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Discussion: Buying Milsurp: Cosmoline Removal

Back in the old days gasoline, kerosene or diesel fuel was the go to product for cosmoline removal. You can believe me this was not a project that mama allowed to be completed in the house! By the time I was married I knew better than to even try.

On another note that dark green finish you find on vintage 1903A3 rifles is the result of long-term storage packed in cosmoline or similar petroleum-based products. When these rifles were originally manufactured by Remington and Smith-Corona, the fresh parkerized finish came from the phosphating tanks as a light-to-charcoal gray. However, the parkerizing process creates a highly porous crystalline surface that was designed to trap and hold oil. Over decades of arsenal storage, the heavy greases, waxes, and compounds in cosmoline soaked deep into this porous surface. Exposure to time, heat, and oxidation permanently stained the gray phosphate crystals, turning them into the distinct olive-drab or dark green patina highly prized by collectors today so the experts say! And that’s how you tell a vintage original from an original that’s been refinished along its journey. Those 1903A3s that you find in mint condition were probably never issued as most became surplus the day WWII ended.
 
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As a former US Navy ship's Weapons Officer I still do it the way our Master Chief Gunners Mate did it. Cheap, fast, clean and easy. Put every thing metal that will fit into a large pot of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Heat removes everything soluble, cosmoline floats to top, skim it off first, then remove and rinse in hot water, inspect, oil thoroughly and now ready for reassembly. Author's method good for wood and parts too large to fit in kettle.
 
Vegas Johnny Mac said:
As a former US Navy ship's Weapons Officer I still do it the way our Master Chief Gunners Mate did it. Cheap, fast, clean and easy. Put every thing metal that will fit into a large pot of boiling water for about 15 minutes. Heat removes everything soluble, cosmoline floats to top, skim it off first, then remove and rinse in hot water, inspect, oil thoroughly and now ready for reassembly. Author's method good for wood and parts too large to fit in kettle.
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You must be single! Use one of my wife’s pots!! My life is worth too much for me to try it…
 
I also did use mineral spirits on a Chinese SKS rehab project.

I made up a soaker made from large diameter PVC tubing. I soaked the stock & barreled upper (seperatly) in it filled with mineral spirits, to clean off the Cosmo, especially to leach it out from the stock..
 
Thanks....good info. Typically when I use my ultrasonic cleaner. I fill the tank with distilled water and put what I need cleaned in a plastic container. Sometimes a zip lock bag or a container with a liquid tight lid the put that in the water in the ultrasonic tank. Seems to work well for other parts especially suppressors. Saves on the cleaning solution as you are not using almost a gallon that the tank holds.
 
When cleaning a lot of guns I have used a parts washer with mineral spirits with great results, then blow out with compressed air. I re-lube the surfaces with Remoil spray because the mineral spirits leaves it dry. Nowadays with one gun at a time I use Gunscrubber.
 
Back in the mid-‘80’s a friend bought a handful of cosmoline coated SKS rifles wrapped individually in grocery sack type paper. He gave one to me and a neighbor who had just finished cleaning his SKS suggested aerosol brake cleaner. I bought a few cans and a gallons of mineral spirits. I put the small parts in an old Christmas cookie tin and soaked them in brake cleaner for a couple of days. I used the spray brake cleaner to blow out nocks and crannies. It worked like a charm! When my neighbor bought a second SKS for his son, we took it out to my best friend’s auto shop and used his parts cleaner. We did pay him to have the cleaner fluid replaced a day or so after we spent a few hours cleaning the SKS. It’s amazing how much gunk comes out of firearms cleaning them. I mentioned this to my dad who was a Motor Machinist Mate aboard a LST in the Pacific in WWII. His ship had a steam cleaner which he used to clean some firearms his skipper got from the Marines. Apparently he won a huge bet in a poker game and the Marine supply officer didn’t want to give up an aviator’s wristwatch he had won. Dad said the steam cleaner really did the job.
 
My very first milsurp was a 1891 Mosin Nagant Dragoon. I paid $50.00 for it at a yard sale. I’ve yet to fire it even though I’ve had it for over 20 years. It’s still packed in cosmoline in the internals. The receiver is mostly clean as is the barrel.
Later on I bought a M1938 Mosin. It was an arsenal matched rifle packed from nose to tail in cosmoline. I cleaned the tarnation out of it then took it to the range. I must have missed some because that rifle has some hidden issues. It’s a bear to cycle the bolt, even though I soaked it in cleaning fluid, scrubbed and oiled it everywhere I could. The bad thing is when I shot it, the bolt jammed closed. I had to smack it with my boot to get it to unlock. I tried four different makes of ammo, milsurp and commercial, and got the same result. Sure would like to figure out its issue.
Could stuck cosmoline be the culprit with the bolt?
 
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