How to clean/patch pakerized finish on 30-06 FN Mauser

[DeeBee]

Hi all,

I have a slightly beat up FN Mauser in 30-06.

The top of the barrel end near the receiver has been ground off where a crest is in some other examples I've seen.
It has a dull silver like finish with blotchy rust stains. The butt plate has evenly succumbed to rust.
The wood & metal fittings on it are a bit rattlely.
For all this, it shoots alright.

From this I assume that it might be one of these Naval parkerized Mausers that I've heard about.

My questions are:

Is there a simple way to at least ensure the preservation of the blotchy metal parts, maybe even clean it to a less distressed finish?
I'm not overly keen to polish or remove the finish, as I've no idea how to replate it.

Was the butt plate likely to have been pakerized? What might be a good rust removal and preservation method? I'm leaning toward "OOOO" steel wool until the rust is removed and an oil coating to preserve.

Cheers,

DeeBee

[Patrick Chadwick]

Well, don't try this out on a valuable part, but I once achieved a parkerization "look-alike" finish by accident.

I had wanted to remove the rust on a couple of screw dies, and dunked them in a little pot with common-or-garden rust remover (which I think is basically a weak phosphoric acid) from the local supermarket - nothing special. Then I forgot about them. When I discovered the pot again, some weeks later, the rust had gone - and the dies had acquired a parkerized-looking surface.



I think this could be a good way to get the buttplate looking parkerized again. And to patch up bad sections on other parts. But I would not recommend bathing them in rust remover and leaving them for weeks, as I did. That might be overdoing it and produce an area with a surface that stands out rather crassly from its surroundings.

A bit of experimentaton on some rusty bits and pieces would be advisable, to get a feeling for the speed of transformation before trying it out of the real gun parts.

[browningautorifle]

I did that quite on purpose Patrick, same thing with the same end. I also did it with Muriatic acid believe it or not and had a parkerized looking finish apply itself. Just oil after...it's on sling hardware and still looks good. First time was phosphoric acid on a Sten barrel and left it a couple days for the deep grey. Just let it dry after and apply oil.

[Sunray]

"..."OOOO" steel wool..." With oil, not "OOOO" steel wool by itself. A light touch with a fine brass wire wheel in a bench grinder or rotary tool works too. Eye protection is essential. Assuming you have either of those.
All the metal would have the same 'finish'. Parkerizing is a term like Kleenex. It's actually a U.S. company thing. Comes in shades of grey(depending on the metal is goes on) or black. Difference is the chemicals used. Zinc based gives the grey. Manganese the black. There was no green. That's caused by long term storage in cosmoline.
There is also black phosphating that was/is used on FAL's etc. Same idea with different chemicals.
There is no touching up Parkerizing or the other coatings. It's a coating vs a finish like bluing. You can use regular cold bluing to camouflage bare spots though.
Isn't usual for the crests to be ground off milsurp Mausers. How easy is it to get K98 parts where you are? You may want to replace the butt plate.