[Jim C S]

I've been thinking of a way to prevent rust on my sword blades that may be more in keeping with historical options.
I've started using lanolin, a very thin coat, on my blade. Several modern rust preventatives and lubricants for firearms and
machine parts use lanolin as the major component. I warm a small amount in my palm and rub a thin coat on the steel of
my piece then lightly buff out the streaks with a soft thin cloth. This leaves a very thin H2o,O2 barrier on the steel.
Additionally, if you have a high quality scabbard for your sword or dagger, like a Christian Fletcher, the lanolin won't damage the wool lining like a hydrocarbon derivative might. Does anyone have any thoughts or experiences with this method they could share?

[Peter Lyon]

I used a beeswax/olive oil mix quite a lot, especially on armour. It works by making a blend that works for your climate, so that the heat of rubbing the container of it with a cloth makes it go greasy, then it solidifies on the piece and can be left thick for storage or rubbed back to leave a thin coating. A starting mix is about 1 part beeswax to 2 parts olive oil (or is it the other way, I can never remember), heat the beeswax until liquid and slowly add the olive oil (too fast at it cools and solidifies the mixture)

[Jim C S]

Any issues with the olive oil ever going rancid?

[Harry Marinakis]

The commercial product Fluid-film is a lanolin-based anti-corrosion spray. Recently someone on the Armour Archve tested about 25 anti-corrosion agents and Fluid-film was the best, by far. Lanolin works extremely well.

[Mart Shearer]

Most of my research concerns armor rather than weapons. That said, they're both iron or steel, susceptible to rust, and would be kept together.

Bertus Brokamp and the late Will McLean both found references for using bran to scour armor. Bran also contains a certain amount of natural oil. As a waste product of sifting flour, it made an inexpensive and common scouring powder.

http://forums.armourarchive.org/phpBB3/viewto...hilit=bran

[Jim C S]

Very interesting. Thanks for the info guys.

[Mike O'Hara]

Hi Jim

I've used a mix of lanolin and baby oil, as a not-so-historical substitute for olive oil.

I've also made some ax polishes using turpentine and beeswax. You can also use a blend of waxes: if you mix in a harder wax like Carnuba into the beeswax you can form quite a tough coat. These work well on sword furniture and then the lanolin/baby oil on the blade.

Mart - I was very interested in your comment about varnished harness. Can you elaborate on the type of varnish used?

regards
mike

[Mark Griffin]

[Mark Griffin]

and soething else

[Jeffrey Faulk]

[Mart Shearer]

[Mart Shearer]

[Jeffrey Faulk]

[Greg Ballantyne]

I like the lanolin lubricants. They have a lot of staying power, a historical basis, and are very effective. I was using gun oil, but have found the lanolin based lubricant to be far better. No problem in the scabbard, as well.