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When I took the saw blade out of the solution, the copper had been stripped off the steel wire. So, there are probably some acids in the molasses that like copper or brass. I also tried an old brass key base in the molasses for about 12 hours. The bare brass had a copper color, which means the zinc has been removed from the brass. Test a throw-away piece before you try to de-rust a good piece just to make sure it won’t ruin something. More testing is needed on other metals to see how they react to the molasses.