i have an old 1885 Low Wall with upgraded wood, sights, #3, 30" octagon barrel, .22LR, that has a lot of grime and minor rust. It was recommended to me today to try stainless steel wool with oil to remove this bad stuff and leave the original bluing. Supposedly much better then the old 4 aught steel wool and Hoppe's...

Anyone have experience with SS wool?

Bare iron?
Try a touch of amonia in an out of sight
place to see how it works.

IF there's any bluing, don't do it!

George

Never used ss wool. If I were doing it I would use bronze wool.

I have used this http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/ and it does work well, but I'd still start with bronze.

I've used the Frontier pad, worked well, better than 4/0 steel wool. More aggressive on the corrosion but did nothing to the blue. It's good on open areas but too coarse to get into cracks which is why I asked about SS wool.

I have tried bronze wool but it's not hard enough to get the corrosion I'm after.

I would take all the wood off soak it down with WD40 or something similar.

For sometime.

I have used regular steel wool of what ever grade you like.

I've used it and if you don't press too hard it is great at removing stubborn corrosion. Use plenty of oil and clean frequently to prevent build up of corrosion products. Loosened rust will scratch blueing. Also try the edge of an old nickle, say from the 50's or 60's. Does a fine job too.

Bob
www.rustblue.com

brake fluid and wet crumbled wad of aluminum foil .. try it on a on trial piece first .

STAINLESS PADS IVE SOLD LOTS OF THEM THEY WORK GREAT AND WILL NOT HARM BLUEING

Thanks. Do you sell the very coarse ones or finer grade. The finer grades seem hard to find.

I've used the stainless pads with oil and they work great. No damage to the bluing. A friend who is a gun collector gave me a pack of the pads. He gets them from a restaurant supply company that sells them as pot scrubbing pads.

I use 40 steel wool and wd40; it won't remove existing blue. No need for SS wool; that isn't necessary.

quote:

Originally posted by dpcd:
I use 40 steel wool and wd40; it won't remove existing blue. No need for SS wool; that isn't necessary.

I agree. 0000 steel wool works real good.

For scabby rust, a copper coin with oil. I use a British penny but a cent will do. For fine rust, use regular fine steel wool, which is pretty soft.

You may also try cleaning the whole thing with brake cleaner or similar solvent, then boiling it in distilled water before carding. This will turn the brown rust black. You can then more easily remove the loose black rust and you will not have any bright areas.

I concur....Scrape with the edge of a bronze U.S. cent dated 1981 or older (95% copper). Nickels work too, just a bit harder and 75% copper. The better the condition of the coin, the better they work. The copper streaks come off easily with 0000 steel.

No matter what you use or how you "slice it" you are removing some of the oxidized surface metal. A penny, bronze wool, brass wool, doesn't matter.
to prevent scouring the surface though, only the finest grade of any "metal wool" should be used.
I've used just run of the mill 0000 steel wool and a little light oil and a gentle rubbing.. it did not remove the blue.

I use copper tubing. Flatten the end, oil and have at it. Works good for getting the stubborn stuff out of file teeth.

Dave

Stainless pads will scratch bluing on better grade guns. Indoors it is hard to see. Take the gun outside in the sunlight. You see the damage.

Solid copper is 5 times quicker than bronze wool. Did it to a ZKW-465 with specks of corrosion. 0000 steel wool barely touched it so to speak. Copper leaves a copper streak, easily remove with 0000 wool.
Back to the original q. SS wool, not me. Ain't broken. No attempt to fix. Does seem to be a bit too hard to use on bluing with the high nickel content. Great for barrels though.

Balistol and 4/0 steel wool will remove light rust without hurting the bluing. Balistol is also the secret ingredient in many products advertised to clean up steel, wood and leather. Just like the Germans intended.

I use 4 ought regular steel wool, and oil..if that won't move whatcha got, you need a reblue because there is a pit under it....If its collectable then that's a whole nuther ball game.

It's collectible......no reblue.