Rust on buffer cloth!

[brooTool]

I was cleaning an old shotgun I was given by my uncle and after I cleaned it I hit it with my silicon buffing cloth. After I was done with everything I was putting my cleaning kit away and saw some brown rust on my cloth; I was wondering if that would transfer rust to any of my other firearms and cause rust issues?

[DoddRod]

It shouldn't. My understanding is that metals oxidizing is generally a result of the conditions they are kept in not contact with other oxidized metals.
Note: not a metallurgist

[brooTool]

thanks

[krwada]

It depends on what caused the rust in the 1st place.

If the rust was caused by plain old moisture and oxidation and not protecting the metal ... then the short answer is no.

If the rust was caused by some corrosive agent such as salt or salt spray ... then yes.

So ... the answer depends. If it is plain old rust ... no. But if it got rusty due to contact with something corrosive then yes ... the corrosive agent is most likely in with the rust.

[brooTool]

ok cool thanks. It was just plain old rust, when I received the firearm is was dry as a desert LOL! No protectant or oils on it at all.

[colossians323]

If you already have touched your other guns with it, it is too late and all your guns are infected, and will have to be refinished or sold at a deep discount. I offer to take them from you at a deep discount since they will all have to be refinished

[The Gleam]

My thought on this is; what is the cost of a cloth versus the value of a gun?

Is it possible there is an agent of acids of some kind, or more likely - salts in the wood stock - that caused that undetected surface rust in the first place? And now you have it on your cloth to spread to other guns?

Toss the cloth, or wash it and reapply silicone/CLP soak.

You just never know what can cause this kind of thing; something you said that was VERY telling of your potential situation - "I was cleaning an old shotgun" - and is it a Browning or FN from the late 1960's or early 1970's? Is it a Superposed?

Have you ever heard of the practice of drying stock-blanks by packing them in salt-blocks that became a nightmare, now known as "salt-wood" stocks? That when used on those guns, while the water was sucked out the salt that also leached into the wood subsequently caused severe rusting to receiver, barrels, and even hardware? Literally, salt in the wood; I believe it was actually Calcium Chloride, the same kind of stuff used to salt roads on the east cost and mid-west.

Click on the link for one of the most comprehensive articles about it - and read on - even if this is not your gun. It's interesting info for anyone interested in older guns:

http://www.artsgunshop.com/Salt/Salt_Article-Page-1.htm

Browning was enjoying great sales in the 60’s and they were supplying wood to the FN plant in Belgium as we had a ready supply of it here in the states. The problem was they could not supply enough to meet the demand. The tried and proven method of curing wood was with kiln drying. It removed the right amount of moisture which seasoned the wood and made it useful as a gun stock. The wood was put in large kilns and would remain there for several months to get the moisture content to the desired level. The bottom line was that it worked well, but it just took too long and thus the gun manufacturing process was being held up while waiting for the wood to dry. A new process was being introduced in the country by which wood could have salt packed around it and thus the moisture would quickly be removed and the wood was ready to be sent to Belgium. As old Browning retiree recently informed me that one of his jobs was to go out into the field and locate cured gunstock blanks. He visited with a supplier in California and Missouri and he was taken on a tour of these facilities. He told me how surprised he was to see pallets of wood blanks stacked high, and amazingly enough they had salt packed between each layer of blanks. Water was running from the blanks as moisture was being pulled from the wood. The suppliers informed him that this greatly accelerated the curing process and they could supply as many of these blanks as was need. It seemed harmless enough.Deals were made and soon many blanks of wood were on the way to the plant at FN. Production increased and everyone was happy but trouble was around the corner. This salt curing process began in 1966 and continued until around 1971. In those few short years thousands of Browning’s were fit with salt cured wood.

[Gunsmith Dan]

Rust is actually harder than the parent metal.

So if you have a cloth full of rust you have basically a sanding cloth now that will damage your finish ...... get a new cloth and better yet make sure to check why the other gun had that much surface rust.