I would strongly suggest you check into ACF-50, which has proven to be a reliable and safe corrosion inhibitor in many applications.
I would strongly suggest you check into ACF-50, which has proven to be a reliable and safe corrosion inhibitor in many applications.
Renaissance Wax is what the military collectible community tends to use on arms, armor, medals, etc. It requires a bit of time to apply and buff, but it is highly regarded by people with high-end antiquities.
(It will not, however, stop "zinc pest" found on many zinc-based military items... I don't think anything can stop that, as the problem is sort of "baked into" the metal when the alloy is composed and melted before casting.)
Many knife people like Tuf-Glide and I know people who think it is fine for wiping down firearms, but I have never tried it on anything but knives.
Ballistol is, IMHO, better than nothing as a rust preventative, but that is about it. I does have many uses, but rust prevention isn't really one of them. I have had good luck with Slip 2000 EWL in short-term storage, but YMMV. RIG and the original Cosmoline were pretty good in their day, but I am not sure you can even get them anymore.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."
Cool! RIG used to be the gold standard for a lot of serious gun guys back in the day. One of the area gunsmiths used to push it to the locals who used their shotguns a few times a year and thought a drop of 3 in 1 oil or 30 weight motor oil rubbed into a thin film on the outside or cursorily ran down the bore would prevent their guns from rusting in whatever corner they stored them in. He had a little pyramid of boxes with the "toothpaste tube" of RIG inside them that never seemed to lose or gain a box.
There aren't many positives to aging out, but I guess one of them would be that I now have what is probably a "lifetime supply" - MY lifetime, at any rate - of cosmoline that I bought from Brownells when they still carried it.
gn
"On the internet, nobody knows if you are a dog... or even a cat."