Fulloflead's Great Rust Experiment!

fulloflead

fulloflead

Joined
May 3, 2002
Messages
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I've been testing Knife & Gun oils that are supposed to be rust preventitives. I've learned a lot, so I thought I'd share:

TEST SUBJECTS:
Hoppes Gun Oil
Sheath (by Birchwood Casey)
Prolix (available only from their website)
RemOil (by Remington)
White Lightening (by Buck Knives)
Plain, unprotected (as a control)
Breakfree (tested at the end of this post against the winner)

THE TEST:
1. I used water from my Britta water-filtering pitcher. (If you want to do this better then distilled water would be best because distilled water is, believe it or now, actually very corrosive.) But I didn't feel like going out and looking for distilled water.

2. I added 3 tbs. salt to 20oz. Britta-filtered water and mixed it vigerously several times with a plastic spoon in a glass jar.

3. I took the blade of a CRKT large Apache. This a bead-blasted ATS-34 blade.

4. I divided the knife into 6ths. (3 on each side) with a Sharpie marker.

5. I divided one of those blue paper shop towels into 6ths - one for each product.

6. One at a time I did the following with each product (all except the Breakfree):
I placed a drop in the middle of the divided-off section and spread it evenly around the section and let it set for 30 seconds. I then used the piece of towel to wipe it back off. All the time being careful not to cross-contaminate any other section. I wiped off each product equally (3 wipes) in order to leave only a film or redidue of each product behind on the blade. I washed my hands and threw out the piece of towel between each product. (One section was left bare metal as a control.)

7. I submerged the blade into the salt-water solution and checked back, keeping track of time (roughly within 25 min - give or take).

THE RESULTS:
After 2.5 hours:
The unprotected blade showed many rust speckles.
The Hoppes coated blade showed about a third as many speckles.
The rest of the blade was void of any rust.

After 8 hours:
The unprotected portion had about double the amount of speckles and the ones that were there grew.
The Hoppes had one or two new speckles and the ones that were, previously, there had grown to 3-times their earlier size.
The Prolix and Sheath coated sections showed a few speckles of rust equal to what Hoppes showed in the earlier check.
The rest of the blade was completely void of rust.

After 13 hours:
The unprotected, Hoppes, Prolix and Sheath sections' rust speckles continued to grow in size but there were only a few more in the Hoppes and unprotected sections.
The White Lightening section developed 4 fairly large specs and two tiny specs of rust.

After 24 hours:
The unprotected section was pretty-much rust-colored with some raised (I assume deep) rust bruises.
The Hoppes was filled with rust specs of various sizes with some raised (I assume deep) rust bruises.
The Prolix and Sheath sections had developed several more small specs and the larger ones hadn't grown visably more severe.
The RemOil had developed a few tiny specs.

After 36 hours:
The liquid was murkey and red with rust.
All sections had progressed only slightly.
The RemOil had developed a few more tiny specs and the others were barely-perceptibly larger than they were at last check.

(Read on. There's one more test.)

PERSONAL COMMENTARY ON TEST ONE:
I was happy I conducted this test. Nothing is better than first-hand experimentation!

I had liked Prolix somewhat because of it's cleaning properties and what it claimed with rust preventitive. Now I don't think it's worth special ordering it. That's OK. I've always felt uncomfortable with it's "dry" lubrication properties because I could still HEAR the friction even though I didn't feel it.

I wasn't shocked at how well White Lightening did. I had expected it to do fairly well on rust-resistance. I never cared for WL as a lubricant because it's thick when it dries and tends to add sort-of a THICKNESS in pivot points that adds some resistance even if it does FEEL smoother. But I'm not surprised that the waxy composition had given it more adhesion to the porous bead-blast and added some durability.

I was VERY surprised at how well RemOil did. It seems so thin when I use it. This is often a good thing because it's easy to get into crevices. I've always been VERY impressed with it's lubrication powers. I've used it on my guns and knives, happily, for a long time. I REALLY didn't expect it to CLING so well to the metal and prevent rust so well.

SECOND EXPEREMENT:
After this test I discovered Breakfree and read a few reviews and started using it on my guns successfully. So I figured I'd put it up against RemOil and see how it would do.

(I'm going to summerize so assume what I leave out is just as careful as what I wrote above.)

I made a solution of 20oz. Britta-filtered water and (stronger this time) 5 tbs. salt in a glass jar. I boiled the mixture in the microwave to get all the salt to disolve.

I cleaned the same blade with carborator cleaner and scrubbed it with emery paper.
One one side I put RemOil and the other BreakFree (same careful technique as above)
After 12 hours:
A few specs of rust on the RemOil side.
The BreakFree side was completely devoid of rust.

After 24 hours:
Larger specs of rust on the RemOil side.
The BreakFree side was completely devoid of rust.

After 36 hours:
Same large specs, some developing into streaks of rust with some more rust specs growing on the RemOil side.
The BreakFree side was completely devoid of rust.

After 48 hours:
Mixture started to tint with rust. The RemOil side started to have rust run down the blade.
The BreakFree side was completely devoid of rust.

Wow. BreakFree is good stuff. I'm going to start using BreakFree mostly. I'm not going to stop using RemOil because it's still much thinner than BreakFree and still did fantastic in these tests. I still think RemOil would be the better choice for tiny crevices like the close tolerences of a Microtech Ultratech or any other knife where you had to try to run oil into tiny crevices because it TRAVELS better than BreakFree. But I think I'm going to beef-up my BreakFree use for a lot of things and probably use it exclusively on my guns.
 
