It is a general problem that iron antiques is difficult to be conserved for long. Iron antiques conservation is affected not only by its metallurgic factors and the surface oxide layer formed before excavated, but also by the kinds and content of contaminants on iron surface, and by the pollution degree of the conservation environment. The basic state of Chinese iron antiques corrosion was introduced, the iron corrosion in natural environments was compared, and the stability of corrosion products on iron surface was analyzed with thermal dynamics in this paper. XRD (X-ray diffraction) technique was used to measure the components of surface corrosion products of several typical iron antiques. The surface oxide layer interior conversion among the rust compositions was also discussed. Desalination cleansing is one of the important pretreatment processes in inhibit iron atmospheric corrosion for long time’s conservation iron antique. Silicate is a kind of environmental friendly corrosion inhibitors and it can be used in corrosion inhibition for ion in the desalination cleansing solution. It has great significance for its application in the desalination treatment to study the interaction between silicate and the iron surface oxides in the solution. In this research the main composition of corrosion products, hydroxyl ferric oxide (FeOOH), was simulated and manufactured. The adsorption of silicate on the FeOOH in aqueous solution and the electrochemical behaviors of Fe/FeOOH/Na2SiO3 system were studied. And the effects of silicate solution treatment on the forms of iron surface oxides were also investigated with XRD technique. Test results showed that in the near neutral aerated aqueous solution at room temperature, the stable adsorption capacity of silicate on the FeOOH was much more higher and the inhibition effectiveness of iron measured by polarization curves was the maximum reached 97.0%. In the system of Fe/FeOOH/Na2SiO3, some new substances were formed as a result of surface adsorption reaction between silicate and hydroxyl ferric oxide, the corrosion inhibition film formed in this reaction was much more compact. It can inhibit both anodic and cathodic reactions, especially for cathodic process. After desalination cleansing treatment of the iron boundary tablets (manufactured in the Guang-Xu period of Qing Dynasty and Ming Gao period respectively), the treatment effects demonstrated that silicate used as corrosion inhibitor in the cleansing solution could inhibit the corrosion effectively and may be profitable for later treatments.