Rust Soaking

Guns.com Vault
Gather App
JSR III

JSR III

SWCA Member Absent Comrade
Joined
Jun 7, 2000
Messages
6,876
Reaction score
7,413
City & State/Province
Massachusetts USA
I have a couple of small antiques that suffered rust buildup due to a storage blunder of mine. i would like to soften the rust before scraping them with my nail or perhaps a credit card. I realize that they will never be pristine again but would love to get them as close as I can.

Any suggestions?? Thanks.
 
What kind of antiques are you dealing with?

If it's blued guns, I would disassemble then boil in water for 30 minutes, then buff out with 0000 steel wool or bronze wool.

If you don't want to deal with boiling, then buff it down with either 0000 steel wool, bronze wool or a copper penny and plenty of oil.
 
An alternative is to soak it in "Ed's Red" a 50/50 mixture of ATF (Dextron II or III) and Acetone. Some use Kerosene instead of Acetone as it is less flammable. I use the Acetone and seal the disassembled revolver in a new one-gallon paint can bought from a big box store. I leave it outside (also known as a well-ventilated area) for a week (gently agitating it every so often) and then wipe it with 0000 bronze wool (ACE Hardware). Bronze wool will not hurt the finish unless there is vigorous scrubbing. Steel wool may leave particles in the crevices and screw threads which may cause rusting later. Steel wool may scratch the finish if used too harshly.
 
A good safe rust soaking agent is Kerosene ... which is 25% of Ed's Red ! Kerosene is an old school and effective softener of rust ...
It will not remove / dissolve it but softens the red rust so it can be easily renoved with 0000 steel wool and light scraping with a real copper penny ... it may work better than Ed's Red .
When the rust is removed a dark "finish" is left that no longer rusts ... not exactly a bright blue but a funish none the less .
I have saved tools left in the yard by my children over a winter or two ... and many rusty firearms .
I use the K-1 Kerosene sold at Wally Mart .
Good Luck
Gary
 
Soak with JB80 for a few days then 0000 steel wool. JB80 is the best I have found in over 50yrs. in the business
 
I agree with the 0000 steel wool, but be sure to use a ggod oil while doing it. I have had excellent results on over 20 vintage blued guns, when I sold them the buyers were impressed at the condtion of the bluing.
 
gwpercle said:
A good safe rust soaking agent is Kerosene ... which is 25% of Ed's Red ! Kerosene is an old school and effective softener of rust ...
It will not remove / dissolve it but softens the red rust so it can be easily renoved with 0000 steel wool and light scraping with a real copper penny ... it may work better than Ed's Red .
When the rust is removed a dark "finish" is left that no longer rusts ... not exactly a bright blue but a funish none the less .
I have saved tools left in the yard by my children over a winter or two ... and many rusty firearms .
I use the K-1 Kerosene sold at Wally Mart .
Good Luck
Gary
Click to expand...
I realize it's a little older thread but I'd just like to make sure there is no detrimental effects to bluing.
I get that many people buy guns to "collect" but can they not at least implement a maintainance regiment to ensure that these guns they're collecting syay worth collecting.
I'm looking at some very light surface rust along the top edge of a barrel along the border between the polished area and the mat rib. Few other small places on a frame.
I have broil that I can try but I'm really hoping to not have to do any rubbing. I'd like to hear that there is some way, or procedure or product that will soak at least the majority of the rust away or convert it to something less destructive and less visible and will in no way harm older bluing. I do have some real copper pennies, why are those often mentioned? What do I do with them?
I've never tried kero or Ed's Red.
 
Neither K-1 Kerosene nor Ed's Red Bore Cleaner will damage factory bluing ...
The model 58 in my avatar had a lot of light surface rust and freckles ... a motorcycle cop in Louisiana carried it , lots of heat , humidity and rain ... but the light surface rust cleaned up nicely with the following method ...
I used a soaking in K-1 Kerosene to start ... a week .
Then followed up with a cleaning / polishing with Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Rust Remover ... apply TWCP&RR to a soft cloth and rub / clean & polish the surface ... the red rust will be removed , any and all factory bluing will be left intact .
Don't use any machines ... hand clean with a folded cloth , work on small areas at a time .
This is the safest method I know to remove light surface rust ... most commerical rust removing soaking agents will remove the factory blue ... Be Careful with them !

I've tried the copper penny thing ... but didn't get good results ... K-1 Kerosene and TWCP&RR works best when trying to save a blue finish and remove light surface rust ...
that's what saved my model 58's original finish .

To remove rust from a firearm ... you will need to do a little rubbing ... you can't just soak it off .
Better than a copper penny ... Copper Wool ... it's like steel wool but made of soft copper ... Brownell's sells it , safer to use than steel wool .
Good Luck ,
Gary
 
gwpercle said:
Neither K-1 Kerosene nor Ed's Red Bore Cleaner will damage factory bluing ...
The model 58 in my avatar had a lot of light surface rust and freckles ... a motorcycle cop in Louisiana carried it , lots of heat , humidity and rain ... but the light surface rust cleaned up nicely with the following method ...
I used a soaking in K-1 Kerosene to start ... a week .
Then followed up with a cleaning / polishing with Turtle Wax Chrome Polish and Rust Remover ... apply TWCP&RR to a soft cloth and rub / clean & polish the surface ... the red rust will be removed , any and all factory bluing will be left intact .
Don't use any machines ... hand clean with a folded cloth , work on small areas at a time .
This is the safest method I know to remove light surface rust ... most commerical rust removing soaking agents will remove the factory blue ... Be Careful with them !

I've tried the copper penny thing ... but didn't get good results ... K-1 Kerosene and TWCP&RR works best when trying to save a blue finish and remove light surface rust ...
that's what saved my model 58's original finish .

