Some of you are thinking, hogwash, I have used XYZ solvent for 10 years with no rust formation.   Ah, do read on….

At the beginning of the article I mentioned that I had done some initial testing using a higher temp and what I thought was going to be higher humidity.  I went and re read the chapter that Julian Hatcher wrote in his book “Hatcher’s Notebook” and found out that in their testing of corrosion, they found that corrosion only formed at a humidity of 68% and greater. 

Many of you probably looked at the images above of your favorite solvent (like Hoppe’s No 9) and simply did not believe what you saw.  But in order to prove a point I did one more series of tests with applying salt and then cleaning with each solvent. 

This time, instead of exposing the treated metal to high humidity (which is probably not all that common except for the wettest  and most humid areas of the country), I exposed the treated metal to higher temps and less than 20% humidity.  The higher temp (~100F) was needed to keep a constant low humidity level. 

As before, the metal had the same amount of salt “sizzled” onto it.  Each test area was swiped 15 times with a saturated patch.  I did not do a control swipe of the solvent.  After cleaning, I placed the metal strips into the easy bake oven with one 100w bulb in it, that maintained a temp of roughly 100F.  A pan of water was also placed in the oven.  Within a few minutes, the temp and humidity were stable.  The test strips were left in place in the oven for over 48 hours.

This is a montage of all the treated metal strips. After 48 hours there was no rust formation, not even on the control (letter V)

 

After 48 hours in the less than 20% humidity, I turned off the light (heat) and allowed the metal strips to sit as before.  Humidity went to 99% within a few minutes.  In about 8 hours the metal looked like this:

Quite a difference, right?  So it appears that even though you have cleaned the weapon thoroughly, simply because you keep water away (humidity) you will not see rust form.  If you live in an area that is dry most of the time, you probably will never see rust form.  If you live in an area that has humidity swings, you may only see rust during the wet season.