FoL, thank you for taking the time to post your results :)
They are very much welcome!

NsB
 
Real nice job, fulloflead! Your results are interesting. I've always thought that Breakfree (CLP) was a great lubricant, but you seem to have established it's protectant qualities as well.:cool:
 
This seems pretty popular with a lot of folks. Have you thought about doing a TuffGlide vs Breakfree shoot off?

I'm glad to see Breakfree do so well. I've been yousing it on the fire sticks for years.

jmx
 
VERY interesting thread.

Out of curiosity, what does Breakfree contain? And how about wd-40? We don't have this stuff where I live.

Thanks.
 
a) Where I could find BreakFree, and
b) Why not try Tuf-Glide?
 
I'm glad everyone liked my post.

I'll make you a deal. I've never seen TuffGlide around here. If someone sends me a tad bit of TuffGlide I'll perform the test with it up against Breakfree, RemOil and WhiteLightning. Unless there is a different request.

If you're interested in sending me a little vile or something email me directly. fulloflead@hotmail.com
 
Fulloflead,

Very interesting post! I did a little testing like that a long time ago (I got the idea from an article in one of the gun mags), except that I used sea water and plain (unplated) finishing nails. I cleaned the nails with steel wool and degreaser, before putting on a heavy coat of oil with a gun cleaning patch and dropping each into there own little plastic cup filled with salt water. Since the nails were a little longer than the cup, half of the nail was out of the water. I tilted each cup so that each nail was briefly submerged – then I just let them sit.


I tested Hopes gun oil, sheath, LSA oil (military version of Breakfree), and Triflow.


The Hopes did about the worst and Triflow about the best. Sheath also did very well. The LSA gave me mixed results. I had 2 LSA samples made by 2 different government contractors one did nearly as well as Triflow and the other nearly as poorly as Hopes.


The part of the nails above the water rusted much more quickly than the part in the water, and the water of some of the samples would turn rust color faster than others.




-Frank
 
Originally posted by frank k
The part of the nails above the water rusted much more quickly than the part in the water, and the water of some of the samples would turn rust color faster than others.
Click to expand...

Interesting. I might have to modify my test next time.

Though, do I like my "rub & wipe" over your "dip" because it more closely resembles how the product would actually be used.
 
Very informative! I wonder, what happens if you were to use BreakFree AND Rem Oil? WOuld the results be any better?
 
Originally posted by chiseen
Very informative! I wonder, what happens if you were to use BreakFree AND Rem Oil? WOuld the results be any better?
Click to expand...

according to the results, I am not sure how using anything on top or other than break free can get any better
 
Thanks for doing the test and writing up the results. Very useful.

By the way, if anyone sends fulloflead some TuffGlide, be sure to shake the bottle thoroughly before pouring out the sample. It definitely separates out in the bottle.
 
I've used Breakfree for years and it's a fine lubricant for a firearm, and apparently a great rust inhibitor. My reason for asking about TuffGlide is touted as both of those and seems a bit slicker to me. Breakfree seems a little thicker and gummier, it seems like it wouldn't be as good for lubing th epivot as TuffGlide. I only have a small tube, but I'll look around for a container small enough to hold a useful sample.

jmx
 
fulloflead,

I read that the active ingredient in Tufglide is food-grade Mineral oil.
You might want to give that a go aswell.

Isn't it great how we're all giving you homework?:p
Now go to your room and conduct those tests young man.;) :) :)
 
Excellent post, very informative. I will be doing my own test tonight!
 
Can you verify that Tufglide is food grade? I have been using Marine-Tuf and Tufglide on my blades. There were some rust spot on the marine-tufed D2 Maxx that I dropped on the driveway and was rained upon.
 
fulloflead, thanks for taking the time to do the tests. I always knew that Breakfree CLP was some good stuff. There are similar tests that I have read about, and Breakfree always is near the top in the rust prevention tests, but it also has cleaning and lubricating properties besides excellent rust prevention properties.

I always put my Breakfree in clear bottles. I do this because the teflon in Breakfree will settle to the bottom of the bottle, and because the Breakfree bottle is black, I can not see if the Breakfree is mixed up good enough or not. In clear bottles, I know for a fact that it is mixed up good enough. Big D1
 
Originally posted by Big D1
fulloflead, thanks for taking the time to do the tests. I always knew that Breakfree CLP was some good stuff. There are similar tests that I have read about, and Breakfree always is near the top in the rust prevention tests, but it also has cleaning and lubricating properties besides excellent rust prevention properties.

I always put my Breakfree in clear bottles. I do this because the teflon in Breakfree will settle to the bottom of the bottle, and because the Breakfree bottle is black, I can not see if the Breakfree is mixed up good enough or not. In clear bottles, I know for a fact that it is mixed up good enough. Big D1
Click to expand...

How long does it take to settle out? I keep a bottle each of RemOil and Breakfree by my side of the couch because I'm always working on something. I don't always shake them (but I did before the tests). In any case, I don't think the teflon settling out would have affected the tests anyway.

You know what I REALLY don't like? Powdered teflon! I've seen it in a spray (Remington) and also as a powder in a little tube (Hoppes). Just makes a big mess and doesn't stay put.
 
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