Cleaning A Barbell – How To Remove Rust, Sweat, & Tears

It’s an unfortunate fact of life, but regardless of the type of barbell you own, you’re going to have to clean it at some point. 

Unless of course, you don’t care about the longevity and performance of your bar.

On top of that, you probably don’t want to be lifting with a rusty barbell.

So in this guide, I’m going to cover everything you need to know about cleaning your barbell.

Let’s get started!

RELATED: Best Barbells For Your Home Gym

What do you clean a barbell with?

Before we go over the basic steps for barbell maintenance, we have to cover what you should and shouldn’t be using to clean it.

Best Brush For Cleaning Barbell

First is the wire brush you should use to remove rust and debris. You have a couple of different options for this depending on your barbell finish.

The main thing is to go with the softest bristles you can to get the job done.

A nylon bristle is going to be the best choice for most barbell finishes.

For some bar coatings, a steel brush could actually scrape it up and ruin it. Not all finishes are created equal after all. 

Make sure it has white colored bristles and isn’t dyed. 

The dye tends to get left behind on your bars knurling which is just another thing to clean. 

You can also get a specialty 360 degree wire brush built for barbells.

This type of brush allows you to clean a curved surface which will take less time compared to a standard one. 

If you have a lot of rust to remove because you’ve never cleaned your barbell before, you might need something a little harder. 

For this, a brass brush is your next go-to.

They’re still soft enough to not scratch up your bar, but allow you to get deeper into the knurl and knock it out. 

You can either get a hand brush or get a drill mounted wire wheel version if you really need to get in there. 

When all else fails, stainless steel is going to get the job done best. 

And it’s still going to be a softer steel than carbon steel so you’re set. 

3-In-1 Oil

Next, you’re going to need something like 3-in-1 oil. This type of oil is awesome as it cleans out any debris or sweat from your bar, helps remove rust, and lubricates it all at once.

What you don’t want is something like vegetable or motor oil. The former will turn rancid while the latter is way too thick and smells awful.

Some will also recommend WD-40 but it’s toxic so you definitely don’t want to be touching it while lifting. 

You can get 3-in-one oil at Home Depot, or any other local hardware store as well so it’s easy to obtain.

Vinegar

Soaking your barbell in vinegar is one of the best ways to clean your bar and is pretty cheap overall. 

You can either completely immerse it if you have a big enough spot to do so or use the paper towel method which I’ll cover later. 

How should you clean a barbell?

The process of cleaning your barbell might seem daunting at first, but luckily it’s much easier than it seems. 

Here are all the different steps and methods you can use to clean your barbell. 

Simple Clean Method – Cleaning Barbell Rust With 3-in-1 Oil And Brush

The first thing you need to do is remove any external rust that’s on your barbell. 

Depending on the type you have, the process will be slightly different.

Barbells Coated With Patina

Patina is a thinner type of rust that will form over time. 

Luckily, it’s not something too concerning compared to harder types. 

It’s light enough that it actually creates a protective coating and is much easier to clean overall.

It’s actually really easy to tell if your barbell has this type of rust. It’s very smooth and shiny, and won’t leave any brown rusty residue on your hands.

You technically don’t have to clean this type of rust up but it’s still a good idea to do so. 

Some basic 3-in-1 oil and a nylon brush will be plenty.

After it’s all cleaned up, you can use a microfiber cloth to remove any excess oil and rust. 

If you have a lot of rust that comes off while lifting, it’s time for some deep cleaning. 

Cleaning Barbell Sleeves

Luckily, a barbell sleeve definitely doesn’t need to be cleaned as often as the shaft does. 

This is simply because you aren’t usually gripping onto the sleeves. A lot of rust is simply from sweating and leaving dead skin behind on the bar after all.

All you really need to do for your barbell sleeves is hit them with some oil like normal, and use a nylon brush to clean up the rust. 

You can also use Teflon grease rather than oil as it lasts longer. Which, for rotating sleeves, can definitely be a positive benefit.

If you want to clean out the gunk that gets into the barbell sleeves and prevents it from spinning smoothly, you’re going to have to disassemble it. 

Barbell Sleeve Disassembly & Cleaning

• Step 1 – You need to remove the snap rings with snap ring pliers.
  • These can be sent flying when pulling the ring out so watch out!

• Step 2 – With the snap ring removed, slide the end cap off. 
  • Some bars have a second snap ring inside the end cap.
  • Repeat the process from before to remove it.

• Step 3 – Wipe the bar and sleeves down.
  • Before doing any deep cleaning, simply wipe everything down with a cloth. 
  • You should wipe down the bar underneath the sleeves as well as the sleeves themselves.

• Step 4 – Re-lubricate the sleeves with oil. 
  • Apply 3-in-1 oil to the sleeves and the surface underneath the sleeves.
  • Spread the oil with your cloth from before to make sure everything is uniform and wipe off the excess.
• Step 5 – Reassemble the sleeves.
  • Slide the sleeves back onto the bar. 
  • Replace the end cap and snap rings.
  • You’re done!

Cleaning Barbell Knurling & Shaft

Your bars knurling and shaft are going to have the most debris and rust buildup. 

This is because you are directly coming into contact with this part of the bar with your hands.

Your sweat and skin are left behind each time you use it so it makes sense. 

