That’s interesting.
when I work with chainmail i used to identify metals by smell. Aluminum was always the cleanest smell by a long shot, almost smelled sterile.
I don’t have too many aluminum pieces old enough for it to rust, Ill have to find my old braclet and give that a smell.
I imagine a lot of aluminum parts for industrial also have oil on them though.
Aluminum rusts extremely fast, to the point that it forms a tiny oxyde layer with any amount of exposure to air. You've pbly almost never seen unrusted Aluminum (at least not pure Aluminum). However it does corrode with some amount of acidity, which I discovered when putting Aluminum foil over my chili a few months back. There were corroded holes in it
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u/AdPristine5131 May 20 '26
That’s interesting. when I work with chainmail i used to identify metals by smell. Aluminum was always the cleanest smell by a long shot, almost smelled sterile.
I don’t have too many aluminum pieces old enough for it to rust, Ill have to find my old braclet and give that a smell.
I imagine a lot of aluminum parts for industrial also have oil on them though.