Rust... oh my!

[Azzy]

Long story short, my grandfatehr has a pistol that was his dad's. Years ago, I took it, cleaned it, and oiled it well to go back into storage.

Unfortunatly, that idea of storage was to go into a stack of paper bags, inside a leather holster, hidden in a closet. Well, a bit of flooding.. and i have a rusty family heirloom to deal with.

Its a bring back from WWII, a Beretta in .32. Nice pistol, until now, had no rust-what-so-ever. Now, it has some major rust (none in the barrel or action) along the slide, outside of barrel. No pitting that I can tell, or at least very shallow pitting, mainly near the rear sight.

Any ideas, I've been carefully hitting it with 0000 steel wool, but that only does so much. Should I go caustic solution and electrodes to pull it off? Vinegar?

I figure a re-blue is going to be in the works after either of those. Not too worried, the finish on this thing wa a rush job back when it was made (from what I gather, 2 months before Italy was taken out of the loop).

Any other ideas / suggestions?

[ooticamitica]

try reverse electrolosis it doesnt remove blueing and its super easy to do look it up for a how to article.

[CHEMICAL]

try turtle wax rust remover or Eezox.

[bac0nfat]

If you google "electrolysis tank" you will find tons of how-to articles. I've never done it myself but fully plan to, as it looks really cool! I've heard nothing but good things about it.

[Azzy]

Ive done electrolosis (on a full exhaust system in a barrel) and vinegar on lots of motorcycle parts. My worry is the bluing.

[bac0nfat]

Ive done electrolosis (on a full exhaust system in a barrel) and vinegar on lots of motorcycle parts. My worry is the bluing.

I did some googling and found this:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/i.../t-206636.html

You can remove rust from metal using electrolysis, and it will not harm the bluing.

But it's your call.

[imashooter2]

Gun bluing is simply modified rust. Electrolytic rust removal will absolutely remove all the blue and leave the parts so processed "in the white."

Before you do anything like remove blue and or refinish, make sure the gun doesn't have collector value that would be destroyed in the process. For collectors, a 75% original is better than a 100% refinish.

ETA, for those interested, here's a quick and easy electrolytic set up I've used several times:

[Azzy]

I did some googling and found this:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/i.../t-206636.html



But it's your call.

Let me reiterate though - THIS WILL REMOVE ALL OF THE BLUING.

Hmmmm.... Teh other thing I worry about its that electrolosis can make metal brittle when producing the hydrogen, and the way to get rid if this is to bake the parts at certain temps, IIRC. Its not something I ever wanted to try on a barrel.

[RocketFoot]

Before you do anything, try scrubbing it down with Weapon Shield. I have used WS to remove surface rust with much success! It won't do anything with pitting, but it will remove surface rust like a mofo!

[Jaybeez]

Soak the whole gun, or at least the rusted areas in kroil for a few days, then go at the 0000 steel wool again.