Rust prevention

[Weavedreamer]

Interested to hear about a natural food safe rust preventative or if that even exists.

 

[FlinterNick]

Interested to hear about a natural food safe rust preventative or if that even exists.

I make the following in a tin.

All in moderation amounts to the other.

Bees wax
Carnuba Wax
Salad Bowl finishing oil or walnut oil
And some mineral oil in small amounts
Rosen crystals

Melted in a mixture that can be used as a gunstock conditioner and metal coating, it also builds up a patina on steel.

Omit the Rosen and it makes for a decent patch lub too.

 

[Brokennock]

a natural food safe rust preventative

Almost any combination of food safe oil/fat and beeswax will work. Some might not even need the wax depending on climate and season.
Keep in mind that some fats/oils are more stable than others, some go rancid sooner than others (worse many seed oils sold as cooking oils are bad before they ever smell bad).
I like beeswax and olive oil or coconut oil best myself, but I also don't have a good source of bear oil or rendered fat. The olive oil will get that "old oil" smell a lot sooner than the coconut oil so anything using that gets made in smaller batches.

I won't/don't use seed or "vegetable" oils for anything at home so my experience using them for anything muzzleloader related is non-existent, I'm sure they would work fine for your gun or knife,,, but I wish people would stop ingesting them.

 

[user 34300]

For guns? Fluid film is mostly lanolin, it works.

Why food safe? Are we seasoning a skillet or preventing rust in a gun? For my cast iron skillets I use tallow. A very thin film is spread on a hot pan. For my griddle pans I use spray oils. Avocado oil has a high smoke point and works well. Mineral oil is fine for cutting boards and such. It is also the main ingredient in Ballistol.

Why? Guns?? I would never trust any HC non petroleum grease or oil for long term storage. IF you clean the gun properly then slather a heavy coat of LPS-3 in the bore it will not rust. I have used LPS-3 for 40 years. I have never had a speck of rust with it. LPS-3 goes on as a thin fluid and dries as a soft wax. It can not run off. I am certain that in 50 years my guns will still be rust free if stored properly.

For short term storage any reasonable petroleum oil is fine. There is no evidence to support the idea that petroleum oils cause problems.

Do not use vegetable oil and salty animal fats.

 

[hanshi]

I pull a can of Barricade or Break Free CLP out of a sack, mix them with my gun's bore and voila', no more rust.

 

[R Ellis]

You can buy food grade silicon

 

[Brokennock]

Do not use vegetable oil and salty animal fats.

 

[Ed C.]

For guns? Fluid film is mostly lanolin, it works.

Why food safe? Are we seasoning a skillet or preventing rust in a gun? For my cast iron skillets I use tallow. A very thin film is spread on a hot pan. For my griddle pans I use spray oils. Avocado oil has a high smoke point and works well. Mineral oil is fine for cutting boards and such. It is also the main ingredient in Ballistol.

Why? Guns?? I would never trust any HC non petroleum grease or oil for long term storage. IF you clean the gun properly then slather a heavy coat of LPS-3 in the bore it will not rust. I have used LPS-3 for 40 years. I have never had a speck of rust with it. LPS-3 goes on as a thin fluid and dries as a soft wax. It can not run off. I am certain that in 50 years my guns will still be rust free if stored properly.

For short term storage any reasonable petroleum oil is fine. There is no evidence to support the idea that petroleum oils cause problems.

Do not use vegetable oil and salty animal fats.

I just wondering recently if anyone uses LPS-3 for longterm rust prevention. I've used it throughout my working career. After disassembling large chillers, often near the beach, the parts would be cleaned and rust overnight if not sprayed down with LPS-3. Often they would sit for weeks in hot humid machine rooms while parts were made or shipped in. LPS-3 was 100% effective in preventing rust.

 

[necchi]

Interested to hear about a natural food safe rust preventative or if that even exists.

Use any of them that you have already researched/found.
The key is,, longevity, the natural stuff doesn't have much and that's Ok,,
Ya just have to do the work that comes with refreshing the preventive as needed.
It's not a new concept to work with things our ancestors used, ya just gotta step up and do it as they did.
If you want natural,, then expect to do the natural/actual work.

 

[FlinterNick]

Almost any combination of food safe oil/fat and beeswax will work. Some might not even need the wax depending on climate and season.
Keep in mind that some fats/oils are more stable than others, some go rancid sooner than others (worse many seed oils sold as cooking oils are bad before they ever smell bad).
I like beeswax and olive oil or coconut oil best myself, but I also don't have a good source of bear oil or rendered fat. The olive oil will get that "old oil" smell a lot sooner than the coconut oil so anything using that gets made in smaller batches.

