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If a new rifle has been parkerized, does the finish have to be taken care of as one would a blued finish?
I just wipe it with FP-10 and put it in the gun safe. With blueing, you can see any finger marks, etc. I can't see them all on the parked barrel etc...
A newly parkerized finish must be well oiled the sooner the better. If its possible to do so while the metal is still warm, thats even better.
Short answer here...
Yes.
I would use something different than FP10 though. It's a fantastic lubricating oil but a lousy rust preventative. Don't believe me?
Take a few common nails and clean them up. Lube each nail with different brands of gun oil. Next, drop them into small containers (baby food jars etc) half filled with water. Allow the nails to be exposed half to air and half into water and set them on a shelf.
The FP10 nail will be rusted in a few days. Hoppes fares better, but Outers oil and Breakfree CLP will go nearly two weeks. In that two weeks, the FP10 nail will be a glob of brown slime at the bottom of the jar.
After seeing that with my own eyes, the FP10 went into the tool box to lube sticky drawer glides and squeaky hinges. There it worked very well.
The whole purpose of Parkerizing is to create a surface that will retain oil and prevent rusting. The fact that it is non-reflective and even better from a military standpoint is coincidental.
The trouble is that it holds not only preservative oil, but crud, dirt, oil from hands, etc., and the result is that it usually ends up a rather dirty brown, not the gray or blackish it was originally. Some folks think the greenish color of some U.S. WWII weapons was due to the Parkerizing absorbing cosmoline, but Cosmoline is brownish; the green tinge is due to the chemical composition of the Parkerizing solution used.
Jim
I just ran out of CLP. Seem to have a run on it. I will get some more.Quote:
Originally Posted by JB White