I'm polishing a muzzle break down to the bare steel. I like the way it looks with a mirror finish. This gun won't be outdoors much except to plink in the back yard. Am I creating a maintenance nightmare or is there something I can treat the steel with to protect is as much as regular blued gun steel? Thanks in advance for tips and advice.
Once I polished the barrel (four barrels in one) on a pepperbox black powder kit, I brought it up to a mirror finish, actually when you finally get the mirror results on steel you've actually closed a lot of the pores in the metal surface which does make it much more resistant to rust, I had that gun for about five years after that and never seen a bit of rust on it, finally sold it. I oiled it once in a great blue moon when I had it too so it really did hold up well.
vegatable oil
I did an extensive evaluation of a variety of Lubricants and rust inhibitors. Its too lengthy to repost here so I am linking you to my blog where the entire evaluation is posted.http://ronkulas.proboards.com/thread/274/review-comparison-gun-care-products