Rust, preventing and cleaning

[Ian]

I just wanted to add this again, since it came up at VARF this season, and Baron de Magnan was asking about where to get these.

Albion uses the grey ultra-fine Scotchbrite pads to do their finishing work, and so you can use them on Albions without changing the finish. They work great for armor as well.

Amazon has them here:  http://amzn.com/B000CQ6I7G

I will verify that not only are these great for swords, they are great for armor as well.  I use the same pads for all my stuff be it arms or armor.

Oh, in the custom chainmail rust prevention thing after soaking in a bucket of salt water everything eventually gave in to rusting.  The Fluid Film won with the least amount of rust, the drawback was it's oily to the touch but it's the safest compound and doesn't smell bad.

Eezox gun care did well with the rust, but is the most toxic and smells awful.

BreakFree CLP was mildly oily to the touch, and was in between the others as far as smell and safety.


At the end of the day, any 3 of those are excellent because virtually anything will rust after weeks submerged in salt water.  So pick what you like the best!  Remember, this test was only one application of the rust preventative, followed by nothing but humidity and water, and then finally when they wouldn't give way to that, weeks submerged in salt water.  That's so far beyond what your maille will experience through normal use, so those products work exceptionally well!

http://www.customchainmail.com/2014/05/29/final-results-rust-prevention-test-v2/

[Sir James A]

I second Sir Ian's comment regarding using them on armor. I have, and they work well. I've also used ultra-fine sanding sponges for armor.

I also have one can of Eezox and it's a very potent smell indeed.

[Sir Hancz]

For my armor, I use WD-40 to get rid of rust and fingerprints, then I use Renaissance Wax for protection. After i'm finished, my armor looks amazing, and is protected for months to come.

[Sir Nate]

I use WD-40, let that sit in for a minute or two, then I do my best to remove it. Then I add a coat of Beak free clp
If Im in a pinch I will just use Wd-40.
I will have to get some scotch brites and more Clp soon.

[Don Jorge]

I have to take off all the rust and re oil my knee and elbow cops pretty soon. For moderate rust and possible pitting would those scotch pads work or do I need something more abrasive?

[Ian]

I have to take off all the rust and re oil my knee and elbow cops pretty soon. For moderate rust and possible pitting would those scotch pads work or do I need something more abrasive?

You can't really remove pitting per se.  Pitting is permanent unless you want to start thinning out the steel.  The only way to remove pitting is to reduce the thickness of the steel by the amount of the depth of the actual pits.  So you could grind them out, but you're really just bringing the rest of the surface of your armor down to the depth of the pits.

Just make sure you stop the rust in the pits and then leave them alone.  I would think having a few pits is preferable to thinning your armor so that it doesn't look pitted.

As far as the surface rust, I would start with a scrubby, if it doesn't work try a green scrubby (lower grit than the gray ones), and then move to lower grit material as needed.  Then work your way back up to restore a nice finish.  Or you could go to a wire wheel to remove rust, but you will need to re-polish your armor with progressive grits.  The better your armor is polished, the smoother the steel's microsurface is, the smoother the microsurface, the less nooks and crannies for water to settle, thus lest rust.  So keeping your armor polished (I'm not talking mirror, just a satin polish) will help prevent rust too.  Try not to let it sit for a long time after wear without attending to it and you'll prevent pitting in the future.

[Sir James A]

^ everything that Sir Ian said.

To get rust out of the pitting, you could try a dremel wire wheel since they are small and won't change the finish on big sections of the armor. I've been using a wire wheel (fine or extra fine, I forgot which) for my armor, and went over the whole surface of everything to give it a uniform appearance. It works, and I clean mine enough that sometimes I don't have the time or patience to do it by hand. If you use the rougher wire wheels, it'll make the armor look like it's been scratched by demonic cats whose sole purpose in life is to destroy your armor; the fine/extra fine wheels are pretty good once broken in.

If you want to do it by hand, some CLR (in the *gray* bottle) is liquid and might get some of the rust out of the recesses of the pitting. Just be sure to thoroughly spray it out with WD-40 before re-oiling. A soft wire brush might help a little, but I've only had to clean pitted armor a few times; once on a suit that I neglected for literally 10 years (old SCA armor), and a few times on pieces I've bought that had some light pitting (which wasn't disclosed when I bought it).

[Sir Rodney]

I use the extra fine wire wheel only in extreme circumstances where rust has really settled in.   

Usually a good buffing (fully stitched polishing wheel) with a steel polishing compound (green) is all that is necessary.  (Northern Tools, Harbor Freight, inter webs)

Follow this up with a good rub down of CLP Break-free and you’re all set.  (Gander Mountain, Cabela’s, local gun store, inter webs)

[Henrik Granlid]

A picture from the aftermath after a very, very rainy yule-faire last weekend:



And people, don't forget to oil or wax your leather as well. We used a cheap but good leather oil to oil up any and all leathers, including chinstraps, latch-wraps and aventail leather as well as belts, handles and scabbards.

For the steel we started with the equivalent of WD-40 (I imagine at least, 5-56 is the Swedish miracle oil of everyday use) for gently rubbing off any surface rust and early oxidation from finger prints and rain. After we were happy with the results, we wiped them clean with thick paper towels and some rags and we put on proper, non-acidic weapons wax on the armour that was to be handled by the public the next day and buffed it back up to a slight shine. The swords were given a nice slathering of fresh oil and put in their scabbards to re-apply the fat from the inside and out and to create a nice, cosy environment for storage.

Unfortunately, I was not wise enough to take an "after" shot. And yes, I know of the massive ammount of completely inaccurate stuff, but even the scrap should be cared for.

[Ian]

Thought I would toss this in here since it goes along with the discussion.  Last weekend at Marching Through Time, Will showed me these cool little devices that some of you may be interested in.  They're small de-humidifiers, and they have an indicator on them that tell you when the gel absorption crystals inside is saturated.  It says it should take about 2-4 weeks depending on conditions for it to become saturated on the website.  Once it reaches that point you literally just plug it in to a wall outlet and in 8 hrs it dries out the gel crystals inside and it's ready to go again.  They claim these things can be re-used for up to 10 years and they're pretty inexpensive.  Toss one in your armor tub / chest / closet and help fight off corrosion!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LVN7BM0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3T8K1N3PPH96U&coliid=I3DNJPJ2XNNG8H

[Mike W.]

If they had them, they would have used them 

[Sir Edward]

If they had them, they would have used them 

I like it. A nice period solution.

That's very cool. I've seen them before but didn't know how they worked.

[Sir James A]

Tom Biliter had a similar thing at DoK 1 that I forgot to post about; it was different in that I think they were smaller than that looks, and instead of recharging it with electricity, you put it in the microwave (or oven? I forgot) and it would dry it back out to re-use. They seem very useful!

[Sampf]

Well this makes me seem very simplistic but I use marine oil. Rub it on keeps rust off for about one to two uses then re oil or do it in between battles.
I probably should use wax