Need help - Mauser bolt vs. Naval Jelly!!

[LukeTheDrifter]

Hey y'all.

I am bit discouraged by the dumb mistake I made yesterday. I placed the exterior bolt components of a wonderful Yugo Mauser 98 into a Zip-lok bag of Naval Jelly rust remover. I have used this same method to remove bluing from other parts of C&R rifles before (magazine floorplates, butt plates, etc) and the stuff just took the bluing off, leaving clean metal "in the white". I would then reblue them. No muss, no fuss.

The bolt components, however, turned black and VERY dull when I removed the Naval Jelly!! These parts were beautifully shiny before, they just had worn bluing. Now all the parts look like they have been parkerized. I have read that this stuff creates a layer of iron phosphate, thus the black/dark gray coating. What I'm praying that you will know is: how can I restore the bolt surfaces to their original high gloss, white/silver appearance?

I've had many C&R rifles over time, and I've never done something that yielded such unexpected results. Don't worry, my tail has been properly kicked, over & over... By myself. :banghead::banghead:

Please help!! I thank you in advance!!

Luke

 

[triggerman770]

Mauser bolt

basically the naval jelly "blued" your bolt, since it was already "in the white".
you should be able to buff it off on a buffing wheel with light compound. if that doesn't do it get some birchwood casey's blue & rust remover and follow with a polishing. If those don't work P.M. me and we'll get it figured out

 

[LukeTheDrifter]

Thank you very much, Triggerman!! I'll keep you posted!!

 

[LukeTheDrifter]

P.S. What sort of buffing compound would you suggest? Thanks again.

 

[triggerman770]

Mauser bolt

I use the black on my wheels, but red or white will also work. and after the compound I run a naked wheel just to remove the was and further polish

 

[LukeTheDrifter]

Well, when I got home, I realized that my buffer wheel was at my folks' place. I decided to try Scotch-Brite and Hoppes #9. Lo and behold, it worked!!! I then used 0000 steel wool (also using Hoppes) and that brought back the beautiful polish I thought was destroyed. The bolt is now in the white, and I'll blue it... One of these days.

I've coated everything in so much RemOil that I think I'm gonna just shoot it as is for a while. It looks really nice. Not historically correct, but nice. This gun is on my do-not-sell list, so I'm not worried about other people's opinion of her.

Thank you very much for your help, sir!!

 

[brickeyee]

basically the naval jelly "blued" your bolt

More like crated a phosphate finish.

 

[triggerman770]

mauser bolt

brickeyee Quote:
basically the naval jelly "blued" your bolt

More like crated a phosphate finish.
well, I try not to get too technical. some of the newer bluing salts acually create a black phosphate finish.