Blood on stainless?

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Steelharp

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Guys... I know what blood does to blueing, I saw that on a couple old guns when I worked in a gun shop... but what does it do to stainless? I ask because of a stainless Kimber I just picked up through a pawn shop. (The number cleared, so I guess it's ok.) I stripped it to clean it, and I had to pry the rubber grips off with my pocket knife. They made that "shluuuck" type of sound as they were coming off, and it was all brownish on the grip with a liguid looking flow to it. I used some Blue Wonder and steel wool, and finally got 99% of it off, but it's the most stubborn junk I've ever seen. What could it be? I would think Coke wouldn't be that stubborn.
 
Stainless steel can rust and corrode. This is mainly done by blocking the air we breath from the metal. What I mean is stainless is stainless because of an invisible oxide that stainless steel creates (chromium oxide I believe) when it is exposed to the air we breath. By putting a barrier such as blood like you mentioned on the metal, the contaminate will cut off the air from the metal and the metal wont be able to create the oxide barrier. Rubber grips can block the air too.

What you need to clean stainless is a phosphoric acid based cleaner. Although I'm not too familiar with Blue Wonder, I think it is an abrasive (silica used as a polish??).

I would suggest going to an industrial supply type of store to find something phosphoric based.

Hope this helps!
 
Diet Coke. Useful for cleaning corrosion off of car battery terminals, too. Just look at the ingredient list... and I say "diet" because it doesn't leave a sticky residue like regular Coke does. :)
 
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