Rust Treatment and Preservation Options?

abc

The attached photo is a late 19th cent Yale rolltop desk lock mechanism. There is a fair amount of rust on the steel mechanism. Any suggestions on how I can treat the metal to stop the rust and preserve this mechanism for the future?

Dean Nickel

I have had good luck so far with this product at least in the rainy Pacific Northwest USA
http://www.corrosionx.com/corrosionx.html
I have a plate of metal with just this on it for the last year and almost nothing in rust and it is exposed to the rain and everything. Better than most so far. I have been looking for something for locks at the docks.

Tri-Flow also works. PB Blaster rocks but you can’t have ANY plastic as it will eat it but it will get into DEEP corrosion.

abc

Dean Nickel wrote
I have had good luck so far with this product at least in the rainy Pacific Northwest USA
http://www.corrosionx.com/corrosionx.html
I have a plate of metal with just this on it for the last year and almost nothing in rust and it is exposed to the rain and everything. Better than most so far. I have been looking for something for locks at the docks.

Tri-Flow also works. PB Blaster rocks but you can’t have ANY plastic as it will eat it but it will get into DEEP corrosion.

Thanks for the suggestion. I am famliar with Corrosion-X, Boeshield, ACF50, etc., but isn’t that used after the rust is dealt with? How do I get rid of the rust that is all over this mechanism? There is a coat of tri-flo on it right to try to stop it progressing until I can figure out how to properly treat it.

[unknown]

Dean Nickel

If you read the site you will see they say it will stop the rust. Now I have placed that plate with a little rust on it to see if it was true. So far so good. I am on a two year test and only 11 months 22 days.

Richard Phillips

I have heard good reports on electrolytic rust removal. DC current through an electrolyte solution, with the other terminal being a piece of scrap iron.
For small objects, a redundant cellphone charger has been used successfully, and washing soda is a cheap electrolyte, dissolved in water. Scraps of weldmesh, or what-have-you (but avoid stainless steel), for the other electrode. That one dissolves away gradually. Only rust is removed; when all gone, the current simply splits the water into hydrogen and oxygen (so good ventilation and no sparks!), and also heats the solution.
Immediately the object is removed, washed and dried, it is vulnerable to rusting again. In UK, car accessory shops sell Jenolite rust treatment. It passivates the surface. It contains some acid, and I can’t think what now. Depending on the steel alloy, it leaves a matt finish between light grey-black, or mottled. Otherwise, coat with microcrystalline wax - sold here as Renaissance Wax.