Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing dealing with surface rust

In my "admittedly limited" experience, the presence of red rust means the blueing is already corrupted.I have used mothers aluminum and mag polish to remove some level of corrosion. There is another brand in a toothpaste tube sold by fancy kitchen stores that seems to have a less aggressive grit in the paste.

Agree with greying too. Polishing is mechanical. But Fe+O>FeO is only reversible under conditions which don't support breathing.

Polishing compounds are just cutting grains immersed in a lubricant. (You can polish plastic headlights with toothpaste to De-cloud) so realistically you could mix a little baking soda in liquid wax and slowly polish away corrosion.

You could always buy some junk at a gun show and try different things.
I figured the above on a garage sale scope with good optics and ugly scabs.

I have used a brass screw. Soft enough to not scratch steel or damage bluing, hard enough to remove rust. Something like 1.5" long or longer for the screw. Hold the near and lightly "saw" the rust area with the brass screw threads. Soak the rusty area first with something like Hoppe's, kerosene, Marvel mystery oil to soften the rust. Wipe down when done.

Steam it and wipe with bronze wool & oil.

Bronze wool and Kroil

kroil and 000 or 0000 steel wool, Pre1980ish pennys do a heck of a job too.

great video on a simple rust cleanup

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2SyN6m39x4

Free All is the very best penetrating oil I have ever tried, put something rusted in a rag and oil the heck out of it, let it sit for a week. Be amazed in how it penetrates and gets under the rust and lifts it off.

If you ever need help in getting off rusted on nuts and bolts, Free All will simply amaze you, and I have every super penetrating oil on the market I can find.

If you push a patch though a rifle barrel after shooting and let it set till you get home or a day or two later, the barrel will clean up much easier.

I don't work for Free All, just buy the stuff by the case.