Need help to fix some barrel rust

Pretty standard would be dismantle without messing up the screw slots (use hollow ground or flat sided screwdriver, ground to fit); then goop on oil - gun oil, motor oil, then buff with very fine - 0000 - steel wool. Will clean a lot of surface stuff away, but might be pits in metal at the fore-arm tip?
 
Potashminer said:
Pretty standard would be dismantle without messing up the screw slots (use hollow ground or flat sided screwdriver, ground to fit); then goop on oil - gun oil, motor oil, then buff with very fine - 0000 - steel wool. Will clean a lot of surface stuff away, but might be pits in metal at the fore-arm tip?
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Won't this remove the bluing? I think there will be light pitting.
 
Try it on something else that is blued - you will find that it will not remove bluing, but the rust, particularly what I see by the forearm, may have already done that for you. Some people have used copper or brass to scrape off rust (a penny, the edge of a cartridge case rim), then use copper removing bore cleaner to clean off the copper / brass marks. I have never done that - just oil and 0000 steel wool. What can I say - advice received on an Internet forum is worth exactly what you paid for it!!
 
Just be sure you are using 0000 steel wool, not 000, 00, or 0. Modern makers might use a description like "super fine". My last bag purchased in local hardware store is "Rhodes American" brand - "Super Fine" Grade #0000 on the face of the plastic bag package. An older package of coarser stuff on the shelf is "Bull Dog" brand - a cardboard box - just says "Medium" on the box - is no finer than 000, possibly even 00 grade.
 
Any chemical product that "washes off" red rust, will also likely "wash off" bluing, since that is what bluing is - a form of "rust" - actually black rust. Like white vinegar - will wash bluing right off, which is handy to know when re-buing an item!!
 
Your comment that there will be "light pitting" - I know of no "do-it-at-home" way to fix pitting. Sometimes can be draw filed out enough to disguise the hollowed out area; sometimes needs to be ground or drilled out, then filled with TIG, then re-finished and re-blued. Key issue for at-home is to stop it ASAP - that means oil. Penetrating oil, transmission fluid, synthetic motor oil, gun oil - all are known to work to stop rusting. I have tried many cold-blue "touch up" products - Birchwood Casey Super Blue, Brownells Oxpho-Blue work when used exactly as per their instructions, but I have never found a way to get them "blended" into existing bluing - always end up with different sheen or colour - can be overlooked if well oiled, but all I have tried are visible on close inspection.

That is what I find amazing about "pristine" old rifles - say pre-WWI sporter mauser rifle - no evidence of re-blue or touch-up anywhere - that means 100 or more years of owners were taking care of the thing - now it is my turn.
 
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Ok so I oiled it and used extra fine steel wool but there was some rust/pitting so I used a buffing wheel and took it down to the white. I am actually happy with it like this, it looks much nicer.

I have not heard anything good about cold blue. Any suggestions to blend the repair?

Here are pics before and after buffing;

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bqqJyme9XE1A96r19
 
If you did not remove the wood stock, you will have no idea what is going on under there. For cold bluing, warming with a hair dryer is good idea - read and follow the instructions exactly - not all "cold blues" are applied the same - some get rinsed in water, some flooded with oil. Some applied with saturated patch or swab, some with just barest hint of chemical left on the patch (most of it squeezed out). For very small touch up area, I have used Q-tip cotton swabs; have also used cotton bore patches and cotton "puff" balls to apply. Pour small amount from container into a small cap - dip swab into cap, not into original container - don't want to contaminate original container with stuff that the cold blue will lift off the metal.
 
Reviewing your pictures. You appear to have area around the pits taken to shiny "bright", but within the pits is still dark - I suspect that you still have rust in the bottom of the pits. That is what is so insidious about dealing with pits - the rust is down in there! I think you will find that rust is some Fe (iron) atoms from the parent material, combining with O (oxygen). Red rust - FeO2 - has larger volume than parent, so "erupts", creating pits, if let work long enough. Bluing, as I understand it, is another form of "rust" - aka magnetite - Fe3O4 - or very similar - it has very similar volume to parent, so does not pit - old school "bluing" was allowing red rust to occur, then turning some of it into magnetite by boiling, then carding off anything loose and repeating. It becomes a matrix to hold oils, etc. to prevent parent material from rusting further. So want to isolate that parent material from oxygen / moisture - so rusting does not continue - not a "fix", just preventing it from getting worse. Grit blasting, drilling, filing are all ways to remove the rust damage (the "pits") but usually require re-filling with matching material, then refinish, etc.
 
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gunsaholic said:
Get yourself a Big 45 pad. They are made to use on bluing as they won't harm it unless maybe you go crazy. I have used one several times on bluing that had rust.
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gunsaholic is correct, get a Big 45 pad, it is soft metal scouring pad that does not harm bluing but removes rust. I recently ordered a couple out of the US and they arrived within a week. They work extremely well and it cleaned up a rifle I was having a lot of trouble with.

http://www.big45.com/
 
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