Hi,

I am neither a conservationist nor a campanologist, so I am not really the best person to answer your question. But my instinct is not to remove the rust. 

Bells are tuned to give out particular notes; the tuning of a bell involves turning it on a lathe and removing metal from the interior until the sound bow (where the clapper strikes) and other resonating sections of the bell are in harmony. I am inclined to think that if rusted metal were scraped from this bell, it's tuning would be permanantly damaged.

Best of luck,

Hillary Murtha
Ph.D candidate
University of Delaware 

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