Exterior barrel rust

[Cajun72]

Well I have a TC Renegade I received in a trade. Bore is decent, but exterior has some rust and light pitting. Previous owner tried to neutralize and remove but the rust is still there. Best way to remove the rust? Draw file and block sand afterwards?
Thanks

 

[GUN NUT]

Well I have a TC Renegade I received in a trade. Bore is decent, but exterior has some rust and light pitting. Previous owner tried to neutralize and remove but the rust is still there. Best way to remove the rust? Draw file and block sand afterwards?
Thanks

I would do just that

 

[Cajun72]

Thanks off to get some finer sand paper I'm out.

 

[fubar22]

It's going to take a lot of filing/sanding to completely remove pitting that deep. Clean it up as best you can with wire brush and fine sandpaper, then degrease and reblue or brown it. Flaws like that add character to a gun.

 

[Cajun72]

Yeah that is the plan. I draw filed yesterday and block sanded with 220 grit. Waiting on some evaporust. Will use that, then rinse with hot water. Wipe down with acetone and use Doc Hawken's rust blueing. Hopefully that should do it.

 

[edmehlig]

Please show us a picture when you are finished.

 

[Cajun72]

My progress so far. Think it will be ok.

 

[GUN NUT]

My progress so far. Think it will be ok.

Looking good

 

[fubar22]

Yeah that is the plan. I draw filed yesterday and block sanded with 220 grit. Waiting on some evaporust. Will use that, then rinse with hot water. Wipe down with acetone and use Doc Hawken's rust blueing. Hopefully that should do it.

My progress so far. Think it will be ok.

In my experience, any surface scratches visible to the naked eye before you apply bluing are going to really jump out after you cold blue it. To each his own, but if it were mine, I think I'd keep at it with 200 grit until the filing marks are gone. Knife-makers looking for a nice, scratch-free finish alter the direction of their sanding (lengthwise, crosswise, then diagonally in both directions) before moving to each finer grit paper, and it works just as well on firearms. That can be hard to do on an octagonal barrel. Keep your sanding block absolutely flat on each octagonal flat, or you'll lose the barrel's crisp edges on octagonal flats. You'll need to change sandpaper fairly often with finer grit paper because it loads up and loses cutting power quickly. I would work through finer grits up to 1000, followed by light buffing, then degreasing. That's just my 2 cents worth. To each his own.

 

[Black Locust]

I would brown the barrel.

At least it will make the pits look right at home.

The pits will look truly awful under a blue job.