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I have a 1972 win 70 and was showing it to my friend and noticed quite a bit of rust on the barrel. How can I remove it and should I use cold blue to cover it ?. Its a beat up old rifle, sentimental and Im not interested in having it reblued.. thanks for any info

Scrub it off with some bronze wool and light oil. It should come right off if it’s just light surface rust. I wouldn’t bother with cold blue, unless prep is perfect it usually ends up looking like crap.

Big .45 Frontier Metal Cleaner Pad is made just for tasks like this, removes the rust and will not harm the blue. Try it, you'll like it, inexpensive and easy to use.

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Flitz

What I've always used has been 0000 steel wool and oil. Don't use Teflon or aerosol can oil, break free works great. If something has Very heavy rust, you can use a flattened brass case to remove and smooth the area of rust and then steel wool off the brass marks. PLEASE be careful with the brass case method, IT WILL REMOVE GOOD FINISH! Just focus on the rust spot and you will be fine.

Andrew

I had a flooded basement about a decade ago. I got all the guns out, but it really jacked up the humidity in the house over the next 6 months. I had a bunch of rifles rust. At the time, I was told to use Eezox and a chore boy copper scouring pad.

Go ahead and use a Chore Boy, it will remove the rust and the blue. Frontier metal cleaning pad may resemble a Chore Boy BUT it is made of a metal that WILL NOT remove the blue. At $5-$7.00 it is a very cost effective way to do the job, they're available on eBay and other sources can be found by Googling. I have restored many guns that have been rusted by exposure to water or damp humid environments. Most owners assume that polishing and a blue job is needed and are pleasantly surprised when I return their guns looking so good after using the Frontier pad to remove the rust.

Has anyone used Phosphoric acid on blueing? I have been using this to restore antique tools and it works well for that but don't know how it will react to blueing. Need to test it on a beater rifle.

Phosphoric acid is the active ingredient in Naval Jelly. It will strip off bluing. https://dm.henkel-dam.com/is/conten...er-Bottle-8-fl-oz-16-fl-oz-2018-04-12pdf

Big Frontier Pad or 0000 steel wool , I bought a beater Weatherby with rust and scratches and it looked 2000 percent better

Cold blue solutions require an acid. The acid in Oxpho Blue is phosphoric. For surface rust I'll use 00 or 0000 steel wool and wipe with Oxpho. After it sets up you can knock it down and blend it to invisibility with steel wool and a little oil. May take a redo to get it just right.

Now on rubbing off the rust, everybody wants to remove visible and stop to save the bluing. That leaves microscopic rust which is hygroscopic and promotes rusting. Ask any auto body mechanic, rust is like a cancer. That little bit of phosphoric acid in Oxpho is enough to convert that microscopic bit rust into iron phosphate which is black and not hygroscopic. Kills the rust.

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I had my doubts about using a Frontier Pad and 0000 + oxpho on that beat up Weatherby but it works fantastic. I had one spot that it could have come out better but overall it was a huge huge improvement over what I initially had.

What's cool about this procedure is it can be repeated and after a few times with polishing it'll not look like new bluing but it sure does greatly improve it. I found either WD40 or Kroil as the oil used with it effective.

Thanks Nighthawk, makes sense to use the Oxpho as a rust converter as well as a colorant. I had been doing this on Axes and didn't realize I was converting the rust as I used phosphoric before then the Oxypho. Maybe I can just go strait to the Oxy. But the phosphoric is cheaper so it has that advantage.

I don't know the proportions but there doesn't seem to be much phosphoric acid in Oxpho. The purpose of an acid in a cold blue is to strike the surface so the other chemicals can grab hold of the steel. There's enough to convert the tiny, invisible particles of red rust but I wouldn't expect much more than that.

I've had really good results matching existing blue. That's when I get the rust off without loosing much of the original blue, A light spot with maybe half or more of the original blue. Usually you can't see a difference. May take a time or two which is OK, there's a bit of art to it. Cold blue, a selenium based coating, is softer than caustic blue, a form of rust, so you can steel wool to rub off as much Oxpho as you want without hurting the caustic blue.

I use whatever oil is handy. For me Oxpho is a little more durable and blendable if it has a couple hours to set up, usually overnight if it's convenient.

Thanks guys lots of good info........

I removed the rust with steel wool and it was deeper than I thought. I sanded down the barrel and used Casey blue gel. It came out pretty nice I was surprised how well it looks. The rifle is my old beat up 1972
mod 70 I got when I was a kid, Im 67 now so it has a lot of hunts under its belt I will see how it holds up.. thanks for the info.

Now how's the wood?