RUST

[ticeetal]

Greetings,

I am the owner of a mild steel helm which is plagued with rust. I clean it with solvents, buff it to a shine, a day later its rusted again. What would you recommend to get rid of the rust, or at least slow it down. I’ve tried keeping it oiled, but this is a problem with my fighting garb getting all messed up not to mention getting oil in your eyes when while fighting.

Is there something I’m missing in the upkeep of this helm. What are steps others take to keep their gear from falling prey to rust.

Matthew

[Stefan ap Llewelyn]

I paint the inside of my armour - it seems to work.

[earnest carruthers]

What oil are you using? I guess a non-drying oil.

You could try using a varnish medium, which was a way of painting over metal, it hardens forming a crust.

if not then boiled linseed oil wiped onto your armour left out in hot sun for a few days, this will oxidise the oil and bond it to the lid and not colour it so much.

Also your high gloss shine will mean less oil can be keyed into the surface, so maybe less shine, more surface for the oil, ironically the shinier the less rusty it should get.

I do know of an armourer that used turtle wax on his personal harness, seemed to work.

[Oswyn_de_Wulferton]

Polishing Floor Wax. It will seal the metal and keep it from rusting. Also try to handle it as little as possible and wipe it down after every time you handle it, particularly after fighting.

[Konstantin the Red]

Another vote for Turtle Wax -- any auto wax with lots of carnauba in the blend should do you well.

[Hew]

I clean it with solvents, buff it to a shine, a day later its rusted again.

When you say "buff it to a shine", do you mean wiping it off with a dry cloth, or actually using buffing compound on a wheel?

[Saint-Sever]

Johnson's Paste Wax is the cheapest and easiest way to dramatically reduce rusting. Since you have an untreated helmet, do thusly;

Clean the rust out of the inside with naval jelly, then paint it.

Clean outside of the helmet of all the rust, once more. Polish it with fine and extra-fine grit sandpaper until the surface is smooth-- no visible scratch marks.

Put a middlin'-heavy coat of wax over the entire outside surface. Let it dry. Buff it off with an inside-out pillowcase.

Repeat 3 times.

Put a very light coat of wax on, turn the pillowcase back the right way, and put the helmet away.

The next time you fight, leave the wax coating on, if you don't need to look shiney. If it's a tournament, give a quick buff with the pillowcase to get the thin coat of wax off before fighting. Afterwards, put another thin coat on, before putting the helm away inside the pillowcase.

After about 2 or 3 months of this, the pillowcase is so impregnated with wax that it inhibits rust just from the helmet being inside it. You only have to rewax the thing every couple of weeks, after that.

M.

[Klaus the Red]

Turtle Wax is a teeny little bit acidic, so beware- I left a coat on my bascinet for several weeks of non-use, and because it had gone on in a sort of squiggly pattern (being liquid from a bottle), it left a very faint grey pattern etched into the steel when I finally buffed it off. Very annoying. My current poison of choice is Butcher's Boston Polish, which is carnauba-based. It's easier to apply evenly to metal than Turtle Wax due to its thickness--it's the consistency of shoe polish--and also works for softening and preserving leather.

As for shining the metal- if you want to maintain a shine, really polish the hell out of your armor, preferably piece by piece before it's assembled so you can get all the areas that will be unreachable once everything is riveted together, such as under the lames. The higher the polish, the less surface area the metal has, microscopically speaking, for rust to get a purchase on. I do it on my bench grinder and go from 80 up through 400 grit greaseless compound from Caswell Plating, then finish up with McMaster-Carr grey cut-and-color compound. My own personal armorers cut me a pretty good deal on new kit because I've started to do all the polishing and assembly myself, which they are happy to leave to me; getting something to a mirror finish is an awful lot of work, but I've got a real polishing fetish and don't mind at all.

Klaus

[James Arlen Gillaspie]

Somebody needs to track down some period recipes. Many museums and collectors these days swear by good ol' Simoniz. My own favorite for field use is 'Fluid Film', sold at John Deere dealers. It's not a wax, never polymerizes, needs only an imperceptible residue to keep working, and tends to lift existing rust right off the surface. Some Floridians turned me on to it, and if it works there...

[earnest carruthers]

" Somebody needs to track down some period recipes."

Chicken fat

[Saint-Sever]

Somebody needs to track down some period recipes. Many museums and collectors these days swear by good ol' Simoniz. My own favorite for field use is 'Fluid Film', sold at John Deere dealers. It's not a wax, never polymerizes, needs only an imperceptible residue to keep working, and tends to lift existing rust right off the surface. Some Floridians turned me on to it, and if it works there...

Does it get all over everything, like oils do?

M.

[Nick D]

Renaissance Wax does wonders. My metals instructor put it on a piece he did several years ago, and it still looks exactly like it did the day he applied it.

[Merlin the Mad]

I asked this on the "Maille dilemma" thread:

Is it possible that soaking in gasoline then igniting and burning the gas off, creates a rust resistant surface? (Saint_Sever, the wag , need NOT reply).

[Gethin]

Where would one find naval jelly?

[Klaus the Red]

Right next to the naval peanut butter, of course. Slightly deeper in the naval.

Sorry, couldn't resist. A good hardware store should have some. Be advised that it's hideously caustic and one should have on rubber gloves and safety goggles while dealing with it at all times...

[Oswyn_de_Wulferton]

It is usually by the paint, sandpaper, and DUCK TAPE. Now you know exactly where to go.

[Patrick Kelly]

If you want the shiny look Renaissance Wax or auto wax would be the way to go, otherwise I'd paint it.