doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com "Surface Rust"

Who is George Flame?
I recently acquired a Parker DH out of the Illinois area and was told that George Flame, a running mate of Oscar Gaddy, refinished the stock.I had never heard the name before.

-Weston

Your right Jim Legg, I should not gripe about WD-40. The good Lord knows it put lots of food on my families table.

As a gunsmith with a young family, before I knew that it was good for me that customers abused their guns and made me money.

I would get upset at them for bring in their Autoloading shot guns that they had "sprayed down and put away" after the last hunting season. Now they went to get ready for a little duck shooting and found they could no longer open the action.

The worst of these was always the Browning A-5's and the Remington clones of the A-5.

Nor should I have felt bad about the tang areas of rifle stocks that went soft from the WD soaks.

Heck, I thought I was the only one on the planet that hated the stuff, cause when I would tell the customers were there problems came from, they would look at me with the expression on their faces of blasphemy had been shouted in their presents!

Heck I still get that reaction today.

There are two products in this world that I know to be the most overrated and both of them have banana oil in them. Hoppe #9 and WD-40.(Could the love affair have anything to do with that?)

This is the first time in my life I found anybody that did not think the sun rose and shined on WD-40!

I've wondered for years about the continued love affair the public has for the stuff, but when I was a kid no household would be without "3 in one oil", either.

50 years ago I thought that WD-40 was the best thing to come down the pike. 40 years ago, I knew better!

Dang Al jist how old a feller are yOu ?

Does it really have Banana Oil in it ? If it does that could explain it.

"I would get upset at them for bring in their Autoloading shot guns that they had "sprayed down and put away" after the last hunting season. Now they went to get ready for a little duck shooting and found they could no longer open the action.

The worst of these was always the Browning A-5's and the Remington clones of the A-5.

Nor should I have felt bad about the tang areas of rifle stocks that went soft from the WD soaks."

Well, Big,
It's kind of funny that you say essentially the same thing I said but come up with a completely different conclusion. "Sprayed down and put away" is exactly what I said people should not do with their trigger mechanisms. Trigger mechanisms should be thoroughly cleaned with a "gun scrubber" type of solvent, blown dry and lightly lubed with a good gun oil. "Spraying down" a dirty mechanism with WD-40 or anything similar and leaving it that way is an invitation to gumminess. It's not the WD-40 or any other "gunsmith-in-a-can" that caused the gumminess, it's the fact that the mechanism was never cleaned in the first place.
Your "tang areas of rifle stocks that went soft from the WD soaks." are not anything that I, or anyone else recommends.

Banana Oil??? You've got to be joking! The contents of WD-40 are available on the Internet, on the chemical information site. No mention of banana oil, that I recall.

Go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WD-40 if you really want to know anything about it. Or don't, if you prefer to wallow in old wives' tails and hearsay.

I completely agree with Jim's assessment of WD-40. I have used the stuff by the gallons over the years for two specific things. Help loosening rusted fasteners on farm equipment, and moisture displacement in the barrels of muzzleloaders immediately after cleaning the bores. I have since dispensed with the use of it on rusty fasteners as I have found something much better called ZepPreserve. But it is still as good as anything out there for moisture displacement.

When cleaning m/l barrels water or some form of water "agent" is almost always used. After graduating from the old hot water method I tried many concoctions, all of which worked pretty well. I have for the last ten years or so used a mixture of alcohol, Murphy's Oil Soap and hydrogen peroxide, in equal parts. It must be kept in an opaque container such as the peroxide bottle, but is super. After drying patches WD-40 is used to remove any trace of moisture. Then it is removed with dry patches and RIG is applied to the bore for rust preventative. Never have had any rust to appear after this treatment, even when the gun sat for years.

As Jim tried to explain, WD-40's bad rep has come because of it's misuse. It certainly has gummed up the insides of many an auto, but unnecessarily.

Thank you, Stan.
After and during some of these silly arguments in the past, I have put WD-40 in the freezer. It did NOT turn into something like lard, instead it stayed liquid. I have stored in an open container for months. It did NOT turn to gum. I have a Thompson Center Renegade lock in my shop that was sprayed with WD-40 on 3-22-2001. It is not in any way gummy. Even the fly is still free to wiggle. I sprayed it again today, 7-1-2007. I have used it exclusively after cleaning the bores and locks of ML shotguns and rifles for many years to replace any water left after cleaning with soap water and left the bores coated with it as a rust preventative. I have never had any rust show up in the bores.
As I said, I do not depend on it as a lubricant in the locks. Good oil and greases in the appropriate places is better. However, what WD that was left in the locks has NEVER gummed up. That's my experience. WD-40 PP's(Paranoia Parrots) might do well to do some of their own experiments.

Stoddard solvents are varsols. WD- 40 is almost worthless as a lubricant unles one used it like marvel mystery oil in your gas tank. It is ehpemeral as a lubricant, It does penetrate and evaporate but there are much better penetrating oils. The real problem with it is that folks have been lead to think that it is a lubricant which will last for more than a few days. It may displace water but I don't use it and I don't have problems with my methods David

They sure don't say on Wikipedia do they, ask the manufacture what gives it the nice smell that makes fishermen want to spray it on their bait. Not long ago, they were talking about it on the History Chanel "Modern Marvels" and the Manufacture said there is added scents.

You want to get rid of moisture, use 91% Alcohol, available in any drug store for less than a buck a pint.

I do not lube a bore after cleaning, I always leave dry, until I'm reading the gun to shoot again.

BA, if you do that down heah' with even a squeaky clean m/l barrel that leaves a patch pure white, you won't HAVE a decent bore to shoot when you decide to shoot again. Glad the weather conditions where you are allow that, must be nice.

Stan

The last thing in this world I want to do is coat a clean bore wit anything that covers the bore, anywhere in this world.

The U.S. Gov did this for years but no longer anyway not since the late 1950's. The reason is the vapor phase that all metal used in firearms under goes.

Even for long term storage they have no coatings on the firearms, only coverings and dry silica treated cardboard tube in the bore. Sealed in plastic.

Ever wonder why all the WW1, WW2 bores that were packed with cosmoline are so dark?