The subject line pretty much sums it up. I just bought a Cold Steel 1830 "Napoleon" sabre,
wich is great, except for rust inside the scabbard. In my experience everytime you order one
of these Cold Steel swords you are rolling the dice: something is likely to be wrong, hopefully
something small, but sometimes something big. I'd hate to send back this one, since the
sword is good, and get a worse one. But it is annoying to have little flakes of rust from the inside
of the scabbard stick to the (oily) blade every time I put it in the scabbard. There are also traces
of the heavy cosmoline-like goo the sword was coated with in there too. I am pretty sure if I left
the sword in the scabbard for an extended time I'd have rust on the blade. Any ideas would be
appreciated regarding how to get the rust out now, and perhaps what to coat it with to prevent a recurrence?

Yours,
Richard

Can you attach a stiff wire brush to a rod and scrub off the rust that way?

How about electrolytic rust removal?

http://www.cdblacksmiths.org/tooltips.html

Bottom of the page. BTW the the monkey wrench in the picture was caked with rust before the process. I wish I had gotten a before shot but I didn't.

Dan Crowther
Oak & Acorn
WebForge - Blacksmiths' Forum

Nathan's cleaning rod solution sounds like a winner. You can probably find one at any gun shop or possibly even Wal Mart (is that redundant?). If there's lots of grease in there, it might pay to first wrap the scabbard in Saran Wrap or something to prevent leaks, then pour mineral spirits into the scabbard and scrub with the cleaning brush to dissolve the grease. After scrubbing out the rust, you'd have to treat the interior in some way to prevent its return. I guess you could paint it by filling the scabbard with paint and letting it drain upside down for a day or two. That'd protect against rust without depositing grease on your blade.