Educational Zone #23 - Cosmoline Removal

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Educational Zone #23 - Cosmoline Removal - Page 1

I had a few folks ask me how to best remove Cosmoline from a firearm. Cosmoline is a Vaseline-type preservative that was used to preserve firearms.

Collectors of C&R (Curio & Relic) firearms often find old firearms that were built around WWI or WWII and then put in storage. These guns were usually just dipped in a big vat of Cosmoline and then put into storage.

Sometimes folks forget what is going on and get all mad at the big Cosmoline mess that must be cleaned up on these old guns. But we ought to remember that Cosmoline is actually our "Friend".

It has preserved these old guns, like new, under the Cosmoline, and all we have to do is clean them up to have a 50+ year-old, brand new gun.

First, let's look at some pictures of a Yugo SKS that I found at the gun show last weekend.

It is like-new and has a coating of Cosmoline.

Here it is.

One important thing to remember about Cosmoline is that the guns were "dipped" in a vat of the stuff.

It isn't just a coating on the exterior, but is in every nook and cranny of the gun.

And it all has to be cleaned out.

Here's some showing between the stock and barrel assembly.