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Old April 15, 2011, 05:10 PM   #1
Biff Tannen
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RUST PREVENTION vs SWEAT & HUMIDITY

I recently saw an article on Wilson Armor Tuff finish and was very impressed. I'm an Italian guy who sweats gallons (haha) and was wondering:
Can anyone recommend any products that prevent handgun corrosion, primarily from sweat and humidity?
Thanks!
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Old April 15, 2011, 07:35 PM   #2
45Gunner
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Quote:
Can anyone recommend any products that prevent handgun corrosion, primarily from sweat and humidity?

The best advice I can give you is not to look for a...ummm "magic bullet". Take your gun out of its holster each night. Wipe it down and then give it a very light coating of oil. Don't put it back into the holster as most likely your holster needs time to dry also. If you sweat bullets, you most likely will have to remove the grips and coat the frame under the grips with oil also. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure...as the saying goes. Perspiration contains body acids and oils that will indeed do damage to your gun. I care for my EDC gun at night, making it part of my preparation for going to sleep, keeping gun oil, screwdriver, and a cleaning cloth in my night table.

And speaking of your holster, if you use a leather holster, be careful about putting any type of water proofing solution on it until you have read the fine print. Some of those chemicals can soften the leather. Every once in a while I would put some very light shoe polish on mine and then buff it lightly with a good horse hair brush.
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Old April 15, 2011, 07:44 PM   #3
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45Gunner gives great advice. I would add that Eezox is a great product developed to help prevent corrosion of metal in combination with the things 45Gunner mentioned.
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Old April 15, 2011, 07:46 PM   #4
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CorrosionX oil works well for me.
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Old April 15, 2011, 07:58 PM   #5
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First, get rid of the leather holster, especially if you carry IWB. Make sure it has a sweat guard. Those two things will protect all but a small portion of the grip that faces the body.

Finish wise, hard chrome works well, as does Glocks Tennifer finish. SS works OK too, to a point. Im sure there are others out there that work well too.

Blue, parkerizing, etc, are a poor choice, and a leather holster just multiplies the problems considerably.

Chemical wise, Ill second Eezox. Its great stuff, but it wont replace a good finish.
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Old April 15, 2011, 08:13 PM   #6
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http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html

http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html

I've tried quite a few chemicals, but after reading these two articles, I am now an Eezox convert.
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Old April 15, 2011, 08:22 PM   #7
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+1 on the eezox too...lol I have it, I love it. Works great.....




















....smells great too.
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Old April 16, 2011, 02:47 AM   #8
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It's something you're to have to constantly fight with a blued gun and to some degree stainless as it needs a little care too.

Polymer and Tenifer are your friends.

Unless it's something that you don't want to destroy the sentimental value of, I'd recommend Duracoating it. I live in a rain-soaked blowhole of a marine climate where we routinely get storms y'all give cute names to down there. Everything here rusts or rots.

Last year we Duracoated all of our cruiser shotguns. Haven't had one issue with them yet as far as corrosion goes. A couple have gotten dinged a little and need touched up, but we're not scrubbing rust freckles off them monthly any more.
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Old April 16, 2011, 05:48 AM   #9
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been carrying my stainless Sig 230 in a leather IWB holster for about 4 summers now.... often it is soaked and does not have a speck of rust on it and I hardly ever clean or oil it... must be doing something wrong?
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Old April 16, 2011, 07:54 AM   #10
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Quote:
must be doing something wrong?
Maybe, maybe not. A lot depends on what you do, and what you consider "soaked". If youre active, and the holster is truly and constantly soaked through, if youre gun doesnt show some rust, then youre definitely doing something right, and please tell us what youre doing. Ive carried SS guns in wet leather holsters too, and while better than blued, they always showed rust/corrosion at some point, especially at or under the grips, and on a couple of places on the slide.

For a good part of my life, I used to go through one out of two brand name leather holsters a year (last batch were a couple of Galco Royal Guards), and most of the problem for them came in the summer. Its hot and humid here in the summer, and once your holster is "soaked", its wet pretty much the rest of the summer, even when you try and rotate between a couple of them (leather doesnt dry out quickly on a good day or week). Add to that, sweating heavily all day, pretty much every day, and the gun is constantly wet and going down hill pretty quick if you dont do something. Even when you do, youre basically just trying to hold back the inevitable.

The two things that solved the problem for me initially, were kydex and hard chrome. My Commander in beautiful Colt blue, lasted less than a year in those Royal Guards, and then lasted 10+ years, in the same Blade Tech kydex holster, after it was hard chromed. Even then, I still got a powdery rust in the summer, around the inboard grip panel, the only part of the gun not protected by the holster. That Blade Tech holster basically saves the gun, and over time, it also will buy you another gun in what you save in buying leather holsters each year.

