Gentlemen:

I have a nice little Sako Riihimaki which has some rust in obscure places throughout the barreled action. I do not want to tear this beauty down to pins and springs. Instead, what might I soak this barreled action in for a day or two to dissolve and arrest whatever rust it might have in the "nooks and crannies"? The blueing is in pretty good shape (good enough that I do not want to reblue). I need some sort of solution which will not harm the blueing, has a low enough viscosity to seep inside the bolt assembly and will dissolve and arrest whatever rust I might have in there.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jordan

I would use Kroil although a good cleaning afterward is still a must.

PB Blaster - you can get it at most auto parts stores

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Death Before Dishonor

I think most metal soaking/cleaning products are naptha-based. I have a good friend who has a multi-line store in a small town who keeps an upright pipe about 2 1/2 feet tall filled with solvent. He sometimes soaks neglected guns for several days in this pipe.

After soaking, blow out with compressed air, let dry, then lightly coat with a good lubricant/preservative.

KanoLabs, the company that makes Kroil has an even better product for your application. They make a product called Exrust that is specifically desiged for rust removal. I have used it for two automotive restorations and can say that it works quite well. You can buy it direct from Kanolabs.

www.Kanolabs.com

Any product that will disolve or remove rust will also remove bluing. A penetrating rust inhibiting oil is the only other option. To really work well the barreled action can be boiled in water and then a water displacing oil applied. In reality it is best to totally disassemble before doing anything of the sort to ensure that you get it all taken care of. Regards, Bill.

Thanks to all of you for your responses.

Bill, as I was researching a solution to this problem, I discovered what you posted, to wit, that anything which actually removes rust will also remove blueing since blueing is a type of controlled rusting. I may end up completely disasembling this baby in any event. I want to hand it down to my son and so on, so I may just have to attack the rust by stripping it and having it completely reblued.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Regards,

Jordan

Jordan,

The best an most viable way to properly remove ALL of the rust is to have the entire firearm receive a properly forumulated ultrasonic cleaning (IMHO).

It requires the use of DI water (deionized) which is 200 MegOhm with the strength of an 80 Khz ultrasonic frequency using an acidic-based cleaner in tandem with a rust inhibitor. The only tricky part is NOT to pickle the metal. There are experts out there that understand these fundamentals.

I have very successfully restored resizing dies ranging from light to severe (i.e. pitted) corrosion using this process. Although I used a standard laundry detergent in the first stage cleaning, immediatly following with a heavy surfactant-type cleaner. Naturally, all of the pits remain - but all of the rust is gone.

My friend Joe brought over 4 different set of dies which he purchased used from a fellow who kept these on his boat (so the environment was at its harshest possible). This process I am describing is most impressive. In the Navy we called this FM (you know - f$$king magic).

Look into it if you have an interest level and let us know if you use this type of method.

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Best regards,
Alex

Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote! - Benjamin Franklin 1759

[This message has been edited by Alex Szabo (edited 03-04-2002).]