soak in parts cleaner if you have it, motor oil if you don't. After that they clean themselves up when cutting. Never had a problem de-rusting as long as you can get them freed up enough to turn well on the saw.
Calling Philbert.... Mods, if this is not appropriate here, delete my post: Philbert's Chain Salvage Challenge Philbert's Rust Thread
Just polish it up on the inside of a log (cut some wood). As long as the links move freely there's nothing to worry about.
Don't feel bad... The first thing I thought of was logging chains and dragging them down a sandy road. LOL And welcome!
I once bought a rusty old saw chain at an auction sale. It was rusted bad and you could hardly move it. Put it into an old pan with some used motor oil and let it set for a month or so until I remembered it. It was an almost new chain and it was just thrown into a box with some other junk at the sale. I think I got that box of junk for $.50. Not bad at all.
Evapo-Rust works great. Bought some a few weeks ago and was skeptical. Just drop the chain in a pan of the stuff and 24 hours later it's clean. Put it on the saw and run it.