I won't/don't use seed or "vegetable" oils for anything at home so my experience using them for anything muzzleloader related is non-existent, I'm sure they would work fine for your gun or knife,,, but I wish people would stop ingesting them.

Believe it or not…. Burts bees hand salve works great.

 

[Mad L]

Pure Bear Oil, dosen't dry out for a long time compared to any canned oil I have seen. Perhaps mix with beeswax for "long term".
I never had a rust issue living on the coast and now that I live in the High Desert; I don't give it a second thought...just checked ALL Arms last week = No rust, not even in the two that came to me rusty.

 

[Kansas Kid]

Just get a quart of automatic transmission fluid and forget about the BS.

 

[user 34300]

https://dayattherange.com/?page_id=3667
Scroll down to the tests.

IF you care about keeping your guns rust free I strongly suggest a real proven product be used. For the life of me I do not understand the preoccupation with using things that are unproven or not suited to the job. I am certain that if they had LPS-3, Fluid Film, RIG, or cosmoline in 1800 they would have used it. Instead the best they could do was the drippings from last nights supper. That does not mean that it is a good choice today.

OP, what does food grade have to do with it? Are we going to lick our guns? I like my guns but I have to draw the line. : ) As far as keeping the meat grinder from rusting mineral oil is fine.

 

[Brokennock]

I am certain that if they had LPS-3, Fluid Film, RIG, or cosmoline in 1800 they would have used it

But they didn't.....
This is quite possibly the dumbest argument that ever comes up on these history forums.

What makes you think nothing but the latest space age chemical compounds will work to protect metal from rust? And nothing else can possibly work......

Many people here have testified that they have succesfully used natural products that have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years to protect their knives and muzzleloaders from rust with success.
Maybe they are wrong and there is some type of special rust that maybe only can be seen by the anointed ones that is infecting their gear?
Do they have rust issues and don't know it?
You seem pretty damn sure that no one else's products or methods can possibly work,,, unless they support the chemical industry. Should we send you our guns for inspection? Maybe you have a special light that you can use to take pictures and show us how rusty our guns really are?

 

[Mad L]

But they didn't.....
This is quite possibly the dumbest argument that ever comes up on these history forums.

What makes you think nothing but the latest space age chemical compounds will work to protect metal from rust? And nothing else can possibly work......

Many people here have testified that they have succesfully used natural products that have been around for hundreds if not thousands of years to protect their knives and muzzleloaders from rust with success.
Maybe they are wrong and there is some type of special rust that maybe only can be seen by the anointed ones that is infecting their gear?
Do they have rust issues and don't know it?
You seem pretty damn sure that no one else's products or methods can possibly work,,, unless they support the chemical industry. Should we send you our guns for inspection? Maybe you have a special light that you can use to take pictures and show us how rusty our guns really are?

I am certain that if our forefathers had Inlines, AR-15s, and automatics they would have used them.
Perhaps we should just toss our out dated muzzleloaders out....

.

.

okay, I will go sit in the corner now...

 

[William Lincoln]

The idea is to prevent rust by keeping H2O /oxygen from steel.
I have used coatings of whatever I had over the years.
Vaseline, axel grease and plain motor oil. Key thing is to
keep from humidity generally and by coatings specifically.
I stopped internal revolver corrosion by using the advice
of the Goon Revolver Guru and packing my piece's innards
with grease. That works and saved me much labor. His advice
of Mobile 1 grease is excellent. Dozens of times to our range
and at times, damp conditions. Taking the lazy way and just
cleaning barrel and cylinder+ nipples. Internals wiped clean
no corrosion. Yet the grease was speckled with powder residue.
Thanks for that advice from the Goons guns fella (45D).

 

[user 34300]

What makes you think nothing but the latest space age chemical compounds will work to protect metal from rust? And nothing else can possibly work...... Most antique muzzle loaders are rust buckets. The bores are rusted out. The outsides are normally pitted to the extreme. Sperm oil, lanolin, and possibly bear oil aside, they did not have much that was effective for the working man's gun. Thus their guns rusted away quickly. Petroleum changed that. Not "space age" anything, good old grease and effective oils that the average guy could afford.

This is a muzzle loading forum that deals with traditional guns. It is not a forum about historical reenacting. Maybe that is were I am getting confused. IF we are pretending that we are living in a log cabin and the year is 1800, I am thinking the computer is out of place.

Use whatever you want, particularly for modern guns. For my valuable antiques and guns I make I would never use anything that is not proven to work. I do not check my guns periodically, I use highly quality preservatives instead. Would a collector of expensive historic guns use olive oil or animal fat. Of curse not, it puts his investments at risk.

