Preventing Rust

[GNARnia]

This is my first season on ice, and I've been getting considerable amounts of rust on my picks and the inside of the pick head interface on my tools. Right now it is purely cosmetic but at the speed it generates I could envision it being a problem later on. Has anyone had this problem and found a way to alleviate rust?

 

[genepires]

use it and the rust will be gone.

or clean up good, oil it and then never use it.

 

the rust should not be a problem. For the time it takes the rust may be a problem, you should have replaced the pick long before due to the pick being filed down too far. (no metalurgist here) But I would imagine it would take 10 years or so for the rust to develop into something to worry about.

 

If the rust is just something that you don't like to see on the tools (understandable) then maybe just clean it off (steel wool) and oil it down. This will wear off when you swing it into ice so you will have to redo.

 

There is a liquid (on a cloth) to apply to metal to prevent rust and you can find it somewhere that sells gun cleaning supplies. It won't get rid of rust but will form a waterproof layer over metal. Obviously this won't survive a climbing day either.

[genepires]

BTW, was type of tool is it? My CM/Petzl and grivel tool never rusts.

[Julian]

Buy some ultra-fine sandpaper and use it to scrape the rust off. My BD Cyborgs have developed a bit of superficial rust on occasion, and this gets rid of it quickly.

[GNARnia]

They are cobra's with laser picks, the picks are the source of rust and not the tools for sure, I might change them out to some newer versions and see if it was just an older batch that was more rust prone.

Will have to grab some steel wool but overall I'm not that concerned because filing will take the rust off the important bits.

[cdurf]

My BD tools rust a lot but my Petzolds don't. Either way to minimize the rusting at the end of the day I will take a cloth rag and wipe the tools dry. This helps alot. You may be putting them away damp.

[billcoe]

This is my first season on ice, and I've been getting considerable amounts of rust on my picks and the inside of the pick head interface on my tools. Right now it is purely cosmetic but at the speed it generates I could envision it being a problem later on. Has anyone had this problem and found a way to alleviate rust?

 

Oh yeah! Look, any unfinished high alloy metal will have all kinds of issues from rust. Some alloys rust faster than others, but all of them can benefit from this crap: Eezox (or alternatively corrosion X is good). After you get home, toss your shit in a corner of the basement like you usually do, go pass out for a day like you also most likely do, maybe ya get a shower first, maybe not. When you come to, go over to your now dry tools and just lightly wipe them down with this stuff. It will soon dry to the touch and doesn't smell good so do it over something like a garbage can, no need to over do it. Works better than any oil. Of course, if you can dry them and then wipe this stuff on first, before you collapse, so much the better.

 

http://www.eezox.com/ You can use it on any metal, tools, etc.

 

You can surf the web for data and results, but here's some pics of salt spray tests against some other products. Salt is a corrosive, you can go to Detroit where they salt the roads and your cars last 4 years before they are rusted out to confirm it, but that's true. So a concentrated salt solution, called a salt spray test, is utilized to speed up the process of corrosion.

 

Top Row: Left to right. Control, FP10, Corrosion-X | Bottom Row: Left to right. Eezox, Breakfree.

 

Top Row: Left to right. Control, FP10, Corrosion-X | Bottom Row: Left to right. Eezox, Breakfree.

 

Another group at 15 hours to compare:

Top Row: Left to right. Control, Break-Free, Strike-Hold | Bottom Row: Left to right. Rem-Oil, Slip2000, Mobil-1 15W50

 

Regards and you're rust free now!

 

 

[Nitrox]

I did my FIL's older Cyborgs in flat black KG.

 

EEzox smells awful.