Johnson's paste wax, Gun oil, lots of products. Paste wax has an advantage of not being sticky/wet, so stays cleaner.
Whats the suggested product to keep bare metal shiny? Im planning on painting this, but wanting to keep the areas in red bare metal (and shiny if possible).
Im in Canada and not everything is available without crazy shipping prices. so a few suggestions are welcome and ill see what i can find. Thanks in advance to all you great ladies and gents.
Personally, I think it is a mistake trying to keep steel shiny, akin to sweeping the sand off the beach (with apologies to Lewis Carroll).
We live on a planet with an atmosphere of nearly 20% oxygen. Further, the two locations on the vise you want to protect are also the places of greatest abrasion. Even clear epoxy cannot stand up to nature indefinitely. Realistically, oxygen is going to get to your iron.
Iron goes through multiple oxidation states, and they are not all bad. Particularly, Fe3O4 (magnetite) is a lovely dark gray which does not expand the way red rust (hematite) does, into a crusty mess. If the underlying steel is polished, magnetite will shine, too. It’s what you’re seeing when you look at a “blued” gun barrel. Because it is slightly porous, keeping a film of oil (or wax, or whatever) on it is not as impossible as bare bright steel. In that way, it actually helps to prevent/retard oxidation to red rust (an occasional wipe of oil and buffing of any rust before it gets a foothold is key). With that kind of light maintenance, your vise will last for generations. If you “seal” bright steel, it will rust under the sealant. Then you will grind it off and reseal it,
ad infinitum, each time removing more of the metal. It won’t last as long, and it will only look good for short periods of time.
Just my 2 cents.
---Real pretty work.
