De-Rusting Reeds

I've been working on de-rusting the reeds for the loom. I started out with steel wool and rubbing the heck outta the reed. After a few days of this practice I'm really not getting anywhere fast and my right arm is sore enough to need and ice pack which is not good.
I then consulted Mr. Deepend and asked him if he thought I could use the small Dremel Drill with some attachments to clean the reeds. He thought it would work so we took a trip to Home Depot to pick up these Carbon Steel Brushes, I'd never been so excited to purchase brushes before, the salesman looked at me and must have thought I was crazy, but I was very happy to start working and seeing results.

I started on the #10, it's very rusty but not pitted and I think that's pretty good considering the rust on the surface. The small drill heats up quite a bit so I'd turn it off to cool and would scrub the reed with a toothbrush and some metal cleaner that Mr. Deepend had in the garage.

After about two hours of work and two attachments later I only had 1/4 of the reed with back and front cleaned off, I was very disappointed. This is what the poor brushes looked like after my torture to them, I'm holding a new one for comparison. Once I'd finished for the night I took the attachments, reed and drill back to Mr. Deepend. He looked at all of it and said "Maybe you need my drill and bigger brushes, as I suggested". Yeah I thought so too, the only thing is that his drill is massive, heavy and really powerful. I think I need to peruse the power tool isle at the Depot and see what I can handle to get these done, I guess I should warn the salesguy not to freak out at the crazy lady that going to get really excited about a damn drill.