You'll need a big plastic container, water, and hydrochloric pool acid. You need a
little bit more water than necessary to cover the material. While the material is out
of bath, and you're wearing gloves and goggles, just a splash of acid will do, I don't
think it's more than 1/20. Mix it a bit and put the material in. It should be fizzing
slightly.
It will fizz for a while and then drop off to something like a tenth of the activity or
less, and will barely bubble at all. That's when it's starting to eat the steel, which is
MUCH slower than eating the galvanization. Pull it out and rinse immediately with
lots of water, don't bother neutralizing with baking soda or anything, just lots of
water. Then, whatever you plan to do with the surface to blacken it, do it
immediately. Not 30 min from now. Now. The metal is completely oxide-free but won't stay that way for long!
The concentrated acid is VERY corrosive, in fact taking a breath 2 ft from the bottle
is really nasty. You MUST have goggles and rubber gloves (dishwashing gloves are
fine!). The bath is acidic enough to burn your skin if you're foolish enough not to
wash it off in a few minutes. Wear gloves for that too!
Lastly, the reaction of hydrochloric acid and
zinc galvanizing produces sizable amounts of flammable hydrogen gas. Take measures to prevent a buildup of gas and a possible explosion!
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