Why are there so many items meant to reduce or prevent corrosion in a gun safe on the market?
- Most armorers will tell you that it will not rust if a pistol is cleaned and oiled properly.
- Corrosion is a hot topic in safes, and they offer millions of dollars in products to prevent it.
- Rust and gun safes
WHY DO GUNS IN GUN SAFES RUST SO FAST?
A thin steel shell is used to construct modern gun safes, which are subsequently enclosed with gypsum board (drywall) and carpeted. You must look at the compounds in these materials and how they react to understand the corrosion difficulties.
CH2O is the chemical formula for formaldehyde.
In the production of drywall, formaldehyde is employed. In drywall slurry, it’s a dispersion agent. Sulfonated naphthalene-formaldehyde condensates are the dispersion agents in question. These compositions contain a mixture of formaldehyde and naphthalene, as the name suggests. In your safe, the agents evaporate, potentially generating an acidic environment for metal and wood. In locations where relics are preserved, museums prohibit the use of formaldehyde. In most safes, formaldehyde is also included in the adhesive used to connect the carpet interior.
Sulfur
Sulfur can be present in drywall, particularly Chinese drywall. Sulfur forms hydrogen sulfide and sulfuric acid when it combines with trace amounts of water (humidity).
Pyrite (iron sulfide) is a common mineral known as “fool’s gold.” It’s found in gypsum, which is used to manufacture drywall. Small amounts of gypsum are found in the United States, while far larger amounts are found in gypsum extracted in China. The pyrite eventually finds its way into the drywall.
When it comes to rusting metal, sulfuric acid is very aggressive.
Bacteria are known as ferrooxidans
This is a metal-eating form of the bacterium. It feeds on pyrite found in the drywall. This bacteria is responsible for converting pyrite into iron hydroxide and sulfur-based acids. It doesn’t end there, though. ferrooxidans will consume many other metals. In mining operations, the ferroxidase bacterium is utilized to extract metals from low-grade ore.
Is there a sulfur odor in your gun safe?
Check for a faint earthy or sulfur odor the next time you open a safe. It’s there, and the longer the door is shut, the stronger it becomes. It’s something I’ve noticed, especially with cheap safes on the sales floor of several big-box sporting goods retailers. That odor is the following processes in motion, and it will swiftly produce gun rust.
As you can see, all of the corrosion control products used in the safe business have a very excellent rationale. Modern gun safes made of gypsum (drywall) are corrosive.
Why would you want to use drywall? It is inexpensive, simple to use, and hefty. The weight is crucial. The gun safe industry prefers to make heavier safes. Heavy safes are thought to be “safer.” However, it’s all smoke and mirrors to mask the fact that the industry has abandoned classic safe designs. According to UL, modern gun safes are not true safes because they are designed to the UL Class RSC standard.
How did the gun-safe industry come to produce a product capable of destroying the very thing it was supposed to protect?
In the late 1970s, it began. Until then, gun safes were based on Silas Herring’s original design. He employed a sandwich design with a heavy outer steel shell, a thin inner steel shell, and a layer of plaster or cement in the middle. The safe gun business began to flourish in the 1980s, and as demand for safes increased, a slew of new companies entered the market. These new producers ditched the original Silas Herring design to favor cheaper, lighter materials to cut costs and speed up production.
The heavy exterior steel was removed. The plaster or cement filler was removed. The thin steel cabinet on the inside became the steel box on the outside. They used drywall to line this thin-walled box, then carpeted it. This is what a modern gun safe looks like.
UL (Underwriters Laboratories) created a new classification when these modifications happened. RSC (Residential Security Container) is a subclass of RSC (Residential Security Container). The RSC is the most common gun safe seen in most stores across the United States.
If you bought a gun safe after 1980, it was almost certainly a UL Class RSC. It’s made of drywall and is susceptible to all of the corrosion problems mentioned above. Clean and oiled weapons are still your best defense against corrosion. It’s critical to open the door and allow your safe air out regularly. This will help to reduce the formation of corrosive sulfur compounds. Dehumidifiers help to slow down the process by lowering humidity levels, but they do not halt it.
Corrosive materials must be removed.
A gun safe’s inside can be removed and replaced with safer materials. SBI Micore-300, for example, can be used to replace drywall. However, it will require some time and expertise to fit and install the new fireboard properly because this is a major change.
What’s the best way to avoid all of this? Buying a gun safe with drywall or carpets is a bad idea. That rules out almost every safe offered in the United States. Otherwise, the Herring double-walled steel design safes are available from Ft. Knox, Browning, American Security, and a few boutique manufacturers. These types provide some security and some fire protection, and the interior steel will guard against corrosion. These safes range in price from $10,000 to $20,000 and up.
This raises the following concerns. Why should you invest in a gun safe?
Why should you invest in a gun safe?
According to the research, standard UL Class RSC safes provide little security or fire protection.
So, how do you go about it? How can you safeguard your financial investment?
There are several other advantages to removing drywall from gun cabinets. It is preferable to lose weight. It’s more convenient, and it gives you more options for how and where you store and safeguard your firearms.
Consider the Tactical Model 52, a gun cabinet that is lightweight and concealable while providing a powerful theft deterrent. The great part is that it won’t corrode or ruin the very things it’s supposed to preserve.
In terms of corrosion, the all-steel design of our gun cabinets is significantly safer for your firearms. Smaller steel gun cabinets can be strategically placed throughout a home to provide quick access to secured firearms in an emergency.
The way firearms are stored going to change. The gun safe industry creates and sells a product that gives the appearance of security. Their advertised gun capacity is a complete lie. They aren’t fireproof, and the materials used to construct a safe encourage gun corrosion. You can deceive certain folks from time to time. It all comes together in the end. That is exactly what is going on right now.
We are the US government’s primary supplier of weapon storage systems. The purpose of the military armory has been modernized. We want to do the same thing with handgun storage at home. Sportsman Steel Safe risen to the top of the current firearms storage market, and things are about to change quickly in the next years.