doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Speaking of oil [and rust blue]??

So I have fine doubles both vertical and horizontal type ,all of which are rust blued in some manner.I may spray off the barrels before stowage with any of the following: Ballistol,B/C Barricade,wd40,and sometimes just Lemon oil with beeswax [that goes on the wood too].

Will any of this stuff work to harm the rust bluing?
What would be the safest,or what is best or better??

thanks

billy

Anything with acid in it will attack the "rust"; note that bluing is a thin layer of black rust (Iron dioxide FeO2). The best, IMO, is Renaissance Wax. It is a synthetic and neutral Ph. All oils tend to run off the surface over time. Grease and wax don't. Wax makes a fairly hard surface and has fair abrasion resistance; it is a solid.

I'd look into what's in your "Lemon oil with beeswax" I wouldn't use it if it has natural lemon oil or other acids.

This brings to mind a little Irish pub I frequent. They have tables covered in copper sheet. The tables get tarnished of course. One night a fine lass joined me and a friend for dinner at this pub. She started playing with the condiments on the tarnish and found a little ketchup or mustard cuts the tanish immediately. I can only imagine what it might do to a blued barrel.

Ballistol is probably the best all-purpose protectant for metal and wood. I like CLP on the metal. Wax may be OK for target guns and safe queens, but I just can't rationalize it for my field guns. Takes too much time to do it right, and I have found that wax gets a bit sticky in very hot and humid conditions.

As noted, rust bluing is a form of rust, and several gunsmithing books I've read caution against using WD-40 or any so-called polarizing or rust penetrating oil initially. They say the fresh black oxide is not tightly bound at first and these types of oils will remove some of the new finish. I use plain old Outers Gun Oil on a freshly rust blued barrel. I've come to like Ballistol, and have had no problems with it. I do like to use WD-40 with 0000 steel wool to clean a neglected gun as it seems to loosen any fine dry rust better than many other cleaners or oils, and still leaves the tightly bound patina. I agree that lemon oil is probably slightly acidic, and it might be interesting to drop a blued screw into a small jar of it to see if it might actually remove bluing.

Only problem with Ballistol is it's water soluble.

WD-40 is NOT a penetrating oil. It IS a water displacer (WD) and contains menhaden oil. The menhaden oil will go gummy after a short time and turn into a dust/grit magnet.

My prefered solution is a very light coat of RIG or 3 in 1 oil (a very light weight napthenic) or even NON-detergent motor oil.

I have pretty much settled on Clenzoil as the best all-purpose "wipe-down" and rust preventive/lubricant/cleaner I have tried. Good for wood too and smells great.
JR

For upkeep,,most any quality oil or grease sold for firearms maint. Keep it simple, it's just a metal finish you're trying to protect from corrosion. It's pretty tough in itself compared to other blues and the usual matte type finish holds protective coatings well.
Don't try to (re)invent a special oil for the task. There's no need.

I used WD-40 as a quick spray down/soak on fresh rust blued bbls and parts for quite a while in the past.
It was the water displacing property I was taking advantage of,,but it's already noted quirk of taking some of the new RB off made me stop using it.

Now after the wash down to clear the surfaces of any residue that may cause after-rust, I let them dry of their own heat from the hot soap & water/rinse used,,, wiping any obvious excess off of course.

While still warm I coat with a thin coat of Linseed oil,,same artist type drying Linseed Oil I use to top off a stock finish.
They hang for a day or so and any excess is wiped clear of the metal. An ultra thin coating is left, nothing you can really feel. It drys because it's so thin.
On top of this goes a coating of the favorite of the moment oil or grease during re-assembly.

Better looking bluing, no break down of the finish and no after rust. Just my experience.

I haven't used ANY kind of oil on the exterior of my firearms in years. IMO oil collects dust particles out of the air and after coating your firearm with any kind of oil over time you're wiping the gun down with grit infused oil.
I use a hard wax such as Flitz's Gun Wax or Renaissance Wax but I expect any good hard paste wax will work. Since the wax dries hard any air borne grit ends up on the wax surface and not the blueing.
Jim