Have you thought about refinishing it? I have no personal experience, but the sink "refinishing" Permaglaze website says it can go over stainless steel, you might be able to do it over zinc.

Carla in Sac

Here is a link that might be useful: Perma glaze

Rotometals would be a great place to check.

I have (homemade) copper counters, which I suspect are similar in many respects to your zinc. If I were you, I'd drape off the rest of the kitchen and simply go over the table with a good electric palm sander at about 180 grit, going down in grit if you need more bite, then working up to 220 again for a good polish.

Then I'd start over with an aging solution. They make a number of patina solutions for various metals, but you'll want to check to make sure it's food-safe. Another thing I've considered for my copper is to get one of those little creme brulee kitchen torches and play it over the metal to get a permanent heat patina.

Then polish it off with food-safe wax on top of the patina. You can get beeswax, mineral oil mixed with beeswax, and a number of pre-packaged spray waxes they make for copper sink maintenance (look for "copper wax" or "dry wax"). I wax my copper countertops about every 3-4 weeks, and this seems to be a good schedule to keep them water-resistant.

They make a very durable metal lacquer called Permalac 2K (new formula), but I'm not sure if it's food-safe. You might want to check with the company? In that case, use the lacquer once you've sanded down the metal to keep the shine as new.

I'm linking the Permalac 2K at ArtChemicals - they also make a zillion patina solutions and might be a great resource for asking about which solution is best for your situation.

I'd love to see pictures of your zinc!

Here is a link that might be useful: Permalac at ArtChemicals

If you are getting actual red rust, that means the material is steel, not pure zinc. Sounds to me as if the carpenter came up with some galvanized steel sheets (easy to get) instead of sheet zinc (requires effort to get). Galvanized steel is zinc coated, and your abrasive cleaning routine has removed a lot of the coating. Steel + water is going to rust (especially when a strong electrolyte like acetic acid (vinegar) is introduced.
Casey

I concur with the galvanized steel theory. It can be cleaned with phosphoric acid (e.g., duPont 5717S or equivalent) and then passivated with zinc phosphate (duPont 5718S or equivalent) -- these are car body prep materials -- but this is not a solution (sorry) unless you intend to paint over it. It should be replaced with real zinc if you want that look.

Use of the chemicals listed above requires appropriate safety procedures as described on the bottles.

kas

Zinc does not rust, and is both more work to obtain and more expensive the galvanized (zinc coated) steel.

I wondered about the 'rust', too. If a magnet sticks to your countertop, then it is not zinc & is most likely galvanized metal as suggested above.

Hold on! If you are cleaning your counter with steel wool, it will leave microscopic bits of raw steel on your counter....and THAT will rust.

does anyone know how difficult it is to have a professional metal fabricator make a zinc island look good? i've watch rotometals video and it looks easy but i want to be sure it doesn't look homemade. also, is zinc food-safe?

does anyone know how difficult it is to have a professional metal fabricator make a zinc island look good? i've watch rotometals video and it looks easy but i want to be sure it doesn't look homemade. also, is zinc food-safe?

Here are the links to a couple of threads with a lot of info on copper countertops from the Metalworking forum. I've not worked with either coppor or zinc but am supposing that they are fairly similar to work with.

DIY Copper Countertops Thread 2>

Here is a link that might be useful: DIY Copper Countertops Thread One

does anyone know how difficult it is to have a professional metal fabricator make a zinc island look good? i've watch rotometals video and it looks easy but i want to be sure it doesn't look homemade. also, is zinc food-safe?