There is a segment of the ML community that I do not understand. Those who deliberately avoid cleaning their guns. I see it in the civil war community. To me that is bizarre. Maybe the insistence on ineffective historic and ineffective, preservatives is part of that mindset?? Not sure.......News flash, it is 2023, it is not 1800. Going out of the way to get HC ineffective products does not make sense to me.

 

[Mad L]

I don't use space tech stuff and I have not experienced a rust problem. But I do use Barricade and Hops#9, and I dont shove my gear away and wait days (or weeks) to clean it and I pull out any I have not used for extended periods and check them....I am no running a museum either.

People around here start threads asking:

"What lubes, oils, etc can I use that is NOT high tech, spaceage, hard to find - BECAUSE that stuff is Expensive?"

"What stuff can I buy Locally because my local XYZ down the street don't carry what you other guys say you use?"

...and other such inquiries

Uh, yes, if you have a local gas station or automotive supply you can get some stuff, and perhaps cheap.

People can put down their barrels whatever they wish; it's their gun.
Myself, I find it all crazy and actually rather funny to read what people do...I have Not rust issues, I have cleaned rust out of a couple 'gifted' pieces and now they too are rust free (yes I used some modern tech, and elbow grease to clean them up) and now I just do what I do....It works, i don't fret, i don't have nightmares, and actually: it is as simple as the muzzleloader tech is to begin with.

 

[user 34300]

I don't use space tech stuff and I have not experienced a rust problem. But I do use Barricade and Hops#9, and I dont shove my gear away and wait days (or weeks) to clean it and I pull out any I have not used for extended periods and check them....I am no running a museum either.

People around here start threads asking:

"What lubes, oils, etc can I use that is NOT high tech, spaceage, hard to find - BECAUSE that stuff is Expensive?"

"What stuff can I buy Locally because my local XYZ down the street don't carry what you other guys say you use?"

...and other such inquiries

Uh, yes, if you have a local gas station or automotive supply you can get some stuff, and perhaps cheap.

People can put down their barrels whatever they wish; it's their gun.
Myself, I find it all crazy and actually rather funny to read what people do...I have Not rust issues, I have cleaned rust out of a couple 'gifted' pieces and now they too are rust free (yes I used some modern tech, and elbow grease to clean them up) and now I just do what I do....It works, i don't fret, i don't have nightmares, and actually: it is as simple as the muzzleloader tech is to begin with.

One aspect that also effects what works is where you live. In Nevada it is very dry. What works there my not be the same as Alabama in the summer. I live in coastal California. Rust is not a big issue for me. I do not use "gun oil" either. Traditionally guns shops are getting scarce in m y area. Common products from the hardware store and auto parts store are excellent too. I found my last can of LPS-3 at a pilots supply shop at and airport. I see WD-40 "specialist" rust preventer tests well too. Auto parts stores have that product.

Yep, another "oil" thread. Based on the variety of responses it does not matter much for most shooters.

 

[Brokennock]

What makes you think nothing but the latest space age chemical compounds will work to protect metal from rust? And nothing else can possibly work...... Most antique muzzle loaders are rust buckets. The bores are rusted out. The outsides are normally pitted to the extreme. Sperm oil, lanolin, and possibly bear oil aside, they did not have much that was effective for the working man's gun. Thus their guns rusted away quickly. Petroleum changed that. Not "space age" anything, good old grease and effective oils that the average guy could afford.

This is a muzzle loading forum that deals with traditional guns. It is not a forum about historical reenacting. Maybe that is were I am getting confused. IF we are pretending that we are living in a log cabin and the year is 1800, I am thinking the computer is out of place.

Use whatever you want, particularly for modern guns. For my valuable antiques and guns I make I would never use anything that is not proven to work. I do not check my guns periodically, I use highly quality preservatives instead. Would a collector of expensive historic guns use olive oil or animal fat. Of curse not, it puts his investments at risk.

There is a segment of the ML community that I do not understand. Those who deliberately avoid cleaning their guns. I see it in the civil war community. To me that is bizarre. Maybe the insistence on ineffective historic and ineffective, preservatives is part of that mindset?? Not sure.......News flash, it is 2023, it is not 1800. Going out of the way to get HC ineffective products does not make sense to me.

I said nothing about not cleaning one's gun.

And in fact I think that is where the fallacy that traditional/old/natural metal protectant don't work comes in.
If one does not clean their gun correctly,, it probably doesn't matter what one uses to prevent rust,,,,,, over time,,,,,, it will fail.
Over time. Of course we do have evidence that short term,, guns used woth animal and vegetable fat lubes used on a dirty gun that is reloaded and left for a couple days don't have any issues.
So much for "ineffective."

So I guess everyone who has used something other than stuff they have to buy solely for the purpose of protecting their gun from rust,,,, and has reported that their guns aren't rusty are just a bunch of liars?