Rusty blade cleaning?

[Effendi]

Interesting stuff lead.. it has no elastic properties at all, and acts more like a liquid at room temperature. It also behaves the same way as red hot iron..

This is a major issue when you try and replace lead bullets with brass or other metals.. lead distorts or breaks up when it hits something and does not bounce back. Other metals do not, and have a nasty habit of ricocheting considerable distances..

s'Why when shooting at steel plates (not advised to do it at less than 5'ish metres range) I use copper plated rather than copper jacketed bullets. Certainly focuses your attention when the targets effectively start shooting back at you.

I have personally observed the effects of various rounds hitting kevlar, observed, not experienced. When examined it was interesting to see that the lead bullets deformed into flat mushrooms and you could clearly see the weave of the fabric weave (K29 I vaguely recall) imprinted into the lead. Whereas copper jacketed rounds were still more or less the same shape as when fired.

A chap up in Telford made use of the squishability of lead compared to harder materials and developed a round to pierce soft armor. I simple terms he had a load of lead bullets cast with about a dozen of what looked like half inch long steel nails within the lead. The effect was that the soft armour would stop the lead as intended, but the dozen little nail like object passed straight through the weave into the [in our case] ballistic gel.

Back on topic though:

The chap at plumbing school used to go on about "moving the metal" and we, as typical students, used to give it "yeah, yeah". However, once you get a bit proficient at working with metal you start to notice the movement and gradually start to be able to control it quite well. I also managed to do it with copper sheet too to a limited extent - copper is workable, but become brittle so realistically you have to plan on folds, overlaps and soldered joints if using it for roofing. All 20 years ago now, I'd make a real pigs ear of if if I tried it now.

I bought my Jap waterstone for knife sharpening after watching fatty Mears showing their use, as he would say, "many summers ago".

 

[Oyibo]

The grey is the rust converted to oxide.

Polish it off.

I think it's more what @Lardbeast said - there wasn't much rust to start with because I had attacked it with emery cloth etc. It's now a rather cool SF grey anti-shine spokeshave. I have had a quick try with wire wool, but not very successfully.

It was rather satisfying watching the bubbles of weakness pour out of it in the citric acid though.

 

[Effendi]

Wouldn't bother stripping the casserole down. Give it a good clean with a bit of steel wool to get rid of any chunky nasties, rinse well and then get yourself two or three pounds of pork spek. Dice and chuck in the casserole dish on a medium heat on the stove to cook out the lard. Use lard for eggs, bacon and other tasty treats and scoff the kaaiings remaining once cool with a light sprinkle of salt.

Make sure the grease coats everything inside, wipe lightly with a cloth once seasoned and store somewhere dry.

I was given the top tip of spreading ketchup onto the bottom of stubborn to clean and gleam cookware. I find that cheap and nasty ketchup with more vinegar (acetic acid) content gives better results in helping remove lumpy bits and making copper bottoms (snigger) shinier.

 

[vvaannmmaann]

The baking powder paste didn’t touch it. I then tried some engine oil and one of my wife’s nail filing blocks. They are a sort of a melamine foam with a abrasive coating.
It came out ok.

 

[Spew]

I use a number of derusting techniques that depend on what is rusted, and how much..

1. If you have what I call "sugar rust" where the rusting is deep and has started to de-laminate, you have lost metal which cannot be replaced.. you need to get to the bottom of the pitting and remove the rust layers above, otherwise the process will just keep going. Rust is auto catalytic in that the rust will cause more rust to form. How you attack the sugar rust is down to what surface you want to end up with or how much of the original surface you want to recover. You may need to revert to quite destructive processes to remove the scale, I tend to use a fine file or a fibreglass brush which is reasonably controllable.
2. I still have carbon steel kitchen knives and pocket knives as you can get a decent edge on them, however they do stain. I have a small pot at the side of the kitchen sink with an old wine cork in it. I used to use Vim or one of the old scouring powders, but now I have a blob of "Astonish" pot cleaner in the bottom of the pot. You just get some on the end of the wine cork, lay the stained blade flat on the side of the sink and rub it with the end of the cork. It brings it up clean in seconds.. a quick run under the tap and dry with the dishcloth... done!
3. Things with a metal finish like bluing on guns that have rust spots can be treated with fine oil and 0000 wire wool. You can't get it in most shops.. I get it from the internet! It will remove surface rust without touching the finish. Do not try using anything like Scotchbrite on these surfaces, even the softest grades will strip it off..
4. Old blued surfaces will go a sort of chocolate brown over time.,, This is caused by the oxidation of the blue ferric oxide to red ferrous oxide. You can reverse this by boiling it in plain water for half an hour or so...

