Rust prevention under leather lever wrap??

I wonder if it'll make any difference with the use of vegetable vs chrome tanned leather?

usmc0811 said:

Im planning on adding a leather wrap on my large lever on my Henry 44 mag. I've heard it could make it rust underneath over time. I was thinking what about if I cleaned it very well prior to adding the leather wrap and then applying a light coat of something like renaissance wax to it prior to the leather wrap? Would that be a good idea? adding a layer of protection. The wax is used and highly recommended by people who have collectable firearms and museum's to protect their metal items finishes during long storage. Or is something better out there?

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I use neatsfoot oil every so often just dribble it down the threads. I will soak all around the lever and prevent rust. I work with leather and make my own wraps. I have done this for 50 years no rust on the leavers.

usmc0811 said:

Completed the wrap. My first time doing this type of thing. Not the best lol but I like it. One small mistake that I did at the end that I noticed but no biggie. Thanks everyone for the help.

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Nice work. It looks pretty clean to me.

dobedo said:

I use neatsfoot oil every so often just dribble it down the threads. I will soak all around the lever and prevent rust. I work with leather and make my own wraps. I have done this for 50 years no rust on the leavers.
View attachment 1198505

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Nice. What is the rifle on top?

Chrome tanned leather is more prone to rusting guns than vegetable tanned. The problem is that it's getting very hard to find vegetable tanned hides. I use them for linings in my home built holsters.

The practice of using any holster for storing a handgun has long been considered a no-no. The reason is rust, forming where the metal touches the leather.

Too, I've never seen understood the reason for wrapping a lever. Paint or successive coats of urethane might prevent it, but why do it in the first place.

Good Luck & HTH's Rod

Bazoo said:

Nice. What is the rifle on top?

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Big Horn Armory .500 S&W magnum 18" Carbine Model 89

Baseball stitch...nice work! Rod

Rodfac said:

Chrome tanned leather is more prone to rusting guns than vegetable tanned.

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I was going to say that the type of leather might make a difference. For the OP's application, he might want to consider a leather substitute rather than real leather.

My worst experience was with white buff leather slings on early muskets. These -- made with real buff leather rather than simply dyed -- will rust the sling swivels almost overnight. (Slings on muskets were white buff from around 1800 until the 1830's. Thereafter they changed to russet (natural) leather. Other accoutrements were white through the Mexican War, then changed to black in the mid-1850's, and then to russet in the 1890's. At least these were the colors according to the regulations.)

Belts, etc., should be black for the Civil War (at least on the Union side), but gun slings should be natural leather. Mexican War should be white belts and natural gun slings.

AlexanderA said:

My worst experience was with white buff leather slings on early muskets. These -- made with real buff leather rather than simply dyed -- will rust the sling swivels almost overnight.

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It was probably chrome tanned. These days, the dangers of chrome tanning are largely a non-issue but with the lever wrap having 100% contact 100% of the time, I would use vegetable tanned leather.

I use leather cords to wrap my Winchester 94 Trails End back in late ‘97. I am not sure what it will look like if I ever take it off.

I have had bluing on a S&W revolver removed by a tanned leather shoulder holster, good idea to try and protect the finish.

Nice job on the wrap! Hopefully the work you did protects the metal.

Stay safe.

usmc0811 said:

I just went and coated it with some good old nail polish. Ill do 2 coats. It seals and dries hard. What do you think?

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I would try soaking a short piece of the leather wrap in some boiled linseed oil.
You may need to work the oil into the leather though.
Then wrap it tightly around some similar piece of steel like Loop, then let it dry.
The oil should dry into a moisture barrier but may somewhat darken the leather.

That would be a good test for doing the same thing on the gun.
jmo,
.
Edit: If you are using a rawhide shoelace for the wrap, I believe they are waxed, and that wax needs to be removed before using the linseed oil.

doubleh said:

I would clean it throughly, mask off everything you don't want painted, and spray it with clear Krylon Fusion. Spray one cot and within 30 minute another wiithout sanding. Fusion sticks to almost anything with no primer needed and is the toughest paint I have ever found. It seems to toughen more the longer it's on something.

