Gentlemen,

I must have made some kind of grave error last Sunday when I put the Town Guard away before heading to university for the week. I applied a light coat of Ballistol with a t-shirt to the sword's guard and blade before I left, and now, upon returning, I have found that the once dark (near black) bluing has gone to a shade of purple on the quillons and central part of the knucklebow. There are even a couple tiny orange spots of rust (circled)! Interestingly enough, I could not find any color change on the top of the pommel, where it would touch the hand. I handled the sword with and without a glove (the glove has never been near any kind of leather treatment), but I thought that carefully oiling the thing would be enough! It was stored in a bedroom (dry air; it is winter here and I do not have a humidifier in the house) with a piece of the light sort of tissue paper found in bags for gifts gently laying on top (not tucked in, no sealing effect at all) to prevent dust. I'm baffled that simple handing would produce such results so quickly (and on areas so far from the actual grip and the cross where the finger actually wraps around). I do not believe that anyone in my family handled it when I was gone. What did I do wrong? What should I do now? Thanks for all your help.

Lee

EDIT: It may be hard to see, but the bits of rust are orange like a copper wire.

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Perhaps the best moisture repellant/rust preventative I use right now is Lanox. I heard about it on this website. Its an Australia/NZ product containing lanolin. I used to rely on gun oil, but the Lanox has some serious hang time. Its not easily found in the USA, I ordered from some lawnmower supply in Florida, and paid what seemed like a lot, but I believe it was well worth it.
I am not speaking to your particular situation, just making a general comment. There are existing threads on this website that deal with this subject, one of which I learned about Lanox from.....

Non-lanolin based oils (like ballistol, wd40, breakfreeCLP, etc...) will ruin cold bluing. It will over time if you oil enough and properly remove the bluing and make what remains grayish in color, until ultimately all the bluing is gone and what is left is a milky clouded steel beneath that needs polishing to look regular.
If you don't oil enough it will turn the bluing purple or simply rust it, which is what happened to you.
Ballistol is a good product if you want a very safe oil and handle everyday your sword and reapply everyday the oil, i found that any extended amount of time and it will not cut it ( over 1 week and expect oxidation in humid climate, 3 weeks if its hot and dry ). Seems your house is more humid than you though, that or there was a source of humidity close by.

I recommend Fluid Film, but any lanolin based product will work.

If you can't get your hands on one, don't apply any oil, just wipe vigorously after use, and that's it. The bluing resists rusting, as long as nothing is interfering with it, so just the bluing by itself cleanly wiped will be enough.

Good luck.

My above post might not have been clear because of the second part.

DO NOT APPLY REGULAR OIL ON COLD BLUING!

Instead use only Lanolin based oils like : Lanox or Fluid Film.

You CAN use ballistol on the blade, just don't put any on the pommel and complex guard, because it is cold blued.

For the time being only wipe down the pommel and guard with a dry lint free cloth if you handled the sword, apply oil to the blade regularly.

Once you have a lanolin based oil you can apply it on everything without fear.

Hope i was clearer this time and don't be so sad about having lost a little bluing, you will learn to take care of your sword better from this point on.

Also Lee, if you use your sword to cut meat be prepared that a high carbon blade will be stained. There are two ways to get around this; the easiest is to simply not cut meat. Alternatively, you can purchase very fine sandpaper (around 1000 or 1200 grit) and use it to sand out the staining.

Thought you might want to know- I was surprised when my Albion Knight was stained after one cutting session.

As far as cutting goes, some targets stain the blade extremely quickly and you can't help it, you can only polish them out... Mostly vegetable juices are pretty strong...

Hi Lee

Sorry to hear you have had rust issues. The blued/blackened surface on this hilt is a commercial black oxide finish. This is the same type of finish as on a firearm. This is more substantial and not as susceptible as a cold blued finish but it will fade over time with wear and oil interaction. I would use a piece of Tshirt and some oil and with your finger nail rub the active rust to remove it. This usually works for small flecks.

The lanolin based oils are a good idea.

Here is a link from a pal of mine that has done some interesting tests on how different products help or hurt with rust prevention. Cumann Bhata Articles there are Protecting Against Rust: Part I thru IV that cover some real world tests.

Best
Craig

You probably would have done better to not apply anything to the hilt at all. People go crazy thinking they have to care for these things as if they are infants. They aren't. The purpose of the blued finish is to provide a hilt surface that requires less maintenance than white metal. Take advantage of this. :)

Good point about the scabbards and other leather, Mark. I have found in the past that a non-historical scabbard (no sheep pile lining) can trap moisture and rust a blade that stays in that scabbard for a length of time. Lanox in a leather only scabbard allows a blade to stay in the scabbard for extended periods of time with no risk. I have sprayed Lanox into more than one scabbard, and on the outside of them as well. Like I said, the lanolin based products are the best I have used on blades and furniture, and truck door hinges as well....

Lee, you might want to consider getting hold of a bottle of chemical bluing to use as touch up from time to time. Good for firearms, knives, and perhaps a Town Guard hilt at some point. While I would not recommend using chemical bluing as a means of bluing an item, it is handy for touch up of the occasional spots that may come into the picture when incidental rust that may form is removed.

Other people have already recommended fluid film, and I'm going to concur. Check out this experiment:

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...p;t=170738
http://www.customchainmail.com/2014/05/29/fin...n-test-v2/

Quote:

Fluid Film The winner, but with some drawbacks. Fluid Film won the overall rust challenge, and had some other pluses going for it. It smells the best, and (as I understand it) it is the most natural and safe. It has also been suggested that it is most consistent with what could have been used in the middle ages, which may be important to some. It is also a little cheaper than the other two, and a little easier to get locally for me (I live in Fort Lauderdale). The downside is that it leaves a very oily feel, which some may not like. Overall, it is a very good choice and will likely be what I use for my personal maille.

Not only was it the best performing, but it's lanolin-based so it's safe for your bluing, is non-toxic and has little smell.

I'd also like to throw wax out there as an alternative to oil since no one else has mentioned it.