Hi Mike,
Sorry, I get easily distracted. It took me awhile to remember I was goint to write a bit on removing rust/ oxidation from a piece.
First off, some pieces of equipment to get together:
- A soft-grade infant's tooth brush;
- Some bamboo skewers;
- Some round-cut toothpicks (the up-market ones, not the cheap flat-cut ones)
- Ultra-fine (0000) steel wool;
- Murphy's Oil Soap, Baby Shampoo or a similar gentle cleaning agent.
- A bottle of gun oil or other light oil;
- A good-sized basin or bowl - big enough for you to immerse the piece in question and get in there with both hands.
- A worn out, clean old t-shirt (for polishing)
- Paper towelling and/or a few utility towels.
- A can of good quality (carnauba) car wax.
This procedure assumes you have separated the spike or wappen or whatever needs to be cleaned up from the leather body of your 'haube.
1) Fill your basin with clean, warm water and add a small amount of Murphy's soap or baby shampoo. Dunk your metal part and give its whole surface a gentle washing to remove any skin oils or perspiration from previous handling.
2) Then concentrate on the oxide spots by gently massaging any loose oxidation with one of your utility towels. Use your tooth brush for more stubborn spots.
***Please note that the objective, here, is to remove the loose oxidation without marring the surface of the piece or polishing a hole in it. Most of us will forgive a surface blemish on a metal part if it has had any excess oxidation removed, the piece is intact and what is left is just good, honest wear. However, we won't be very enthusiastic about a piece showing obvious signs of scrubbing or polished as thin as kitchen foil.
3) For really tough oxidation, those toothpicks and bamboo skewers come into action. I just put a drop of oil on the offending spot and then gently poke and prod and massage with the pointy end of the stick.
Remember the cotton buds or "Q-tips" that your Mom used to clean your ears with - a little wad of cotton on the end of a cardboard stick. You can use this same approach by twisting a small wad of ultra-fine steel wool on the end of one of your toothpicks or skewers and then using this homemade tool to 'work' the rust or verdegris. A few drops of oil will lubricate the steel wool to reduce its abrasiveness even further.
4) If you have used any oil in your rust/verdegris removal, you will want to give the piece another gentle washing to remove any residual oil.
After the piece is cleaned to your satisfaction, you need to thoroughly dry the piece - a dry utility towel or that old t-shirt will do. You can help it along with a hair dryer, if you want. Remember, though, the hair dryer is for metal parts only, not leather.
5) To protect the metal part, you will then want to give it a thin coat of car wax and a good buffing.
Then, you are done!
In another thread, Brian Loree mentioned a product that sounds very promising for removing rust from steel: Evapo-rust. I have not tried this product myself, but it is one more tool that may be worth trying.
Cheers,
Laurie
