Restoring a Luftwaffe buckle

[Admiral]

Good morning everyone,

Couple of minutes new here, looking for your advice.
Recently I found an iron Luftwaffe belt buckle from WW2 while metal detecting. Unfortunately it was in a pretty sorry state.
My brother and I took it to a first round of electrolysis because initially we thought it could handle it.
However, when we checked after a while it turned out that a piece of the buckle had broken off.
It seems the buckle is rusted to the core on some places and we are uncertain what to do now.Do you have any tips to make this 'as good as it can still be'? I've seen tips on vinegar, steel whool/brush, maybe even a very small sensitive dremel?
Anyway, I hope you guys can give me some tips to preserve this lovely piece of history.
Attached are some photo's of original find, after the round of electrolysis and an original of how it looked in the 1940s.

Cheers,
Admiral

 

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[robertk]

I'm a big fan of Evaporust ... but based on what you've run into with the electrolysis, it might be too far gone to have much success in restoring.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Your buckle looks like it is pretty far gone. Sad! I just sold a couple of Luftwaffe items my grandfather brought back from Italy in WW2. I’m getting old and cutting loose of my treasure.

 

[Admiral]

Felt like sharing the result after some attempts to clean it up.
Some soaks in vinegar and further some buffing with a dremel and sand paper (very carefully and it was a gamble).
Used some epoxy glue to fit the pieces together again and buffed that with sand paper as well.
Actually quite happy with the result as I think this is as good as it could get.