Removing Rust & Bluing With... Molasses!?!

     Yes, you read the title correctly.  I don't know who came up with this idea, perhaps grandma found her shotgun more suited to stirring her famous cookie mix.  However it came about, this solution works like a charm!  I had recently come home from a quiet little gun show in Rome, GA with a sweet little Belgian beater side by side.  It was rusted from end to end, and the stock looked like it had been left in a tub of salt water.  It had character though, and since I'm a sucker for that, I just had to have it.  Once I got it home I decided to try a new trick for removing all that rust and the sad remainder of the bluing.  I grabbed my trusty five gallon bucket and filled it with water and three quarts of molasses from my local supermarket. In went the barrel and all the metal parts.

 I let it all sit for around four days, mixing it occasionally.  After I removed it from the solution, I rinsed off all of the parts with warm water and gave each of them a good polishing with 0000 steel wool.  To my surprise the bluing and rust seemed to have melted right off, leaving a bright and shiny finish on all of the metal.  A quick and easy bluing job was now in order, so I purchased a favorite bluing kit of "Van's Instant Gun Blue".  The wood was then restored using "Arrow Wood Finish".  (You can read about and order these products by viewing the "Great Products" page).  I left the sideplates and hammers untouched.  It has a rustic quality that I love and shoots black powder handloads like a dream.  Happy hunting!