Register contents within pattern?

I want to use a register's contents as the pattern for a substitute. I
can't find registers mentioned in the help for :sub or pattern. Is there
a way I can do it?

I'm trying to clean up some files that have been corrupted by being
transferred between several hosts with different encodings and a buggy
editor in the middle. It has become scattered with patterns of odd
strings such as "甕" throughout. I figure it's easiest just to visual-yank
the string to a register and use the register's contents as the pattern to
substitute to a string of blanks.

Thanks,
--
NickC

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