Hang-Music Forum : The Place for Hang musicians

Howdy all, haven't been on the forums here in some time :]

For the past 6-8 months I've been incredibly busy with school and work and virtually abandoned my hang playing until recently. Luckily, my mom isn't charging me to live in her basement rent-free while I'm in school (one year to go!) but it is a bit damp. I got out the hang (2nd gen) after my hiatus and was horrified to find lots of tiny rust marks all over the top! I totally should have known, as the dampness is quite obvious /forehead smack.

The bright side of it all is that
1) the sound seems to be unaffected
2) I seem to be able to very gently scratch them off with my nail without causing damage to the metal
3) the only affected portion is the top side, the bottom, outer ring, and inside are all clean and clear

Do any of you know if there's a 'best' method to removing the rust? I'm about to start scouring the internet to learn about cleaning metal.. but not going to act on it until I know for sure what might be the best course of action - since one obviously wouldn't want to clean their hang the same way they'd remove rust from a car's rims.