My. Brother ran across a Remington 121 Fieldmaster pump 22 in a house he is fixing up. Looks to be in good mechanical shape but has surficial rust "freckles" on barrel and receiver. I have it for safe keeping and playing with. From serial number and markings it appears to have been made in 1952 near the end of production. Shy of rebluing is there something I can do to pretty it up a little? By the way, it was in an attic for 30+ years loaded. My non-gun person brother had an ND with it. No damage fortunately. We know it still shoots at least! I have never seen a gun take up Rem Oil like this gun - real thirsty. My brother also found an old hammered hardware store branded double barrel shotgun - in bad shape and no way shootable. Maybe a good wall hanger but missing one hammer.

Mostly on the cylinder, apparently from storage in a gun rug combined with rapid and extreme climactic changes. Since this was literally a family heirloom, my friend was pretty disheartened by the experience.

When he brought the gun over here, we tried Hoppe's #9 and cotton patches because that's all I had (not to mention all I could think of). After final cleaning, all parts were thoroughly and fairly vigorously wiped down with a microfiber-type rag.

Overall, I'd say this process completely removed a lot more than half of the speckles, and the remainder were much reduced in size, so it might be worth trying on your Remington.

If the 'crust' is very old, though, it might not have such a dramatic effect. We got to my friend's OMSBH in matter of weeks, so things hadn't much time to get started much less really settled in.

In any case, HTH

PS: In the old days, I would have tried Flitz, but not anymore. I think even the manufacturer says it's not safe for bluing − and it isn't.

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It does work though.

Put a dab of oil on the rust spot, and rub it with the edge of a nickle. Wipe clean. I can't remember who told me this trick, but I've used it for years to very good effect in some cases.

...apply a couple of drops of oil to a spot the size of a quarter, then polish gently with the finest steel wool you can find. This will remove the rust without touching the bluing, and sometimes leaves the finish looking as though it had never rusted to begin with. Once you've done all the metal that way, take stock and see if it really needs anything more.

-AaronB

pellet rifles that have been used and abused and neglected. A generous dosing with ATF/Lanolin and a bit of steel wool left them with a nice patina instead of the speckled rust job they had before. The lanolin/ATF mix is the best for avoiding future rust that I've found. My daily carry PPPPPP has had nothing but this for lube/preservative and not a speck of rust to be seen on it. And neither of the above mentioned rifles has had further problems with rust since I started using it either.

. . . on non-serious surface speckles.

I use Hoppe's gun oil because it's what I have, and 0000 steel wool thoroughly soaked therein. Just a gentle wiping action followed by a good surface cleaning (H#9) and then an oily wipedown.

Repeat if necessary.

Gently.

0000 steel wool. It actually works best dry, the idea is to "cut" with it, not slide it around on a film of oil or solvent. You can actually bear down pretty vigorously with it, and not hurt the blue, just don't be a gorilla, and use some common sense. This will take off all the recent surface rust, and leave just the little pits that we all know and love. It also cleans assorted gunk and crud, and can leave the blued steel looking a lot better. As a final step, give it all a good stout rubbing and polishing with SemiChrome, and that's about as good as it's ever going to get.

JLF

Wet or dry, I have never applied any grade of steel wool to a blued surface and therefore have no opinion about what it does to its appearance. I can only guess. (LOL)

Regarding Simichrome, I *do* have an opinion: It has changed and is now more abrasive.

Once upon a time, I had an old tube of Simichrome, plus another of its competitor, Flitz. I got the Simichrome with some old bike parts in about 1985; I bought the Flitz in the early 1990s.

Fast-forward to 'present': Both tubes finally ran out, so I 'recently' got new ones.

NEITHER product is 'safe' for bluing. Maybe in past, but not anymore.

Don't ask me how I know.

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Tom, bring it over when you get a chance. We'll give it the Van's and 3M treatment. If it's just surface freckles and not pits, we can get it looking like new.

Big 45 Frontier Metal Cleaner. This old gunman has used this product for many a year.
I have never found anything that works better.
Works great for removing rust and not hurting bluing.
Can be used wet or dry.
Recommended by Elmer and Skeeter!

http://www.big45metalcleaner.com/

For stocking stuffers too !