General Shop Practice

[Jim Cook]

The thread about rusty taps caught my attention.  

I would like comments about general shop practice of muzzle loaders.

Almost every area of the country has had long periods of time that has been both hot and high in humidity this summer. If you are trying to bed a barrel or inlet a lock you sure don't want to spread oil and grease on a new stock.
 
When you go down to the shop in the morning, you will see rusty finger prints and the beginning signs of rust.

1.) When you leave your metal parts in the shop at the end of the day do you coat them with a preservative?
2.) What do you use to clean the parts when you start in the morning?
3.) What did they do in the old shops? And don't tell me they left the dehumidifier on all night.  

[Mike Brooks]

Inleting black on the stock hurts nothing. Rust on any metal doesn't hurt anything either, as long as you oiled the bore everything is fine.

[flehto]

Some people have more acidity in their perspiration and therefore leave rusty finger prints. I don't have that problem at all and don't lube steel parts and the little rust that does accumulate is removed by the final drawfiling before browning. A good lube to use that doesn't penetrate the wood is Oxyoke 1000...it has  a waxy consistency and is applied w/ a saturated rag.....Fred

[Bill of the 45th]

The biggest problem I have had is with chemicals, as in leaving the swab from browning, or A/F laying on the shop bench, and not disposing of it right away.  It'll rust up every piece of iron in the shop overnight, but that does give you a chance to clean and sharpen every tool you have, as penitence for insulting the ghosts of gun builders  of the past.

Bill

[oldiemkr]

Flehto made me think of a guy I worked with years ago in the first machine shop I was in.

This guy had what we called "the golden touch". Every piece of metal {ferrous} he touched was golden by the next morning. The parts he worked on, the machine handles, mics or veniers etc. And it was every day no matter the humidity.

I know not many folks think a lot of wd40 but for just overnight it will prevent the haze of rust from the humidity. We used CRC 336 back then with the same results.

[rich pierce]

To keep things from rusting longer term I rub them with toilet ring wax.  This works great for waterproofing a gun for wet day shooting too, and is cheap as can be.  Softer and easier to apply than beeswax.  Not HC, I know.

[smshea]

To keep things from rusting longer term I rub them with toilet ring wax.  This works great for waterproofing a gun for wet day shooting too, and is cheap as can be.  Softer and easier to apply than beeswax.  Not HC, I know.

Man after my own heart! and here I thought that was my own personal secret answer to cosmoline.....Don't know exactly what kind of wax it is, but Ive sure found allot of uses for it.

[Jim Filipski]

To keep things from rusting longer term I rub them with toilet ring wax.  This works great for waterproofing a gun for wet day shooting too, and is cheap as can be.  Softer and easier to apply than beeswax.  Not HC, I know.

And Rich if one were to use "old used Toilet ring wax" that would disguise all the modern smells on the flintlock correct!

[Jim Cook]

I'm assuming you should put a “Do not use” sign on the toilet while you are using the wax ring. 

When I started this thread I didn't expect that answer.
The day isn't lost, I learned something. My friend who has bees now doesn't have to worry about me stealing the bees' wax. I'm not sure about his toilet. 
Thanks a lot fellows for all the comments.

To keep things from rusting longer term I rub them with toilet ring wax.  This works great for waterproofing a gun for wet day shooting too, and is cheap as can be.  Softer and easier to apply than beeswax.  Not HC, I know.

[bob in the woods]

I used to use it to make my bullet lube for my Sharps!

[Osprey]

Man oh man, you guys have it easy, worrying about rust on parts for unfinished guns.     My shop is 50 feet from tidal salt water, 1" above sea level (often below on storms) and high, high humidity is the norm.  I've got enough to worry about keeping rust off the finished guns, much less stuff in progress.  One time the dog slept too long out in the yard and she started to rust!  Starting to think of strapping zinc diodes to everything around here...