All you need to do to clean this area is apply the same oil as before and use your wire brush to clean out the rust/dust/debris, whatever the hell is on it basically!

While doing this, you want to be rotating the bar so you can clean the entire surface area of the shaft and knurling. 

Deep Clean Method – Cleaning Barbell Rust With Vinegar Soak

If you want to deep clean your bar as much as possible, a vinegar bath is going to be your best option. 

While this method might take more time to complete, it’s ultimately worth it if you want to restore the barbell to the best condition possible.

Necessary Supplies

• A gallon of vinegar (no shit)
• Nylon, Brass, Or Stainless Steel Brush
• 3-in-1 oil
• Microfiber cloth
• Spray bottle with a combination of baking soda and some high quality H20
• Some type of container or box big enough for the entire bar lined with big trash bags
• If you don’t have access to this, you can use paper towels and plastic wrap instead.

Deep Cleaning Process

• Step 1 – Use the nylon brush to do a quick sweep of the barbell. 
  • You don’t have to do a full deep clean with lots of elbow grease, that’s what the vinegar bath is for.
  • Just get the easily removable debris off, especially around the knurling.
• Step 2 – Get your bar ready and fill up the bath.  
  • Disassemble your barbell sleeves as outlined in the section above.
  • If you have a big box, line it with garbage bags and place all your barbell components inside. Then just fill it up with vinegar until everything is submerged. 
  • If you don’t have a large enough box, you can use paper towels dipped in vinegar. 
  • Cover each section with paper towels and wrap it up with plastic wrap.
• Step 3 – Wait overnight for the vinegar to deep clean your bar. 
• Step 4 – Clean off the vinegar quickly!
  • This is the most important step, if you wait too long after removing the barbell components from the vinegar, it’ll evaporate and allow flash rust to rear its ugly head.
  • You could potentially have even more rust than when you started so don’t screw this step up!
  • Just get a hose to wash off the vinegar and then spray some of the dissolved baking soda on it and wipe it off with a cloth.
• Final Step – Final Grease Cycle
  • Once the bar is fully dry, get more of your oil on there and use your microfiber cloth to spread it evenly across your bar and wipe off the excess.
  • And that’s it!

Clean Barbell Grease

If you notice a thin layer of oil/grease on your bar when you first get it, it’s completely normal. 

This is meant to protect it from the elements while shipping and usually will wear off over time so you won’t have to do anything to it. 

However, if you notice a THICK layer of grease on your barbell, just run a microfiber cloth across it to clean up any excess oil. 

Cleaning Chalk Off Your Barbell

Cleaning chalk off of your bar after use is a great idea as it absorbs moisture and then that moisture is held right against your bar.

This is something you definitely don’t want as it will cause rust build up pretty easily.

Just get the same brush used to clean your barbell in the earlier steps and scrub the chalk off after training.

You don’t have to do this every day but once a week should suffice honestly.

Cleaning Different Olympic Bars

The process for cleaning different types of bars isn’t really much different overall.

There are a couple of considerations you should consider when it comes to the barbell finish though.

Some of them like cerakote, black oxide, and zinc is going to require a softer touch as the coatings aren’t as durable.

Cleaning Black Oxide, Black Zinc, Bright Zinc, Cerakote, or E-Coat Barbells

These types of barbell coatings are not as durable as stainless steel, chrome, or even just bare steel bars.

So it’s important that you only use nylon, as brass or stainless steel brushes are going to be too aggressive.

These types of barbell finishes are notorious for scratching off really easily. Even just racking and unracking the bar is enough to rub some of the coatings off on your j-cups.

Of course, you can also use some oil to get deeper into the knurling than just brushing it alone.

Cleaning Stainless Steel Barbell

Stainless steel is the most durable type of bar you can get. It isn’t sprayed on like other coatings, they’re straight up made out of stainless steel all the way to the core.

As most of you know, real stainless steel has a really hard time rusting so you most likely won’t have to maintain your barbell often.

This is primarily why stainless steel barbells are a more premium choice as they last longer.

If you do have to do some light cleaning, use a nylon or brass brush only as a stainless steel one is going to scratch the finish up.

Cleaning Bare Steel Barbell

A bare steel bar is constructed with solid carbon steel. Which is harder than all the other barbell coatings and even a stainless steel bar.

So you can go ahead and use whatever type of brush you want to clean all the rust out as it’s going to be pretty hard to scratch it up.

You can also use some 3-in-1 oil just fine to help expedite the process.

Cleaning Chrome Barbell

If you’ve seen an Olympic bar with a nice silver finish, chances are it’s a chrome barbell.

It’s cheaper than most barbell coatings and is actually pretty great at preventing oxidation and rust buildup.

The main issue is that chrome can chip in different sections on your bar. When this happens, it’s going to rust under the chrome as it’s basically just a bare carbon steel bar underneath.

If you start noticing you have a ton of rust underneath all of the chrome, you might have to remove all the chrome to get to it, unfortunately.

If a brass wire brush is flaking the chrome away, it’s going to chip off later anyways.

In this case, get a drill mounted stainless steel wire wheel as it’s going to be the easiest and fasted method.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

I hope this guide helped you figure out the steps you need to take to keep your barbell in good condition. 

Have you been cleaning your barbell consistently? Or are you like most of us and you’ve put it off for too long?

Regardless, let me know in the comments section below right now. 

Until next time,

-Dante