Rust Removal

[Patrick Chadwick]

Any abrasive method -steel wool or whatever, even a cloth with a cleaning agent - is going to increase wear on edges, corners and the most exposed surfaces, while totally failing to reach right into recesses.
That is why using the electrolysis method is IMOH the best way to preserve the steel and any remaining bluing.

And since the electrolytic bath basically has the same effect as the expensive "degreasers/conditioners" sold for cold bluing, you can take a piece out of the electrolytic bath, brush off any loose particles with a stiff brush, flush in clean water, and dunk straight into the bluing bath. On rusted screws, for instance, electrolysis is an excellent way to clean up the threads. Try it on an old blued part or a rusted screw!

[Roger Payne]

I would endorse what No4 Mk1 T & Patrick say. Many years ago a fellow forummer sent me a scientific paper from an archaeology journal relating how to go about using the electrolytic method & I have been successfully using it for about ten years on recovered WW1 battlefield artefacts as well as small enfield parts. I use an old car battery charger set to trickle charge & a bucket filled with cold water to which I add just a sprinkling of caustic soda (NaOH - sold as crystals in the UK for unblocking your drains). Essentially you use the item you want to clean up as your cathode or negative electrode. The anode or positive electrode is sacrificial, (in other words the electrolytic process gradually corrodes it away), so I use clean pieces of scrap steel & replace them or clean them regularly as they get covered in rusty deposit quite quickly & this slows up the electrolytic process. Care must be taken as the caustic soda mix is very strongly alkaline, but in practice you only need a very dilute solution, & so long as you wash any skin splashes immediately with copious water you are not likely to come to much harm.

The beauty of this method as has already been mentioned is that it eradicates the rust from everywhere & uses no abrasion, so causes no damage whatsoever to the native steel. Incidentally it also works on non-ferrous metals & over the years I have cleaned up hundreds if not into the low thousands of WW1 battlefield recovery cartridge cases in this way.

ATB

[tower06]

I will have to give it a shot. Thanks again gents.

[Roy]

With inspiration from this tread I built a de-rusting bath, and it works great. Though the battery charger had some sort of safety that meant it didnt work when not charging a battery. I've used a old mobile phone charger and some resistors to alter the current. There are some good instructions on the net on how to build them too. Got to go and check on a SMLE nosecap now.

[frankderrico]

I made one to out of 4" heavy plastic pipe with elbows on the ends. I cut out a chanel and mounted it in a 2X4 cradle. I used a battery charger. About four hours. I needed to derust a half octagon half round fowler, it worked great. When done not much finish but the rust is gone inside and out. It looks alot better and I think it is going to be able to shoot when done.....Frank

[tower06]

I made one to out of 4" heavy plastic pipe with elbows on the ends. I cut out a chanel and mounted it in a 2X4 cradle. I used a battery charger. About four hours. I needed to derust a half octagon half round fowler, it worked great. When done not much finish but the rust is gone inside and out. It looks alot better and I think it is going to be able to shoot when done.....Frank

I thought the electrolytic bath maintains the finish?

[Patrick Chadwick]

Though the battery charger had some sort of safety that meant it didnt work when not charging a battery.

That may be a device that switches it off if the current falls below a minimum level, to prevent overcharging. The answer is to provide that minimum load by wiring a suitable resistance in parallel with the bath. Something that will draw about 50 mA should be enough.

[Roger Payne]

Tower, the original finish should be maintained, but I just wondered if frankderrico's old fowler was rather more patinated than blued?? If so, the patination (being low grade corrosion) would come off.

ATB

[blackcat_attilio]

Thanks to all you for so many suggestions. Useful.

[CrossedCannons]

"Blueing" is a form of oxidized iron (Fe3O4), just not the more highly oxidized "red" form (Fe2O3). Electrolysis reduces oxidized iron to metallic iron. So while I've never attempted to "derust" a blued part, I would be very very surprized if any "bluing" remains after "the bath"