[Don Getz]

I have never been concerned with rust on parts while building a gun, and haven't even thought about putting oil on them.
One think I do disagree with Mike B. on is having a lot of black, gooey inletting stuff on a stock while you are building it.
I try to keep a stock clean.   I know of one builder, with a big name, who, when building a gun has a stock that would
appear to be made by an auto mechanic......to me, this is sloppy..........Don

[bama]

Being from the good old sunny and humid south metal has a way of getting that natural patina without much trouble. I don't worry to much about the light rust on the outside of the metal parts but I do keep the barrel bore lubed.

Don I agree with you about trying to keep the stock clean. When I first started building my stocks where pretty black do to my use of the paste type inletting black. That stuff can get in the darnedest places. I since have used candle black which can still get all over everything but I seemed to able to keep things cleaner since I started using it. It may just be that I don't use inletting black as much due to gained knowledge of the parts that I am fitting and how much wood needs to be removed.

[Mike Brooks]

One think I do disagree with Mike B. on is having a lot of black, gooey inletting stuff on a stock while you are building it.

Don, I don't get inletting black all over my stocks either, I rarely even get any on me. But, after teaching at Conner Prairie for many years I noted that students blackened stocks didn't harm the finished product.

[Michael]

On the topic of inletting, did the "old timers" use some sort of inletting compound in their work? Has any one seen the remains of any in the mortice's and inlet areas of an original?

[Don Getz]

Mike....I was thinking about this a bit more and suddenly thought of Herschel,  his guns always turn out almost black, I
wonder why     I have seen Allen Martins and Mark Wheland's work and their guns in the white are beautiful.
While I am talking about those two guys, they plus Art DeCamp,  have just about completed that Samuel Baum rifle that
will be next years gun to be chanced off by the CLA.   It should be at the show next week...........Don

[Curt Larsen]

I live across the Bay from Osprey and have my shop in my garage.  Salt air is right outside the door.  I'm always fighting light rust on barrels.  Light rust on the surface is no big deal, but I always worry about the bores and even if I oil them I hate to inspect the bores for fear that it got in there.
Curt L

[NSBrown]

Hershel describes his hands rustting ability as "poison hands". I have them too. I can rust a barrel for you in an afternoon by just handling it.

[Pete G.]

Hershel describes his hands rustting ability as "poison hands". I have them too. I can rust a barrel for you in an afternoon by just handling it.

Would that be a cold brown or a hot brown

[whitebear]

Being from the good old sunny and humid south metal has a way of getting that natural patina without much trouble. I don't worry to much about the light rust on the outside of the metal parts but I do keep the barrel bore lubed.

Don I agree with you about trying to keep the stock clean. When I first started building my stocks where pretty black do to my use of the paste type inletting black. That stuff can get in the darnedest places. I since have used candle black which can still get all over everything but I seemed to able to keep things cleaner since I started using it. It may just be that I don't use inletting black as much due to gained knowledge of the parts that I am fitting and how much wood needs to be removed.

I have started using a black magic marker, does as good a job as anything else that I have tried, doesn't get all over your hands and the stock, but will build up. for this I wash the parts in acetone and then oil them good.

[Dr. Tim-Boone]

I stole my wife's oil lamp... works great....My stocks are cleaner now than they used to be, don't want Don shaking his finger at me   Actually I think I just wash mu hands more...My hands get dirtiest when filing steel or brass... so I wash befor the next task on the gun...... As hot as it has been I been thinking about using surgical gloves to keep the sweat off the gun... but it tends to drip off my nose anyway.. ..especially when drafiling the barrrel in the hot garage 

[northmn]

I shot a rifle all last fall that had an unfinished stock and had no problems with final finishing.  I did however purposely leave enough wood to take off for final finishing.  You really only need to worry about contamination at the final sanding phase.  I do spray my files with WD40 on occassion as the high carbon steel want to rust.  As stated, I have had more issues with contamination from inadvertant contact with some chemicals.   44-40 on stocks can stain fairly deep.

DP