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Yes Krylon, and I have removed/washed it off with OMS, so easily removable.
jmo,
.

I've put my own hand cut veg tanned lever wraps on all of my Henry rifles (5 of them). Unless the bluing is already spotty there's really nothing to worry about. Even still, it's the lever, not an internal part. If there were rust spots that developed after time and you ever decided to take it off just remove the rust and re-blue.

I soaked my wraps after cutting to length & tapping stitching holes in water to wet form to the lever as I stitched them on. After I let them dry for a day I hit them with a generous amount of Ballistol, mostly to darken the leather for aesthetics. Veg tan will darken with handling over time but the oil accelerates the process and smooths the top grain after all the water evaporates from wet forming.

If you are OCD just order another lever from Henry and put it where you will not forget you have one. Even if the first rusts, sand it down and cold blue it. This not a collectors item.
PS: I did buy a large loop for a Henry 22LR and wrapped it. I put the orginal loop with the original paper work in an envelope.

My son-in-law got an old marlin from his grandfather, and it was wrapped in leather, but the leather seemed loose, her removed it and it
had rusted the lever so bad that the surface metal was gone, and the leather was falling apart.
I got him a new lever and installed it. He wanted it wrapped so I put a few layers of clear plastic on it and oiled the leather before and after
it was on and I made it tight. I need to get him to bring it by and see how it is doing after 2 years.
I would love to have my lever guns like that but after seeing the rusted one I can't do it.

Just me- I'd wear a glove on my
lever cranking hand before I'd
put a semi-permanent wrapping
on a rustable gun part, but again
that's just me
Never needed any of that

Well, for the guys that don't understand the leather wrap, there is a reason besides looks.

If you've ever cranked out a few hundred shots out of your lever gun in an hour or less, the meatless back of the fingers can take a pounding.

This is less so with a standard sized lever loop, but much more so with an oversize lever loop as the fingers move quite a ways before contacting the lever. Which is like the difference in pushing something and slapping something to make it move . . . with the meatless back of the fingers.

Of course, one could wear gloves. I live in the Texas coastal plains and the only time I wear gloves is if it's genuinely cold outside, which isn't that often. My generation may be one of the last that doesn't wear gloves out of habit. Seemingly, glove wearing for working on things or using guns has taken off in the last two decades, it just hasn't taken off with me.

So, the only time my compadres and I wore gloves was during hunting season when it was our version of cold. And during a hunt, we weren't exactly cranking out a few hundred shots in an hour or less.

Seems like there ought to be a North and South version of each lever gun model, as the general proliferation of oversize lever loops tends to confound this Texas boy.

I am thinking to add a leather wrap on my new stainless Rossi. I have always used single wrap paracord. But a wrap may be more comfortable. A stainless lever ought to be pretty corrosion proof if the lever is waxed before application?

Carbon or stainless, Id treat them the same here, and assume its going to rust.

Contrary to what a lot of people seem to think, SS is not rust-proof. More resistant, yeah, but it will rust/corrode if you arent maintaining it.

Ive bought a couple of SS handguns that the previous owners must have never removed the grips, and when I did, they were pretty ugly underneath.

What about wrapping the lever with paracord?

Sorry, I didn't see number 46 above.

A little bit of any sort of oil will prevent most rust.

But any blued finish that is exposed to constant contact with leather is probably going to degrade.
I think you are signing up for the finish to be worn off pretty quickly if the gun is ACTUALLY USED.

If you are really worried about the condition of the steel under leather on an inexpensive firearm, buy a spare lever.

W.E.G. said:

But any blued finish that is exposed to constant contact with leather is probably going to degrade.

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That is a myth, pure and simple. If a blued gun rusts in a vegetable tanned holster, it's because it was left in a humid environment, which is a threat to any carbon steel, holster or not. If you leave a handgun in a holster inside a vehicle or garage, it's the humidity, not the leather that causes the rust. If you spend a week in the bush and suffer through a rainstorm, it's the moisture causing the rust, not the leather. If it's inside your air conditioned home, it will not rust.