Be very careful of dunking stuff in chemicals, both proprietary cleaners and the likes of vinegar or molasses. Some of these can have very long term destructive effects on certain materials. Most of the "Instant restoration" vids on Youtube are moronic. Good restoration takes time and research if you are not going to do more damage than you started out with. Make sure you know what it is you are dealing with before you start..

Once you have restored whatever it is you have de-rusted, than perhaps you might consider trying to stop it rusting again.. A coat of wax polish will provide protection.. I use Renaissance wax, which is specifically designed for conserving both wood and metal...

Thanks for the tip on recolouring the blueing, as parts of my 1969 Parker Hale have turned brownish, still in good condition ,but doesn’t match the black blueing.

 

[HE117]

Thanks for the tip on recolouring the blueing, as parts of my 1969 Parker Hale have turned brownish, still in good condition ,but doesn’t match the black blueing.

The alternative to boiling if it is too big is to steam it in a length of pipe over a pot of boiling water...

This is what I do with barrels and actions.

If there is wear on the metal I use Laurel Mountain Forge browning solution between steaming to induce surface rusting and restore/deepen the blue. You can get it from Brownell UK and is by far the best I have found for slow rust bluing and browning. There is no need to degrease and it is far less picky (and safer!) than the older "eye of newt" concoctions..

 

[Meat and Two Veg]

Molasses - Initially I thought his was a wind up, I mean Molasses, really?

Had some large hand made chain links that I wanted to clean up but as a result of the marine environment in which they were used and stored were significantly corroded.

Happened to mention this to a near neighbour of mine who is a metal basher par excellence who hen passed he tip on to me.

Took of the loose flake with a bronze brush then covered them with molasses for a month, took them out, washed them off and colour me surprised but they were rust free with "blued" patina.

Apparently some type of electro - chemical reaction.

 

[HE117]

Molasses - Initially I thought his was a wind up, I mean Molasses, really?

Had some large hand made chain links that I wanted to clean up but as a result of the marine environment in which they were used and stored were significantly corroded.

Happened to mention this to a near neighbour of mine who is a metal basher par excellence who hen passed he tip on to me.

Took of the loose flake with a bronze brush then covered them with molasses for a month, took them out, washed them off and colour me surprised but they were rust free with "blued" patina.

Apparently some type of electro - chemical reaction.

I have heard of this as well.. molasses contains both acids and some very strong enzimes..

I think it would be excellent for badly corroded stuff like anchor chains etc, however I would be careful with things where finish, and particularly strength is a factor. Anchor chain was often made from wrought iron which is very tough and resists corrosion even in its bare form because of the slag inclusions. You need to be more careful with cast or steel object as corrosive surface treatments can lead to stress cracking and the removal of stuff like case hardness..

 

[LepetitCaporal]

I found today an Opinel 8 that I thought I had lost or was stolen.
Sadly the blade now has some light rusting. Grandad would have put engine oil into a jar, and pushed the blade in and out of that to clean it.
Is there something better?

See my posts in the pen knife thread
All Opinels are now made in Inox (stainless steel or carbon (edition limited)
Your Opinel is probably a 1980 is
We (legionnaires), have/ had the# 8 and it would rust very quickly
The reason why you must clean and oil the blade
Bet you the handle is made from beech?
For some reason, I cannot post links or pics
Like i said, see the pen knife thread
We, used cigarette silver paper to reduce the rust on the blade and oiled it with our rifle cleaning kit
Maybe a Brillo pad would do
Am going to bump the knife thread just for you
Hope you appreciate
L.P.C.

Go pick up a whetstone from a car boot sale. Have a look at the video below. It seems the difference between straight and curved blades is that for the latter you move the edge of the blade in the shape of the curve to maintain and even edge.

At a 22 degree angle is recommended