When I switched to SIG's and using the Blade Tech's, I had basically no problems at all, and the Glocks that replaced them, go without saying.
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Old April 16, 2011, 10:59 AM   #11
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As is often the case 45gunner offered good solid advise. I have found a somewhat simpler way to help protect blued guns. Start with a clean and well lubed gun. Then with the grips removed apply a THIN coat of Johnson's paste wax, let haze up then buff off. I do this once a month to any firearm I have carried or shot. If a weapon has not been used I do the above about every 2 -3 months.

Best of luck.
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Old April 16, 2011, 11:08 AM   #12
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Surface finish is the least of my concerns with a carry gun. Safe queens should be beautiful. A carry weapon is a tool. If it develops a patina, who cares? Keep it clean and lubed and wipe off surface corrosion as it occurs.
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Old April 16, 2011, 11:37 AM   #13
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The problem with surface corrosion is, if you cant take the gun out of the situation its in, even with a daily, or even multiple times daily wipe downs, youre going to have a hard time stopping it, if you can stop it at all. Once it starts, it will only get worse, unless you stop using the gun and address it, or do something to change it.

A little finish patina is one thing, aggressive rust is something else.
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Old April 16, 2011, 02:38 PM   #14
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Thank you, orionengnr

orionengnr:
I found your links to be epic-ly helpful, I love tests such as these:
http://www.thegunzone.com/rust.html
ESPECIALLY THIS ONE, simply amazing!
http://www.6mmbr.com/corrosiontest.html
THANK YOU!
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Old April 17, 2011, 06:36 PM   #15
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I live in an area that during warm weather has pretty high humidity.
I've got 2 guns that no matter what oil/rustproofing I used, would start to rust if you didn't do a full blown oil rubdown on them every 3 months. Even when I used some products that said for long term storage this still happened. Also have a ton of Sig "Made in Germany" mags that would get surface rust if you so much as looked at them funny. The lever arm on one of my loading presses also seems quite willing to succomb to surface rust when the weather warms up and humidty really kicks in After seeing all the different corrosion tests I decided to give Eezox a try.

This stuff is impressive when it comes to preventing rust. Some of those Sig mags I mentioned earlier...not one spec of rust or anything. I imagine it would do equally well on a carry gun.
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Old April 17, 2011, 06:55 PM   #16
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Get the Saddle soap that comes in shoe wax cans & give the holster a few polishes inside & out ; )
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Old April 17, 2011, 08:28 PM   #17
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I use Eezox for rust. Good stuff when used correctly.
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Old April 21, 2011, 06:08 PM   #18
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No rust!

I live in South Florida so I know a little about humidity.

My simple solution has never failed.

1) Only buy stainless steel guns

2) I use Break Free CLP. Not the latest and greatest but it works for me.
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Old April 21, 2011, 06:13 PM   #19
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While its a little more forgiving than blue or park, SS will still rust/corrode if you dont stay on top of it. Ive had better luck with hard chromed carbon steel. Hard chrome also holds up better, and doesnt scratch near as easy.
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Old April 21, 2011, 10:48 PM   #20
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for a carry gun I would recommend Stainless or Plastic.

frequent cleaning (even under the grips) and use Eezox.
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Old April 21, 2011, 10:53 PM   #21
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Rem oil or break free. Make sure you WIPE your gun down then apply oil.
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Old April 21, 2011, 11:17 PM   #22
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Rem Oil, lots and lots of Rem Oil.

I live in southern Georgia near the coast, so I sweat a fair amount too.

Heck, I'll go so far as to say that factor directly influenced my decision to go with a Glock for daily carry.

Definintly removed your piece from it's holster before you go to bed, wipe it down, and let the holster air out.

I'm not in a position to worry about small children, so I have a rag on my night stand dedicated to this procedure.

Also, I wipe down the weapon and the magazine every night and coat it lightly in oil.

And +1 to the using shoe polish on the holster. I have a Tagua inside the waist band holster that I wipe down once a week with plain old regular black Kiwi polish.
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Old April 22, 2011, 08:41 AM   #23
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I carry a blued gun in a leather IWB holster in muggy North Texas summers. Also, all I have to do is think about sweating and I start perspiring. Simply taking the gun out at the end of the day, wiping it down with oil (currently Hoppe's lubricating oil with Weatherguard) and letting the holster dry overnight has worked for me.
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Old April 26, 2011, 10:48 AM   #24
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Honestly the best way to prevent a non- stainless metal from rusting under these conditions is to have the major parts hard chrome plated. It's fairly inexpensive, self lubricating and attractive....oh and pretty much corrosion proof
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