How hard is changing the springs out? Will baking soda eat away the thin coat of rust? I want functionality, they don’t have to look perfect.

If it’s just a thin coat don’t even worry about it. Changing coil springs is a piece of cake, takes a screwdriver and thirty seconds. Not sure about longsprings, never had to change one.

i use 50-50 water and vinegar soak a few days until it looks like this


They will have a BLACK slimy coat of sludge
THEN pressure wash one cycle of soap and a second of clean water and they look new like this

Heck yeah, I appreciate it!

Be careful if it's Duke body grips. I've done footholds several times with no problems, but had CHUNKS dissolve out of the springs on some Duke body grips.

Dukes have a lot of tin in them. Hold a handful of Dukes by the chain ring in one hand, and an American brand in the other hand, then shake them and listen to the difference of the jingle. Lots of difference in the alloys used to make the traps.

Not sure what alloys different manufacturers use, but tin will not alloy with steel. It will alloy with copper or lead. I'm sure the spring steels used for traps are similar between makers.

Shake them and listen to the difference.

A regular garden hose might work fine. I'll probably try a hose with just water this week on a couple traps that have been in pure vinegar. I doubt soap is necessary, given how strong vinegar is, although traprjohn's traps look amazing in that photo. Whether mine will accept speed dip after such a cleansing process is TBD i guess.
I wonder if a person has to let coyote traps air out for a while, before wax or dipping, for the vinegar smell to go away?

Soak in plain water 4 a day or 2 then spray with your garden hose. This should remove all that's needed to dye dip wax, what ever, if that's not enough then you may need the vinegar.

Hmm.. might be worth a try I guess.