Advice to remove rust

[Angel Farré]

Just purchased an STG 44, but it has some minor surface rust all over it and the magazine and I want to have some advice about how to remove it and how to prevent it resurface.

Thanks

Angel

[Johnny Peppers]

On blued steel surfaces 4/0 steel wool and oil does a good job without harming the blue. Don't get aggressive and change steel wool pads often as the iron oxide that has formed is very hard and is abrasive if left to build up on the pad. Even using a soft cloth with oil becomes abrasive when impregnated with the iron oxide.

This does not work good on phosphate finished surfaces as the phosphate is a built up finish, and the rust is on the metal under the phosphate.

[tiapat]

Surface Rust

If you can find a ball of STAINLESS steel wool, use that. It does not affect the blueing like normal steel wool. You don't even need a lubricant. It's amazing stuff. Regular steel works, but over-zealous fingers and pressure can harm the blue. Stainless wool is from cuttings on a lathe, and it has very sharp cutting edges, although will not cut your fingers.....Any sort of oil works well for preservative, however I use Johnsons paste wax for wood and metal.

[Johnny Peppers]

Plain old steel wool has been used for over 100 years to remove the rust from the rust bluing process, and then to speed things up they went to fine wire polishing wheels. Neither removed the bluing.

[bodes]

On blued steel surfaces 4/0 steel wool and oil does a good job without harming the blue. Don't get aggressive and change steel wool pads often as the iron oxide that has formed is very hard and is abrasive if left to build up on the pad. Even using a soft cloth with oil becomes abrasive when impregnated with the iron oxide.

This does not work good on phosphate finished surfaces as the phosphate is a built up finish, and the rust is on the metal under the phosphate.

I wouldn't use a petroleum based product on any German wartime phosphate finish, as I've seen it turn it to a brown color before.....Bodes

[bodes]

If you can find a ball of STAINLESS steel wool, use that. It does not affect the blueing like normal steel wool. You don't even need a lubricant. It's amazing stuff. Regular steel works, but over-zealous fingers and pressure can harm the blue. Stainless wool is from cuttings on a lathe, and it has very sharp cutting edges, although will not cut your fingers.....Any sort of oil works well for preservative, however I use Johnsons paste wax for wood and metal.

I would think brass would be more forgiving, as it would be softer than the stainless.....Oil with a penny works pretty good as well......Bodes

[August]

I have not had to remove large areas of rust, but I agree with Bodes that a pure copper Penney with a bit of oil on rust spots works wonders - no harm to the bluing.

[Johnny Peppers]

The Big 45 Frontier Cleaning pads work very well, but are too coarse to get into tight places, which the 4/0 steel wool can. The Big 45 pad is an alloy of stainless steel, nickel silver, monel, and zinc which is soft enough not to scratch the steel. The strands are made with a scraping edge to remove the rust. 4/0 steel wool is made from a very soft steel alloy and won't scratch the steel.