It's a penetrating oil that's been around a long time. My grandfather (a mechanic) swore by the stuff.
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4-0 Steel Wool and What for Rusty Shotgun?
- Thread starter letusbuyyourcar
- Start date
It's a penetrating oil that's been around a long time. My grandfather (a mechanic) swore by the stuff.
I wound up using PB Blaster and soaking it overnight in a foil pan. I got a good bit of the surface rust gone with the 0000 steel wool after it soaked all night. There's still some spots here and there but I wasn't looking for perfection. I also didn't wanna completely strip it.
I have a generic steel heat shield that's going on it as well as a sling swivel from an SKS that's gonna be welded to the bottom of the barrel by a local shop that already did another one on an old Stevens 16 gauge single barrel a while back.
I guess I'm kinda going for a Frankengun sorta Vietnam model 77 type of look. Not trying to clone one at all just that kinda look if that makes any sense.
The wood cleaned up pretty decent with just 3M sanding sponges. Planning on using the boiled linseed oil on them.
In my experience, this is exactly NOT how to do it. The oil keeps the steel wool from marring the finish, especially on a nice blued finish. I've found out the hard way what happens if you use insufficient oil. It's easy to irreparably scuff a finish, by using no, or too little, oil.
Well I don't quite get what you mean. It was soaked pretty good in PB Blaster when I scrubbed it with the steel wool. I guess that's not the type of oil you're referring to but it IS pretty damn oily overall. And comparing the before and after pics I think it did more than satisfactory at least for MY intended purpose.
As far as marring the metal surface I can't tell that it did at all. Remember that when I started on it the surface was as rough looking and feeling as reptile hide. It's far from perfect now but way smoother than it was before.
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That came up nice. Bananas
Nah, clean dry 0000 steel wool won't scratch the finish. The rust that builds up on the steel wool will scratch the finish though, which is why it's important to constantly rotate the steel wool always using a clean section of it.
I walked into my landlord's shop a few years ago and saw an old fridge drawer in the floor with a Tokarev in the bottom submerged in stinky ass ATF . It was there for a few weeks and now I know why.
Nothing complicated, just apply nearly any type oil ( I've even used WD40) directly to the area to be scrubbed, then carefully abrade the area with extra-fine 0000 steel wool, reapplying fresh oil, as necessary ( basically, keeping the area wet).
A month or three ago, I was touching up an old veteran S&W revolver I'd just traded into, but I let one area get thin on the oil, and I scuffed the finish a bit. So, I know for a fact that plain,dry steel wool will quickly mar a gun finish, while the application of oil prevents this. I didn't make this up myself, it was a trick I picked up on a gun forum, and if done correctly, I've found it to work surprisingly well.
If you're cleaning an old machete, axe head, etc, then grind away,,it doesn't much matter. But for a firearm finish, use oil, or learn the hard way
