Minor rust on safety
 

So, my M1900 has most of its original blue and has only lost it on the grip frame and grip safety. The grip frame and safety show bare metal with patina for the most part, the safety is the same except for a small spot of rust, about 1/4" by 1/8" in size. I would like to remove this but save the finish/patina that is left. Anyone have a good method for doing this? I was going to use 00000 or 0000 steel wool and RemOil but not sure what that will do to the finish. Please advise, thanks in advance.

On a small area like that consider starting with a small well oiled tuft of fine 0000 bronze wool (you can get it from most hardware stores) on the tip of a wooden shaft Q-Tip. Use a circular motion. This should let you get loose red oxide off the surface. You can then follow it with a similar small well oiled tuft of steel wool which is harder. Be more conservative about using the steel wool. Use a well lit work area so that you can see into the finish and closely observe what your actions are doing.

This should not impact the bluing that is present on the finish in that area. This may alter the area that has lost it's finish. The safety lever should have been strawed, and that finish may be affected differently than rust blued or fire blued metal. In addition, with aging, the straw's surface finish can shift to other types of oxide.

It would help if you could post a picture.

Marc

There is a picture in the new collectors section. Might not be a very good picture. It is under my recent purchase posted within the past month. As I said a very small area. I will see if I can find fine bronze wool as I already have the steel wool. I do not think I have any strawing left on the safety, just patina.

Old guns with minor rust is actually pretty. One option is to leave rust spots alone, but covered by wax so it won't grow.

It depends on the 'rust' / whether it is actual rust or patina.

If rust, even covered up, it should still slowly 'eat' away?

It's rust, trust me. I know what real rust looks like. And yeah I do not want a hole in the safety if I can prevent it.