Common Table Salt's Effects On Our CCW Piece-

[Ala Dan]

Pardon me please, if this has been discussed before
but I was wondering just what effects common table
salt would have on our CCW piece?

Case scenario, we are out with the family shopping
and the family is very hungry; so we whip into Mickey
D's for a quick fix of burger's, fries, and cokes. Eating
while we drive towards the house, handling those
greasy and salty fries we arrived home and enter
the house without washing our hands; reaching for
our CCW piece to secure it in its nest. Not thinking
about what we just did; as our SALTY palms were
in contact with the metal surfaces of the weapon.

Question is, what effect (if any) do you think the
salty hands would have on the finish of our CCW
piece? You can answer for any and all finishes that
apply if you like; such as blue steel, nickel, stainless,
tennifer, nitron, hard chrome or what ever?

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[Dot_mdb]

About a week ago I started an experiment to try to determine the benefits of waxing a gun. I placed two coffee cans outside and waxed the top of one using Flitz gun wax. I don't have results on that yet but Flitz says that the wax will protect a gun from salt spray for up to 3 months. I have been waxing blued guns for over a year now with good results but my guns are not exposed to the elements, but they do get handled.

Now I have just started another experiment. I mixed some olive oil with table salt and then dipped my finger in and applied the the mixture to the bottom of a tomato sauce can. My guess is that the oil will protect the steel can. My experience with cans exposed to the elements outside is that they rust very fast.

Another interesting experiment might be to use cheap carbon steel knives. My experience is that those knives can start rusting almost imediately if they are not cleaned after being used.

Bill

 

[Lone Star]

When S&W introduced the M60, the first stainless steel handgun in 1965, a, "Gun Digest" writer tried all sorts of ways to rust his test gun. What did it best was a moist environmental chamber with table salt on the gun.

My son found that his dive knife (stainless) rusted in the ocean until he realized that he had to SCRUB the blade under fresh water, not just rinse it. Salt residue lingers if not rubbed off.

I prefer stainless revolvers, but if I got salty hands or salt water spray on one, I'd rub it off vigorously with a wet tissue (fresh water, of course) and apply Break-Free or Rem-Oil. I'd try to let it sit overnight before wiping off any excess oil, then carrying it again.

If you carry a gun on the ocean, remember this. I suspect that occasional detail stripping and careful cleaning would also be indicated.

We need salt, but NOT on guns.

Lone Star

 

[Gordy Wesen]

Salty palms... now there's a new one.
If I got salty palms I'd say it was a pretty good meal.

 

[stans]

Salt attracts moisture, salty hands means salt and acid. I expect a salty hand print on blued steel is going to rust faster than a clean surface. Moral of the story: don't eat and shoot at the same time.

 

[0007]

Walt Birdsong pretty much garantees that his Black-T finish is impervious to salt water. Supposedly he ran a piece of treated steel over 1000 hrs in the standard salt-spray test and finally just got tired of watching nothing happen. And what's good is that every part gets treated including springs and screws.

 

[dfariswheel]

One of the earliest companies to offer hard chrome plating for guns was Armoloy of Dallas.

One of their finish jobs was tested by a gun writer who tried to damage the finish applied to a S&W Model 36 Chief's Special used in the tests.

In one test, the gun was buried in a pile of damp table salt for several days. The gun showed no rust.

Another test involved plating half a nail with hard chrome, then soaking in warm acid over night. The un-plated half was completely eaten away, the plated half was untouched.

From personal observation, it appears that skin oils and acids do cause metal to rust quicker, and hands that have been in contact with salty cooking oils and table salt just EAT gun finishes.

Of course the worst for this is standard blue.

Moral: Don't touch guns with any type finish without washing your hands, and keep some kind of protective barrier on the finish.

You'd also be wise to remember: Table salt and cooking oils can migrate to some strange areas you might not expect....like inside barrels and cylinder chambers.
Your finish may be rust-proof, but bores and chambers usually aren't coated with it.

I've only had two instances of mild corrosion on my personal guns, and in both cases the rust was in areas I wouldn't have expected it.
In one of those cases, the mainspring housing on a Colt Combat Commander rusted during a hot, humid afternoon, after I momentarily rested the heel of my hand on the gun butt.

I'd just had a nice greasy, salty burger and fries.

 

[RWK]

Dan, my friend –

As soon as possible, I would clean and lube all surfaces that may have been touched by salty, “Mackey D†hands. Am sure we have all seen photographs of firearms – especially blued handguns – where a finger/thumb smudge is clear due to simple handling, with no subsequent wipe-down and preservation.

Best regards -- Roy

 

[Ala Dan]

Thank you gentlemen, for the really good responses. I
too, agree that contacting a weapons surface with hot,
sweaty, greasy, salty, nasty hands is not a good idea.
When applicable, I always wash my hands before
handling firearms (just as much as if I were going to
dine); and especially if the weapon belongs to some
one else!

I thought it would be good to post this thread, for the
novice handguner's that have joined and might not
otherwise think of such a thing!

Best Wishes,
Ala Dan, N.R.A. Life Member

 

[Mike Irwin]

Sodium chloride from any source is hygroscopic.

It doesn't matter if it comes from your french fries, a drive-by salting, or the sweat of your own brow.

If you get it on your gun, and you don't get it off, you can have rust.

 

[euclid]

Yeah but table salt and road salt are two different animals. Road salt is more corrosive...something to do with it having an extra valance electron.

cheers

 

[Smoke]

But won't the grease from the french fries protect the finish from the salt?





Smoke

 

[Ryder]

Since table salt (sodium chloride) is listed as a mutagen on it's MSDS maybe it will mutate your gun into a different caliber?

 

[BigG]

Hi Ole Pal Ala Dan!

This is analogous to Julian Hatcher's test where he searched for why did corrosive primers rust barrels. The answer was the primers left salts in the bbl and despite covering over with liberal coatings of oil, the guns developed pits in the bbls. The particular salts he specified but ICR. As Mike noted, salt is hygroscopic and draws moisture from the air.

You can read about it HERE

 

[Dot_mdb]

Salt experiment

It has been a week since I started my experiment of applying oil and salt to the top of common food can.

Cans have some finish over the steel, but when exposed to the elements it usually rusts away quickly.

After one week I have observed that each grain of salt has drawn a small pool of oil around itself but the salt crystals have not disolved into the oil. I see no rust.

The experiment continues.

Bill

 

[Brian Dale]

I'd assumed that most gun-owning parents taught children about salt being on hands from ordinary perspiration, even when not following a meal, and that it causes rust to form quickly. We were taught somewhere between age three and five (when we were permitted to touch guns but not yet to shoot) that if guns weren't wiped down after being handled, they'd end up with rusty fingerprints on them. It's like the other lessons that kids get about taking care of things.

I'm not mentioning this to toot my own horn; I'm just suggesting that it's a good idea to teach this from the first time that children are exposed to guns. It's a fun science lesson for kids, too: First, your "fingerprints" are made up of oil, moisture and salt that comes from your hands. Second, salt and moisture help rust to form on steel exposed to air, and a thin layer of oil protects the steel.

Maybe "you had to be there," but I liked it when I was a kid. The lesson made an impression on me (based on results: I've worked as a chemist).Some of you might want to do the same thing for your kids.