Got RUST? It's easy to remove, here's how.

[Patrick Chadwick]

OK, I admit my ignorance. What is naval jelly?
I deduce from the correspondence that it is not a kind of food served up on board warships.

In the previous post it looks as if the upper(jellied?) half has been slightly etched to create a matt finish.
The lower (Birchwood Casey) half has preserved a better surface.

[WarPig1976]

No, not etched Birchwood Casey just did a better initial job. Naval Jelly should be left on 10 minutes longer then I did. Both where treated, left to sit for 5min or so and then rubbed with 00 steel wool soaked with the respective solution,,, scientifically applied of course.

What is naval jelly?

I don't know where it came from...

[Aragorn243]

Naval Jelly I believe was/is a compound used by the navy to keep rust off deck items. Supposedly etched things slightly so paint would adhere better but that's just something I've read somewhere.

I did not degrease with acetone. I've been spraying all sorts of oils, rust disolvers, break free etc down the bore. So I assumed that might be the problem with my first failed attempt. The second I scrubbed the barrel with dish detergent and rinsed before pouring the naval jelly in.

Perhaps it is pitted so badly that I'm not getting all the oil and crap out and that is hindering contact with the metal/rust. I don't know that I have any acetone around. I'll take a look.

[browningautorifle]

If it's badly pitted you're going to have a job getting it all clear. I even tried bead blasting the rust out with little effect.

[Patrick Chadwick]

... when you can do it delicately:

https://www.milsurps.com/showthread....t=electrolytic

The double-set trigger shown here would probably have disappeared into dust if it had been bead-blasted. Well, not quite, but it certainly would not have had any sharp edges left!

As for "Naval Jelly", I dug around and Henkel/Loctite reveals that it is, as suspected, a brew that contains phosphoric acid. I once tried cleaning an old screw-cutting die with that stuff, and forgot about it for a couple of weeks! It developed the same slightly matted look that I commented upon in my previous post.

So that is OK if you can tolerate a slightly parkerized look on your metal. but not if you want to clean up an originally polished surface. without spoiling it.

Just my 2c of course. but I submit that brute force is not necessary!

[Aragorn243]

I gave the naval jelly a second chance on a berthier bolt head and it did work on this so it seems to remove rust from French steel but not Italian steel.

Used another product called PB Blaster and that worked pretty well with a wire brush. I've used it before but as it has a rather unpleasant and permeating smell, I don't like it. But after about an hour, I have all the metal parts of a Berthier fairly well stabilized.

It does dissolve rust and starts instantly. It's a penetrating oil rather than an acid so it does not remove bluing.

[WarPig1976]

PB Blaster

Good stuff but yup it stinks....