During the last year of his life my dad was getting depressed, and as a result most firearms were hidden away.

My mother is hunkering down at the family farm at the moment and I asked her about this shotgun as it is special to me. I had used it on my first quail hunt with my dad when I was twelve.

So, how would I get rid of this rust.

Right or wrong, I usually start with 0000 steelwool and oil.

Personally I would go get a gallon container WD 40 and stand the barrels upright in it.......for days and see where it gets you. It can be a long slow process,but I have seen it done and the end result was amazing from where the project started.

PM me if you want more details.


Jon

Boil it for 1-2 hrs in distilled or rainwater. Then card with a fine carding wheel. Available from Brownells. 000 or 0000 steel wool will work with some elbow grease. If the rust is not removed boil/card as many times as you need to remove it. Oil with Vaseline and heat until it evaporates. Buff down and you are good to go. This will not be perfect. Likely some pitting. But will stop the rust. Otherwise you will need to sand back beyond pitting and do a re-blue. A rust blue would be appropriate.

Wood looks like it has mold and mildew. Wipe down with a solution of sodium carbonate (washing soda) and water. Mix a tablespoon in a quart of warm water. Wipe on, leave for 5 minutes and wipe off. Rinse with water and dry. Wax to protect.

Bac40, that is what I do. 4X steel wool + a good penetrating oil (like the one used for after bluing) Brownell's sells it but my label has come off over the years + I can't recall the name. BTW, WD 40 not only dispels moisture, but it also attracts it as well. I don't use it in this application for that reason.

NormanConquest,

Definitely, I don't ever recommend using WD 40 on guns, especially the moving parts, but I have seen it do a good job of loosening rust before using any kind of abrasive. You don"t want to leave it on very long however.

Tanks,

If you are going to have it re-blued make sure you take it to someone who really knows what they are doing. I know of one expensive double that the "smith" hot blued it to the point the ribs loosened on the barrels and the gun was trashed. Not a good outcome.

Thanks for the wealth of information.

What Bobster said....
Boiling them, or actually heating them for a prolonged period with convert the red rust to black. Personally, I would contact Bobster and get a bottle of rust blue from him or use Mark Lee's Express Blue and actually do the first carding of the barrels with steel wool soaked in the bluing solution then boil again. The proceedure will not fix any pitting, nothing will outside of filing and/or sanding, but fine rust is pretty forgiving when it is carded. Repeat that process a few times and rinse in a bath of water and baking soda. Soak in oil.

There is an electrolysis method using dilute vinegar or washing soda that might be of use.

I have always been impressed at what a bucket of kerosene will do. Just throw it in and let it sit for a month, hit it with a brush and back in the kerosene for another month and you will amazed.

I did that with the gears on an old piece of equipment I bought + it cleaned them up nicely.

quote:

Originally posted by theback40:
Right or wrong, I usually start with 0000 steelwool and oil.

+2. I've used both Hoppe's and Kroil with good results and no damage to the steel. I say start small and work your way up if you're not getting the results you want.

Chuck that steel wool away - get some Big 45 cleaning pads and use them instead.Removes rust without affecting the blue

MUZZA WHAT ARE BIG 45 CLEANING PADS I have never heard of them.


Thank You

Thanks for the turn on
Muzza, It's certainly cheap enough to try.

quote:

Thanks for the turn on

+1

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

Thanks for the link. I will give it a try when I am allowed to fly again.

I bought some. Just removed some rust from a gun with 0000 steel wool and oil, always looking for a better way. For the price you can afford to have it on hand for when needed.

Dave

What Bobster said.

I'll go a step further and advocate his products (Rustblue.com) for re-bluing, if you head down that path. Easy to use; excellent results.

RB 17 and brass wool works for me.

an additional rust remover product.....

Had neighbor who gave me samples of products his company makes. One like the common 'handiwipes'.
The company named is Cortec, based in Minnesota. Their website shows MANY rust removal/resistant products including cleaners, metal surface treatments, and storage bags/wraps. etc.

