doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Cleaning pitted areas

Birchwood Casey Blue and Rust Remover is similar to naval jelly, but I think a little milder. You can find it at any good sporting goods store. Wonko -- post pics of your AYA ten gauge, I miss it.

Hello Alex,

Could you give instructions? I have a car battery charger handy.

Thanks in advance,

JC

Google is a terrible thing to waste.

Here is a link to the process. I have never tried this.

Electrolysis for Rust Removal

Thanks JLN. It is a simple and informative article and a very doable project.

I have a science background but did not specialize in chemistry so I am curious of the chemical makeup of the black spots on many recievers I see. This is often left after steel wool and oil treament on a rusted, slightly pitted metal receiver. We have all seen it. The only response I have ever gotten about removing it is to sand the metal which I don't want to do since it may ruin or at least thin the engraving. Thoughts, suggestions or info?

I think the dark black/blue spots are an oxide equating to blueing. I've seen it on auto parts like transmission input shafts and axles that lightly rusted and then were steelwooled. Some parts turn a nice even shade of light blue. I'm guessing there is a natural process where the rust converts, albeit slowly, to ferro-ferric oxide or blueing as when rusted parts are boiled in the rust blue process.

JLN, touché.

You are right, found several instructions complete with pictures, explanations
and what not.

JC

I thought about this more and if you really want to see if this works before attempting on something that you have dear to your heart, why not try some scrap.

If you are close to the country or farm or know a good scrap yard head on over and see if you can find some rusted parts. If they are heavily pitted and small, then boil them in a pot to convert it to the ferro-ferric Oxide. Then sand the top to get it shiny but leave the deeper holes alone and see what happens during electrolysis.

The other option is to buy a cheap double barrel on the auction sites. I think there are a few on AA and GB right now for $15 to $50. You could find a really nasty cheap one and buy it just for a test. If it fails then no harm no foul.

Just thinking about this as this process has merrit on some old parts I got lying around. However those old parts have value, so before I really ruin them I'm going to try some tests.

It definitely will work to remove rust, in fact (if you hook the wires up correctly) won't remove anything but rust. I have had good luck with it on old tools that have severe rusting. You still need to do a bit of scrubbing (I use a synthetic pad) but it is probably the best method I have found for cleaning tools without damaging the metal. Keep in mind it will only clean the surface, it won't put back what has already been eaten by rust, but it is worth a try. Take the advice and practice on something you don't care about first just to ease your mind, but it is relatively fool proof. By the way I first learned about this after reading an article that mentioned this was a method sometimes used by museaums to clean artificats.