Vinegar Rust Removal Question

I have seen several videos and several posts about using vinegar to remove rust. I have often thought to try it, but one thing gives me pause. Many times you are warned that if you do not coat the metal with oil soon afterwards a "flash rust" will occur. My question is, does this process make tools more prone to rust? If it will flash rust after removing it from the vinegar solution, my mind is asking why, and why it would stop this process if the tool is not regularly coated and scrupulously cared for.
Before anyone says it, yes, I know you should maintain your tools. But if the vinegar process makes that even more of an issue, that does not sound like it would be a good thing.
Educate me, please?

I tired this for the first time about a month back on 4 different planes. It worked well and no rust problems for me since.

I first soaked in vinegar for an hour or so and then knocked off any really heavy rust with a wire brush, then soaked for another 24-48 hrs (the extra time past 24 did not seem to add any benefit but going from 6 to 24 did, there might be a sweet spot in between). Then rinsed them and used a rag and wire brush to get all the rust off.

After this a soaked in a baking soda and water solution for 15 minutes to neutralize the acid from the vinegar to prevent flash rust, not sure if this is needed but it worked and didnt cost much time. As I finished cleaning one part I moved to the baking soda, when done with all I took the first one out.

I did oil pretty quickly afterward with whatever gun oil I had on hand.

I am no expert but I would do this again with no hesitation. If I can work with vinegar rather than a chemical rust remover that is also a bonus.

I've done a couple planes this way and yes, they flash rusted immediately after rinsing the vinegar.
However, I sanded everything right away anyway afterwards, rinsed again, and then applied paste wax. There's been no issue with rust going forward.

Using an acid to remove the rust does not set the iron up to be more susceptible to rusting in the future. I have many planes and others tools that have been cleaned with vinegar and phosphoric acid and they are just maintained with a coat of furniture wax.

I tend to soak for about an hour and then scrub with a green pad and repeat. I don't like to leave them overnight unless they are really rusty. Even then I like to monitor the progress by soaking and scrubbing.

I have restored many heavily rusted planes, ax heads etc. I usually soak them over night. Then scrub wash them with water then soak in baking soda water slurry.
Then I go gently thru a wire brush and buffer wheel. They turn out great and have been doing this for years.

I've used vinegar for some years, without flash or other rust issues later (I could still get rust, but that would be because it would have happened anyhow). I like Brandon's idea, and will try it next time I'm cleaning up a tool. What I've been doing, immediately after removing a tool part from the vinegar bath, is (a) rinsing it in copious amounts of running water, (b) drying the part with a paper towel, and (c) hitting it with lots of WD-40 to counteract the water. I leave it like that for a couple of hours, wipe down with WD-40, and proceed. The chemistry is less correct than Brandon's approach, though.

Incidentally, my soak period is 24 hours. Works a treat for me.

I used to do it, but tried Evaporust, and haven't looked back.

I have used Vinegar before aswell didnt have much trouble with flash rust, just dry thoroughly and oil it up as soon as possible.
Though for Carbon Steels and Iron i have moved on to Electrolysis, works fantastically well and is really easy on the material, not too difficult to set up either. There are some Videos and instructions online if you want to look into it.

I used the strong vinegar my wife buys to clean a bandsaw table top. I used a soaked rag moving it around for a while covering the whole top. Then I used a fresh bucket of water to clean off the vinegar. Then immediately after cleaning with water I used WD40 and a scrubby pad on an electric sander. This is the best job I had done to any power tool setup. It also lasted the longest.

Flash rust is a product of fresh exposed carbon steel + air + humidity or moisture.

The vinegar exposes fresh, reactive iron to oxygen in the air.... It's doesn't really cause rusting my itself...

If you wash the tool in soap and HOT water, rinse it off in HOT water, dry it off, then lightly oil it with oil or beeswax - you won't have the same sort of troubles with flash rust.

Another good trick is to wipe down tools with Kroil or Turpentine.. It seems to help prevent the surface rust..

I personally don't like using baking soda. It's often quite corrosive - and will rust the heck out of steel if there is humidity...

The patina on old tools is quite a good protective barrier.... It's not just pretty - it protects the steel... And it's usually not a good idea to remove it from areas that don't effect anything...

I agree with Bill's comment...I too have used for a couple years (can be messy) but I have not experienced the secondary rust effect using a water rinse and protective coating afterwards..

Thank you, gentlemen. Much appreciated.

I use Evaporust. I did have one item try to rust, when I let it sit too long after washing the Evaporust off with water. It is easy to just put the item back in the soak if this happens.

I just pulled an old file that I thought was ruined out of a long soak. As evaporust or vinegar get more contaminated they may take longer to work. I typically do about a 24hr soak, until the solution starts getting nasty.

I happened to have a large can of WD40 available when I removed the file. I washed it off immediately and dropped it in a WD40 soak as it does not take much WD40 to cover a file. Looks like a brand new file now. I usually just rinse the item in water while brushing it with a wire or hard bristle brush, dy it fast and apply whatever oil is handy. I have done many old tools this way over a year or two with no issues.