Naval Jelly

Gehazi

Gehazi

Joined
Jun 30, 2013
Messages
3,994
guys I was looking at this to use on my antiques, was curious if it would dissolve all petina or does it just go after active rust?-- hook me up with some wisdoms-- I have some new blades with lots of active rust and I want to preserve as much of the blade as possible
 
I used to use naval jelly 20 years ago on my 70 el camino I fixed up and a 66 ford 4x4 I restored,a few years before that,good stuff for battling rust,i have a can of rust converter by the same company as naval jelly, I used on some old bayonets ,turned the rust to a black oxide,cant find it anymore,good stuff though.stopped the rust in its tracks.seen some other brands of rust converter.its heavy duty,might destroy some patina, just my opinion.
 
I read naval jelly will destroy antique weapons. It's for cleaning barnacles off of ship hulls and whatnot so it's rather corrosive.
 
thanks for tips , items preserved ! = no naval jelly-- the spray on rust converter may be better, but still that may put false stains on it hmmmmm
 
I read some people just scratch the rust out with mineral oil and aluminum foil? I'm not sure how that works or what it'd do to patina.
 
you know I forgot,when I got my rusty old m48 8mm amd 7.65 mausers I found out on a gun forum a shiny nickel out of your pocket and a little oil cleans rust off the rusty barrels and recievers real good,i used 3in 1 oil or whatever oil I had around,try a nickel,it left the bluing intact,worked better then steel wool n oil.
 
I've used naval jelly before to take some rust off some steel furniture. It is really really nasty stuff. I wouldn't recommend using it on anything fragile. If you're going to use it, do it outside. It took the rust right off but didn't do anything to protect it from rusting again, so use some sort of protective coating afterwards.
 
Naval jelly contains Phosphoric acid so I don't think it would convert the rust to inactive, I think it actually eats away the rust affected area so I figure it would completely destroy the patina. Now I have never tried it myself, so this is just a comment saying I wouldn't try it on anything of value to you unless someone that has used it can talk about their successes with it.
 
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Yeah it didn't seem to have any sort of chemical reaction with the rust, it just ate right through it to the bare metal.
 
I've used and seen bargs nickel and oil trick. It works. I don't know what effect it would have on patina but since your just doing a small area at a time time you could monitor it closely and stop if it has a negative effect.

Birchwood Casey makes that rust and blue remover. It's not near as harsh as the jelly which it I agree nasty stuff. Again I don't know what it would do to patina.
 
Oh good. Your comment about not going forward popped up after I saved my comment. Glad you decided to continue looking for options. Here is an option that I have used as a quote on how I attempt to deal with rust on older "display" quality weapons and armor it comes from Ian Bottomley (Curator Emeritus of Oriental Collections at the Royal Armouries Museum based in Leeds).
Quote:
All, I thought I would just discuss details of a russet mask undergoing cleaning. The mask in question was very badly spotted with secondary rusting, some of which had developed into quite bad active rust encrustations. I used my usual mixture of boiled linseed oil thinned with white spirit in a ratio of approximately 50 / 50 - it isn't critical. The mixture was applied with a paint brush over a small area and allowed to soak in for a few minutes before rubbing the area with a chisel shaped piece of stag antler. The secondary rust comes off and forms a brown slurry which you need to wipe off with tissue. Some of the bad rusting was particularly stubborn and needed considerable pressure on the antler and repeated applications of oil to remove it. You can tell when you have managed to get the area clean because the antler slides smoothly over the surface. When finished it still looked a bit marked so I resorted to lightly rubbing the oiled surface with fine wire-wool. Again, more rust came off and gradually a fairly clean surface was obtained. I will give it a week or so for the oil to oxidise then I will finish it off with a coat of wax.
Ian Bottomley
 
hmmm, that is really great info shav, thanks-- I will try both nickel and antler chisel method, you guys will like this sword , been paying for it since before crimmas ( small payments) but is a really nice cojang from sumatra with a beautiful pamor
 
If you don't have antlers available, back when I used to collect antique coins I used sharpen bamboo chopsticks for digging encrustations out. It never damaged the coins and they tended to be made from very soft metals.
 
try soaking it in wd 40 first or pb blaster. that stuff will loosen rust. you can get some 0000 steel wool and lightly rub over the rust but do it lightly with plenty of wd 40 sprayed on the steel wool. it might even be better to work the steel wool on a clean flat piece of steel to break it in so to speak so it is not as aggressive.
 
I will certainly be looking forward to the pictures. Have you got good befores to compare with the afters? The nice thing about the antler is that it really does no damage to the metal at all. even 0000 steel wool has some random "scratchy" quality but the antler seems to sort of smooth the rusty bit out without causing any abrasion to the metal. It is strange but it really does a good job. Just something I found a couple years ago when wrestling with the how much to restore vs preservation question all collectors of old metal objects go through.
 
Another good option might be Kroil. It's a super fine penetrating oil. It would get under that rust and pop it out like popcorn.

A little bit of that stuff really helps stuck gun screws. Also excellent for cleaning up a leaded barrel. I think it's thinner than water.
 
Shavru said:
I will certainly be looking forward to the pictures. Have you got good befores to compare with the afters? The nice thing about the antler is that it really does no damage to the metal at all. even 0000 steel wool has some random "scratchy" quality but the antler seems to sort of smooth the rusty bit out without causing any abrasion to the metal. It is strange but it really does a good job. Just something I found a couple years ago when wrestling with the how much to restore vs preservation question all collectors of old metal objects go through.
Click to expand...

I have cleaned more than a few antique bayonets and firearms "I use to work at a military collectable firearm store." and I still do a few bayos from time to time.

Navel Jelly is only to be used on stuff that is so encrusted with rust that it has no value without clean up.
It eats everything!

The nickel trick works and the cleaner i use the most is Balistol. Also one other tid bit of wisdom I can impart to you is do not use steel wool! You are introducing more steel than will turn to rust. Get Scotch Brite pads at most hardware stores and get all three grits. Heavy, Brown color, Medium Red color and fine Blue or Grey. The colors vary by MFG.

Start with the finest and if it won't cut go to the next higher grit. Then go the other way so you use the finest grit last.
Also bring a large can of elbow grease.

Finally you can finish with Renaissance wax or just use floor wax or my personal choice is Automobile finish wax or Birch Casey Rifle & Gun wax.
Wax keeps out moisture and doesn't attract dust and dirt like oil can and will treat any wood grips on a stock or bayonet.
 
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excellent advice-- BLO has been my main preservative but I did buy some ren wax to secure the blades--- I found the problem with steel wool not only is extra oxidation but also it can actually damage the poorer quality metals used in most tribal ethnographic blades( pointed out by JW after I noticed strange marks on my mandau)
will follow your method as well, I got a good deal of the light corrosion cleaned without trouble using the antler/ chopstick method, I have several cans of ballistol and will see if it does better than the food grade mineral oil
 
Remember that if you do decide to use the wax not to do it over even relatively fresh oil. Wait for a week or more before you coat it or you may be trapping partially active liquid against your blade.

@Rhinoknives1. I agree the Scotchbrite pads are a great replacement for the fine wire-wool, notice he doesn't call it steel wool so not sure, he might be using brass wool instead. That is what I use. But I think I will switch to the scotchbrite, cheaper and easier to get and probably even less abrasive.
 
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