other words, you can use acetone etc without any problem (at least, not for the metal!) Just make sure that the substance you use has no water content! So no oven cleaners, acids, caustic soda or the like - they are all watery.

Patrick
Acetone is in fact an aqueous solution because it is a hydro carbon. The formula is C3H6O. Hydro carbons are are usually slightly acidic because they have hydrogen and oxygen molecules surrounding a carbon molecule and then by definition it is aqueous. It is the same a gasoline, witch is aqueous. That also is the reason that acetone is more concentrated at lower tempetures-exactly like gasoline.