tips for avoiding rusty armor

[The Matross]

basically, i'm looking for the best way too look after my new helmet, so far, I've found three ways:
1) paint it black
2) wax it
3) browning i.e let it rust

are there any other common methods of protecting armor?
currently I'm thinking of waxing it, but don't know what wax is the best type to use, or even how to apply it,
any help would be much appreciated...

purely as a matter of interest, how would I go about browning it? Is iot effective?

[Fox]

Dave Hodges, the Iron Dwarf, has a product he calls Battle Wax.
It's very good.

[Midland Spinner]

We sell traditional beeswax and turpentine polish which does an excellent job.

[Chris T]

Russeting (controlled rusting) is effective, authentic, looks good and is not that hard to do.

The secret is to build up an even layer of surface rust in a controlled fashion, to the point where the bare metal is covered in a layer of oxide, and therefore protected. The surface can then be treated with wax etc to seal it.

Forge blackening /oil blueing is a similar process, but using heat to build up a protective layer of different chemical composition, but similar effect. This is also not hard to do, looks good and is authentic.

There was a thread a while back on painting armour, on which I seem to upset a number of people...basically I said I do not like historic armour painted in modern paints, especially spray paint, which had not been invented.

A lot depends on your period and status...most 'ordinary' armour (as opposed to nobles etc) would never have polished, certainly not to the high gloss polish so easy to get with modern machine polishers but almost impossible to get or maintain before recent times.

[nix]

Body shop natural oil, doesn't smell and protects

[nick19thind]

WD-40 and a wire brush