To remove rust from a firearm ... you will need to do a little rubbing ... you can't just soak it off .
Better than a copper penny ... Copper Wool ... it's like steel wool but made of soft copper ... Brownell's sells it , safer to use than steel wool .
Good Luck ,
Gary
Click to expand...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0779D9BSG
^^^
This is what you are looking for..
Can be had at most good hardware store too..Bill.
 
mmaher94087 said:
An alternative is to soak it in "Ed's Red" a 50/50 mixture of ATF (Dextron II or III) and Acetone. Some use Kerosene instead of Acetone as it is less flammable. I use the Acetone and seal the disassembled revolver in a new one-gallon paint can bought from a big box store. I leave it outside (also known as a well-ventilated area) for a week (gently agitating it every so often) and then wipe it with 0000 bronze wool (ACE Hardware). Bronze wool will not hurt the finish unless there is vigorous scrubbing. Steel wool may leave particles in the crevices and screw threads which may cause rusting later. Steel wool may scratch the finish if used too harshly.
Click to expand...
Would the ATF/acetone mix damage blueing? I'm working on a barrel I can't boil as I don't have a large enough boil tank.
 
pgbarrow said:
Would the ATF/acetone mix damage blueing? I'm working on a barrel I can't boil as I don't have a large enough boil tank.
Click to expand...
I made a contraption out of a piece of galvanized chimney pipe that sits on top of a pot like a smoke stack. I boil water in the pot, and the steam goes up the chimney pipe where I have the barrel hanging. It works very well for rust blueing.

I'll try and post a picture in a bit.
 
ATF is highly refined oil, and the Acetone only thins out the ATF so that it crawls into threads. Also, be sure your gloves are compatible with Acetone to handle the parts after soaking. Acetone will melt certain gloves. Short answer to your question is NO, it won't harm bluing. If you use the Chore Boy scrubber, be absolutely sure it is made of pure copper and not copper coated steel.
 
"I saw soaking in Kroil mentioned. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought Kroil would damage bluing if left on for an extended period of time. ". I have never soaked anything in Kroil only sprayed and wiped. I'm interested in the answer too. Can anyone confirm this?
 
Thanks for the clarifications here folks. First, the rust is fine as frog hair, teal light but it is there. Second, as mentioned the majority is into the top rib on the barrel so to me rubbing with anything like the copper wool or bronze wool, 0000 like I have would be more impacting than on the high polish of the rest of the gun. Just thinking out loud here.
Perhaps the extended soak time with the kero/atf. Would a follow up with flits be a substitute for the two product? I always hit a new blued gun with it when it comes home and I have never seen any detriment to using it, only a new like bluing luster.
I can't post pics yet because I can't actually bring it home until next Saturday but I'll show yall what's going on with it. The seller didn't highlight this in the pics but in his defense I didn't even see it until I used the light so... whatever, I contacted him about it and he refunded me $100, so good on him, good fella, a nice fella to.

So what's the issue with the Kroil on blued guns?
 
Hi There,

I think people are forgetting that bluing IS Rust. It is a form of iron oxide
just like the orange rust you want to remove. Rust is in the form Fe(2)O(3)
[the numbers in parentheses are the subscript values]. The black rust is
called "Magnetic Oxide" and is FeO. The way the grain structure of the
Magnetic Oxide rust forms that will cause the light that reflex off of it to
go through a slight spectrum shift and imparts a deep bluish appearance.
This is most noticeable in "Heat Bluing" or "Temper Bluing."

So, anything that would "dissolve" reddish rust will dissolve bluing. The only
way is to abrade the rust off. Rust by itself is an abrasive and the fine grades
are known as rouge.

I haven't tried copper wool but I do use bronze wool. The problem with using
bronze wool is the wool will pick-up some of the rust particles and then rub it
against the finish one is trying to save. Copper, being softer than bronze will
have the same problem of picking up the loosened rust and have it embed into
the copper and act like a lap.

Cheers!
Webb
 
Be careful. I have used chore-boy from amazon in the past and know it was all copper, but have heard that there are some copper scrub/wool products available that are actually copper coated steel wool. I do not think that would be best.
 
JSR III said:
I have a couple of small antiques that suffered rust buildup due to a storage blunder of mine. i would like to soften the rust before scraping them with my nail or perhaps a credit card. I realize that they will never be pristine again but would love to get them as close as I can.

Any suggestions?? Thanks.
Click to expand...
Another good suggestion for a rust scraper is take a bottle-necked rifle cartridge, flatten about the last 1/8" of the mouth by clamping it in a vice to make it a flat-bladed scraper. The larger body of the cartridge works well as a handle and the flat blade end is perfect for scraping flat surfaces. The brass is tough enough to remove rust but too soft to scratch or damage the steel.
 
Hi There,

BC38 said:
Another good suggestion for a rust scraper is take a bottle-necked rifle cartridge, flatten about the last 1/8" of the mouth by clamping it in a vice to make it a flat-bladed scraper. The larger body of the cartridge works well as a handle and the flat blade end is perfect for scraping flat surfaces. The brass is tough enough to remove rust but too soft to scratch or damage the steel.
Click to expand...

It will work so long as the rust doesn't embed into the brass.
Then it will scratch the blue.

Cheers!
Webb
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

B
Finally got to bring it home
Replies
9
Views
451
H Richard
H Richard
D
Barely used, but neglected M&P of 1902
Replies
29
Views
2K
madkow
M
D
Question about disassembly of M&P Model of 1902
Replies
6
Views
539
daveboy
D
444 Magnum
Identity theft/Fraud Alert
Replies
10
Views
410
Mike0251
Mike0251
Shotguncoach
HomeSmith What if? : Spot rebluing
Replies
8
Views
1K
chief38
chief38

Latest posts

Back
Top