Humidity

[wiggles]

What does your humidity run at in the area you store your collections? How many of you actually monitor humidity, or take measures to control it?

I have a pretty damp environment, and there seems to be very little I can do about it. A room dehumidifier is running on full power 24 hours a day, and I use silica gel desiccant to reduce humidity locally as much as I can, and I still can't get below 56%. I have considered moving my "collection" (not much of one yet) to another room, but choices are limited. One possible area of the house I looked at was 10% higher than that.

Do I just live in an extremely damp house?

Here's a tool somebody on another forum posted for determining dew point and risk of corrosion.

Dew Point Calculator

I'm just below the risk level for corrosion, but since I already have some surface rust on some of my items, I'd like to get below 50%.

[oddball]

hi wig, i read on here to put thin film of vaseline on bare metal, i did this yesterday to my hj dagger which has developed `spotting` over the years i`ve had it (since 1981) i reduce the damp problem like this - no water left standing (washing up bowls etc) - bath/shower wiped dry every time used- no clothes dryed on radiators and as much fresh air circulated as pos. every bit helps- if you need a dehumidifier the problem might be with the building itself.

[wiggles]

hi wig, i read on here to put thin film of vaseline on bare metal, i did this yesterday to my hj dagger which has developed `spotting` over the years i`ve had it (since 1981) i reduce the damp problem like this - no water left standing (washing up bowls etc) - bath/shower wiped dry every time used- no clothes dryed on radiators and as much fresh air circulated as pos. every bit helps- if you need a dehumidifier the problem might be with the building itself.

I believe the problem is with the building itself, or at least with parts of it. The old areas are poorly ventilated, and I think external walls are not damp proof coursed.

I just found an area with lower humidity (seems to be below 50%) in the newer part of the house, and moved my things there, but it's far from ideal: It's an airing cupboard.

I don't really want to have to keep my stuff in a part of the house I share with other people, where I can't see it, and there is the possibility of unsupervised access by people I don't know. It's also not safe to keep edged weapons in an airing cupboard where children can get at them IMO.

Still, better than a rusty, mouldy collection.

[oddball]

do you live in U.K. because this little island is litterally a ship at sea so is damp all over

[ILH]

56% i wish we had it so easy; the RMARG museum is around 80% at the moment- Not good at all, but we're working on it.

I can strongly reccomend:

1) Rangoon gun Oil for firearms, blades, anything ferrous, etc.- excellent rust inhibitor/ lubricant- reapply every 6 months to a year- just wipe with an Rangoon Oily rag- leaves a very thin, non sticky film. Tried and tested for many years by the tropical parts of British Empire- hence the name- and most shotgun owners.

2) Renaissance Wax (invented by the British Museum) for other metals (badges, medals, WHY). It isn't cheap, but by far preferable to lacquer as it lasts longer, preserves patina, and is far easier to remove(if corrosion does occur) and reapply.



Clothing we hoover about one a year- keeps the dust, bugs, and mould down.

Don't forget that wood and leather should not be dried too much- they will shrink, warp and crack.

Jim.

[wiggles]

do you live in U.K. because this little island is litterally a ship at sea so is damp all over

Yeah, in the midlands. Still, I feel like being in the 55-60% range in a room with a dehumidifier running 24-7 is a bit OTT.

[wiggles]

56% i wish we had it so easy; the RMARG museum is around 80% at the moment- Not good at all, but we're working on it.

I can strongly reccomend:

1) Rangoon gun Oil for firearms, blades, anything ferrous, etc.- excellent rust inhibitor/ lubricant- reapply every 6 months to a year- just wipe with an Rangoon Oily rag- leaves a very thin, non sticky film. Tried and tested for many years by the tropical parts of British Empire- hence the name- and most shotgun owners.

2) Renaissance Wax (invented by the British Museum) for other metals (badges, medals, WHY). It isn't cheap, but by far preferable to lacquer as it lasts longer, preserves patina, and is far easier to remove(if corrosion does occur) and reapply.



Clothing we hoover about one a year- keeps the dust, bugs, and mould down.

Don't forget that wood and leather should not be dried too much- they will shrink, warp and crack.

Jim.

I have renwax. I'm using it on blades scabbards, everything metal, but I've only put it on one bayo right now. Everything else I'm using ballistol on for the moment. I'll look at the rangoon oil though, thanks.

The renwax, I'm not 100% sure about yet. The metal feels, sort of none-metallic. You can tell there's a film on it. Maybe I didn't buff it up enough.

[Nige H]

I agree with Jim on the issue of leather, to wet or too dry is not a good thing, also if the item is something such as a Scabbard, it would be best to display the knife and scabbard separately, as old leather is normally vegetable tanned and thus naturally acidic, also as I've mentioned on here before veg tan hide absorbs acid from the atmosphere. Finally while on the subject of leather, don't do as a friend of mine did and store leather items in a plastic carrier bag, he did this with a WW1 date M1916 Colt holster, the result was a green furry over coat of mould spores.

On brass fasteners and fitting ether on webbing items or leather items, there are two things to watch out for. Firstly on leaded brass (mainly British 37) white oxide, this is in fact some of the lead content in the brass separating from the zinc and copper, this can be removed but requires very careful use of strong acid ether hydrochloric of sulphuric will do the trick, but don't whatever you do get it on any cotton based fabrics. Verdigris ether wet or dry will attack brass hardware and cause damage and oxidisation especially once it crystallises and becomes a hard copper carbonate deposit. Again this can be removed by various methods, such as wiping, scraping or as in the case of the lead oxide acid removal a strong acid. On U.S. Brass hardware any Verdigris will remove the original factory chemical blacking, once the verdigris has been cleaned from the surface it is possible to "Touch up" the damaged area of the blackening using special acid based brass blacks which contain Selenium Dioxide, this problem seems to be at its worst on late WWII O.D.7 items which are mildew resistant treated (MRT), as the PCB's within the rot proof treatment in the web gear react over a period of time with the brass hardware, normally this is in humid, damp or moist conditions. So items which have been in long term government store suffer quite badly. Finally Just remember that Verdigris, Selenium Dioxide and Polychlorinated biphenyl's are all highly poisonous and contain nasty chemical compounds, all should be handled with great care.

Nige.

[Pompa Mike]

Wow, you guy's have it bad. I live in Albuquerque New Mexico. right now it is 74 degrees, wind is 4 mph and the humidity is 9%. On this one instance I might be on the top of the heap.

Mike

[Darren Lillington]

We have failry high humidity here in QLD being a tropical state and i have found choji oil (99% mineral oil and 1% of clove oil) very effective at preventing rust, it dose not leave streaks or stains and will protect your peices for many months.

The 1 % clove oil is really just to add a pleasant fragrance but some beleive it helps, being only1 % i seriously doubt that so if you cant get Choji oil simply use pure mineral oil.

As for clothing, i actually only have a couple of pieces, they are stored in a dry closet in plastic ziplock bags as i have no room to display them and have never had any issues, touch wood.
I have heard lavender will keep the moths away if your having moth problems.

Leather holsters are kept away from heat and direct sunlight or the leather will dry out and fade, there are leather cleaners and conditioners but have not tried them myself, if you do mean to use something, do a spot test first. Its mostly down to trial and error and common sense here chaps.
Cheers -

Darren.L