Hello,
Have owned my 1954 Tula SKS for a few months. Love it.
Recently I had a very strange issue while cleaning.
I'm sorry in advance that this post is going to be a bit of a story, but i would appreciate any feedback people might have.
I am fairly meticulous in my cleaning, cleaning everything each time i shoot.
I usually use Hoppe's 9 solvent/oil as well as hot water with a touch of detergent, occasionally i use a little bit of mineral spirits.
The only part i don't fully clean each time i shoot is i do not take the recoil spring assembly apart and clean the spring guides.
This has worked wonderfully the 10 or so times i've cleaned it.
Last week I put a few hundred rounds of corrosive through it at the range so i did a detailed clean when i got home, even disassembled the recoil spring assembly.
There were some really stubborn buildups on the face of the bolt and bolt carrier. So i soaked the bolt, bolt carrier, gas piston, and spring guides for a little bit in mineral spirits (the only solvent i had enough of on hand to actually soak the parts).
I then placed those parts in hot water with some soap. After about 1 minute in the hot water i noticed a slight yellowish tinge to the bolt and bolt carrier. I removed them from the hot water and within 30 seconds they were completely covered in light yellow/redish surface rust.
The spring guides and gas piston were nearly completely stripped of their bluing, the bluing was removed quicker and cleaner than anything i have seen used for the purpose of removing bluing.
My assumption was that there had to be some sort of chemical contamination, the parts were fine until they went into the hot water. I wanted to remove any chemical contaminants as quickly as possible so i rinsed the parts with near boiling clean water... the oxidation turned grayish/black and got worse. I scrubbed the parts and used 0000 steel wool to take off the surface oxidation, then oiled them heavily.
All in all everything came out OK and nothing was permanently damaged (aside from the loss of bluing on some parts).
What i'm wondering is if anyone has ever heard of this happening? everyone i have talked to is stumped.
I'd appreciate your feedback, thanks
Have owned my 1954 Tula SKS for a few months. Love it.
Recently I had a very strange issue while cleaning.
I'm sorry in advance that this post is going to be a bit of a story, but i would appreciate any feedback people might have.
I am fairly meticulous in my cleaning, cleaning everything each time i shoot.
I usually use Hoppe's 9 solvent/oil as well as hot water with a touch of detergent, occasionally i use a little bit of mineral spirits.
The only part i don't fully clean each time i shoot is i do not take the recoil spring assembly apart and clean the spring guides.
This has worked wonderfully the 10 or so times i've cleaned it.
Last week I put a few hundred rounds of corrosive through it at the range so i did a detailed clean when i got home, even disassembled the recoil spring assembly.
There were some really stubborn buildups on the face of the bolt and bolt carrier. So i soaked the bolt, bolt carrier, gas piston, and spring guides for a little bit in mineral spirits (the only solvent i had enough of on hand to actually soak the parts).
I then placed those parts in hot water with some soap. After about 1 minute in the hot water i noticed a slight yellowish tinge to the bolt and bolt carrier. I removed them from the hot water and within 30 seconds they were completely covered in light yellow/redish surface rust.
The spring guides and gas piston were nearly completely stripped of their bluing, the bluing was removed quicker and cleaner than anything i have seen used for the purpose of removing bluing.
My assumption was that there had to be some sort of chemical contamination, the parts were fine until they went into the hot water. I wanted to remove any chemical contaminants as quickly as possible so i rinsed the parts with near boiling clean water... the oxidation turned grayish/black and got worse. I scrubbed the parts and used 0000 steel wool to take off the surface oxidation, then oiled them heavily.
All in all everything came out OK and nothing was permanently damaged (aside from the loss of bluing on some parts).
What i'm wondering is if anyone has ever heard of this happening? everyone i have talked to is stumped.
I'd appreciate your feedback, thanks
