diff --git a/swh/storage/converters.py b/swh/storage/converters.py
--- a/swh/storage/converters.py
+++ b/swh/storage/converters.py
@@ -3,10 +3,10 @@
 # License: GNU General Public License version 3, or any later version
 # See top-level LICENSE file for more information
 
-import codecs
 import datetime
 import numbers
 
+from swh.core.utils import decode_with_escape, encode_with_unescape
 
 DEFAULT_AUTHOR = {
     'fullname': None,
@@ -21,60 +21,6 @@
 }
 
 
-def backslashescape_errors(exception):
-    if isinstance(exception, UnicodeDecodeError):
-        bad_data = exception.object[exception.start:exception.end]
-        escaped = ''.join(r'\x%02x' % x for x in bad_data)
-        return escaped, exception.end
-
-    return codecs.backslashreplace_errors(exception)
-
-codecs.register_error('backslashescape', backslashescape_errors)
-
-
-def decode_with_escape(value):
-    """Decode a bytestring as utf-8, escaping the bytes of invalid utf-8 sequences
-    as \\x<hex value>. We also escape NUL bytes as they are invalid in JSON
-    strings.
-    """
-    # escape backslashes
-    value = value.replace(b'\\', b'\\\\')
-    value = value.replace(b'\x00', b'\\x00')
-    return value.decode('utf-8', 'backslashescape')
-
-
-def encode_with_unescape(value):
-    """Encode an unicode string containing \\x<hex> backslash escapes"""
-    slices = []
-    start = 0
-    odd_backslashes = False
-    i = 0
-    while i < len(value):
-        if value[i] == '\\':
-            odd_backslashes = not odd_backslashes
-        else:
-            if odd_backslashes:
-                if value[i] != 'x':
-                    raise ValueError('invalid escape for %r at position %d' %
-                                     (value, i-1))
-                slices.append(
-                    value[start:i-1].replace('\\\\', '\\').encode('utf-8')
-                )
-                slices.append(bytes.fromhex(value[i+1:i+3]))
-
-                odd_backslashes = False
-                start = i = i + 3
-                continue
-
-        i += 1
-
-    slices.append(
-        value[start:i].replace('\\\\', '\\').encode('utf-8')
-    )
-
-    return b''.join(slices)
-
-
 def author_to_db(author):
     """Convert a swh-model author to its DB representation.
 
diff --git a/swh/storage/tests/test_converters.py b/swh/storage/tests/test_converters.py
--- a/swh/storage/tests/test_converters.py
+++ b/swh/storage/tests/test_converters.py
@@ -119,83 +119,6 @@
         })
 
     @istest
-    def backslashescape_errors(self):
-        raw_data_err = b'abcd\x80'
-        with self.assertRaises(UnicodeDecodeError):
-            raw_data_err.decode('utf-8', 'strict')
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            raw_data_err.decode('utf-8', 'backslashescape'),
-            'abcd\\x80',
-        )
-
-        raw_data_ok = b'abcd\xc3\xa9'
-        self.assertEquals(
-            raw_data_ok.decode('utf-8', 'backslashescape'),
-            raw_data_ok.decode('utf-8', 'strict'),
-        )
-
-        unicode_data = 'abcdef\u00a3'
-        self.assertEquals(
-            unicode_data.encode('ascii', 'backslashescape'),
-            b'abcdef\\xa3',
-        )
-
-    @istest
-    def encode_with_unescape(self):
-        valid_data = '\\x01020304\\x00'
-        valid_data_encoded = b'\x01020304\x00'
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            valid_data_encoded,
-            converters.encode_with_unescape(valid_data)
-        )
-
-    @istest
-    def encode_with_unescape_invalid_escape(self):
-        invalid_data = 'test\\abcd'
-
-        with self.assertRaises(ValueError) as exc:
-            converters.encode_with_unescape(invalid_data)
-
-        self.assertIn('invalid escape', exc.exception.args[0])
-        self.assertIn('position 4', exc.exception.args[0])
-
-    @istest
-    def decode_with_escape(self):
-        backslashes = b'foo\\bar\\\\baz'
-        backslashes_escaped = 'foo\\\\bar\\\\\\\\baz'
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            backslashes_escaped,
-            converters.decode_with_escape(backslashes),
-        )
-
-        valid_utf8 = b'foo\xc3\xa2'
-        valid_utf8_escaped = 'foo\u00e2'
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            valid_utf8_escaped,
-            converters.decode_with_escape(valid_utf8),
-        )
-
-        invalid_utf8 = b'foo\xa2'
-        invalid_utf8_escaped = 'foo\\xa2'
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            invalid_utf8_escaped,
-            converters.decode_with_escape(invalid_utf8),
-        )
-
-        valid_utf8_nul = b'foo\xc3\xa2\x00'
-        valid_utf8_nul_escaped = 'foo\u00e2\\x00'
-
-        self.assertEquals(
-            valid_utf8_nul_escaped,
-            converters.decode_with_escape(valid_utf8_nul),
-        )
-
-    @istest
     def db_to_git_headers(self):
         raw_data = [
             ['gpgsig', b'garbage\x89a\x43b\x14'],