I used the Cortec cleaner wipes to remove rust spots on some guns. Worked fine. took a while but the rust was gone. Some kind of film was left on the surface. did not see that it removed any of the bluing.

The website shows that a version of the product is a liquid cleaner. Might be of use for entire long guns.

Another product i tried was some of their storage bags. Look sorta like Ziploc bags. Heavier plastic. the plastic issues a corrosion resistant vapor to protect whatever is in the bag.
I used some of the Cortec storage bags [small sized ] for protecting my reloaoding dies. Cut the small bags into the right size peieces and put pieces into the die storage boxes.

seemed like a good product. the wipes did remove rust nicely.

I dont know where these products are sold or anything about the prices.

I use stainless steel wool pads. A friend gave me some he bought from a restaurant supply house which sells them as pot scrubbing pads. They look just like the buster45 pads pictures above. Put some oil on them and the rust just rubs off without any damage to the bluing.

0000 steel wool and whatever oil will get rust but thats not your problem..Your problem based on the pictures is pitting of the steel is severe, but any pitting is severe, and your gun has to be polished and reblued, end of story..

cold or rust blue on a shotgun barrel is best IMO..The old gun is worth the cost of a good rust blue I bet...

KROIL and 0000 steel wood !!!

Hip

X2

None of these suggestions will get that kind of rust off to where the gun would ever look even close to decent, It needs to be draw filed and stone polished then rust blued or hot blued would probably work if the right guy did the work..

Steel wool and whatever will remove only light surface rust, once pitting starts only metal removing works, draw file and rust blue is best but bead blasting then blue usually works as well, and less costly..

This is an interesting thread, one thats been on my mind a lot recently.

I've just come into ownership of a half way scarce pre-war model 70 that has some light surface rust. Its more than "frog hair" rust, but I don't think its pitted yet either. I call it freckling.

I've done the 0000 steel wool with Kroil in the past, but only on cheap POS guns that I can't hurt. They have turned out pretty well, and I'd do it again, but I really don't want to ruin this treasure that i have coming...

Been watching some YouTube videos, has anybody made a steaming tube from PVC? Looks like that works pretty good with a carding wheel. I'm not sure I will reblue it when done, i plan to shoot it, but the rustblue.com product seems to work really well. I just don't know about "matching finishes" doing isolated areas, or whether to wipe it over the whole thing.

Thoughts on the steam tube, rustblue.com method would be appreciated.

You only have a short time spand before "surface rust" if there is such a thing before it turns into pitting, then steel wool is worthless..polishing below the pits completely removing them, and a re-blue is the only salvation of a decent firearm, whatever you do can devalue a firearm that shouldn't have been exposed to rust..but a good old world $300 rust blue is your best bet if its a decent firearm to start with.

I would re-blue with this.

https://artsgunshop.com/product/belgian-blue/

I think this is the same thing with a different label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FD_LlbMyvYY

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
0000 steel wool and whatever oil will get rust but thats not your problem..Your problem based on the pictures is pitting of the steel is severe, but any pitting is severe, and your gun has to be polished and reblued, end of story..

Yep! Unless it is completely removed that rust will keep coming back.

quote:

Originally posted by muzza:
http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

Thanks Muzza. Ordered some and some patches, which seem insanely expensive here these days!

Cheers, Chris

This sounds crazy, but it works. Make a 9:1 solution of water to plain old grocery store molasses. It would probably be a good idea to use distilled water if your tap water has lots of minerals in it. Submerge the item and let it sit for a week. When you remove it, just dry it off and buff it with a Scotch Brite pad. Any pits will still be there, but the rust will be gone. Be advised, this will remove bluing as well. I read about this process recently and tried it on some 100+ year old very rusty sewing machine parts. I'm a believer. Good luck.

When all else fails, there's always draw filing.

For many years I have used a pure copper penny (pre-1973)and Kroil. Works great for me but it will not fix rust pits.

That rust You can see was once the metal that is now pits.