Guest
How do you keep the metal (in the white) without fear of rust? Cruising around the Internet I have seen many rifles that were not blued or browned but looked like polished stainless steel, how is it done? :: :: ::
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Doc Arroyo
Greybeard
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Roaddog-
I like the lock to be left in the white. I find them easier to keep clean, and they quickly let you know if you haven't been doing your job! It seems that the smoother the surface is, the less corrosion will stick.
I will polish to about 320 or 400 grit wet-dry. I use jeweler's rouge and the buffing wheel if I feel like going over the top! My Dremel will also get a workout with the little pumice wheels and the buffing wheels.
One of these days I will build a colonial transitional rifle, and the barrel will be left in the white to age gracefully. I polished the lock on my fowler 15 years ago, and it has the nicest light grey finish on it now.
I like the lock to be left in the white. I find them easier to keep clean, and they quickly let you know if you haven't been doing your job! It seems that the smoother the surface is, the less corrosion will stick.
I will polish to about 320 or 400 grit wet-dry. I use jeweler's rouge and the buffing wheel if I feel like going over the top! My Dremel will also get a workout with the little pumice wheels and the buffing wheels.
One of these days I will build a colonial transitional rifle, and the barrel will be left in the white to age gracefully. I polished the lock on my fowler 15 years ago, and it has the nicest light grey finish on it now.
On my "White" rifles I wipe them them with Ballistol (Non-Aerosol) before & after a hunt. Used to use BreakFree on them & it does it good too. Actually a polished rifle is easier to keep up than a just unpolished one, because there are no large pores open to trap water or moisture, and what small ones that are there are filled with oil.
Also on a polished one if you get a stain you just rub the stain with a lil 1500 or 2000 paper & it is gone.... reoil & it is back to where ya started.
Also on a polished one if you get a stain you just rub the stain with a lil 1500 or 2000 paper & it is gone.... reoil & it is back to where ya started.
Guest
The Japanese spent 1000 years learning how to preserve bare steel (usually after it had been drenched in blood) and their method is basically as follows. They used oil of cloves or oil of camellia as the rust preventive and a powder called uchika as an abrasive. Near as I can tell, uchika is very finely powdered pumice stone, somewhere on the order of 3000 grit. The sword was already polished so the samural only needed to preserve it. The oil was applied, the dust pounced on with some kind of puff ball, then coarse paper was wrapped around the blade and pulled forward from tang to tip. The blade was wiped with a very soft cloth and reoiled. A freshly polished blade needed to have this done every few days but once the oil started leaving a residue, it was only required once or twice a year (excepting exposure to regular combat). You might try oil of cloves as a traditional rust preventive - it was likely around in the 18th century.
