Rust removal????

[johnlittletree]

Kroil does nothing to remove rust if you doubt me review the chemical make up. The only way a penetrating oil can do anything is to loosen the rust to make it easier to remove with some form of friction. If it is able to loosen iron oxides bond to the remaining steel it can loosen the bluing as well since chemically bluing and rust are insanely similar. If it is safe for the blue then it has no real rust removing power at all.

You need to seriously review what chelation is and how it works.As I said before it is used to remove heavy metals from human beings and as you might have guessed humans are not as tough as steel and we have iron based oxygen system in the form of hemoglobin. If chelation was very aggressive on non-heavy metals it would kill us by removing iron, calcium, zinc, magnesium, potassium etc....If you brain, organs, blood vessels are not damaged by it your rifle will not be either. I double dog dare you to run an IV of Kroil or drink some! LOL

Likewise we cook with molasses.....You used to be able to get brass wool but I am doubting that is a thing any more. So any oil motor oil, ATF, 3in1 oil, PB Blaster etc...would work as well as Kroil in this application which has almost no additives at all compared to motor doubt believe the myth that it has more detergents in it and can clean anything works well when you need an oil that you are sure will not interact with yellow metals, aluminum, plastics, steel, iron, compacted graphite, nickle, stainless steel etc....

Kind of cool to see someone mention copper or brass scraper since we use brass scrapers to clean up lead and non lead based solder from brass instruments like a trumpet.

You could try to repair the bluing by boiling it in water and then lightly carding it with some oil and steel wool. Kind of like a weaker version of Belgium Blueing. When doing a restoration on a collector piece that is preferred over true refinishing since it does not damage the original finish like a clean re-blue does. It is considered maintenance. If boiling water in a tank is not an option you can just clean it and put it in a steaming cabinet to do much the same thing.

Obviously if their is pitting anything you do to remove the rust will reveal that pitting but it will not cause any pitting assuming you do not use a strong acid or alkali.

The real problem is not damaging the nylon or any other non-steel alloys. Old plastics and non-ferrous. If you have the time after Evaporust Molasses and Water would be the two we know for sure is plastic and alloy friendly.

 

[Bisbee]

Bronze wool is still available. I bought some from Amazon not to long ago.

 

[johnlittletree]

Bronze wool is still available. I bought some from Amazon not to long ago.

Good to know. I have not looked online I just knew it has been a good 10 years since I have seen any in any of the stores I go too!

 

[johnlittletree]

This is very similar to how I deal with mild rust, conversion or reblue. I do Belgium blueing but use steam cabinet and hot air gun. I use steel wool and Plinkingtons. The process is the same it is just a matter of how much of the finish you are completely redoing or if you just doing maintenance on a antique classic. I used to make my own but it got hard to consistently get iron nail or shoes and other high quality and very simple iron to dissolve in the acid. Once most of the iron things like nails started to have coating applied to them or they where more like still and not iron the unknown ingredients can really change how it works. You want a consistent product that always works like clock work. When I made my own it was hit and miss one batch would be great the next not so great or you had more rework. I almost bought caustic salt system in the late 1990 but decided against it. You could buy reagent grade powdered iron so you know it would be pure but that is a hassle! When you see a deep purplish blue on a SXS that is Belgium Blueing because those rifles and shotguns are soldered together they can not take the heat of caustic hot bluing. If you have to remove the finish to start new never polish the barrel more than 400 grit some stop at 350 grit. If you polish it too much the rust does not stick to the metal well. So instead you polish card and polish the converted rust to get it where you want it.

 

[Pa Grizz]

My daughter forgot to clean her gun after we hunted in the rain.When I found it in her room it was pitted.I took it to a gunsmith friend of mind and he ask me if I minded he try something he had been working on.I said go for it.A week later I stopped by and he brought it out.It was not a regular bluing .He had blasted the whole thing with glass beads after he blued it.It looked great.I had him do a few more that I wanted to reblue before he retired