Speed Green question

[yondering]

Mainly for Bullshop, but others feel free to chime in:
I made up a batch of homemade Speed Green last night, using 1 bottle of Bull Plate lube, and 6 ounces (by weight) of straight yellow beeswax. I haven't used it yet, but when it cooled off I noticed the color is much brighter green than the real "Speed Green" I bought from Bullshop. Did I get the ratio's wrong, or is this normal? The stick of Speed Green I bought was kind of a dull gray-green color, but the stuff I made up tonight is a bright green, almost like those old 70's porche's, but a little more faded than that.

[cajun shooter]

I think that the beeswax has a lot to do with it. The color of honey has to do with the location of the bee and what they feed on. I'm sure that the beeswax that bullshop has is a different shade than what you have. Just a guess on my part. Later David

[44man]

True, I have beeswax that is brown, yellow and white and all of my lubes are a different color.

[yondering]

Ok, maybe that's all it is. I got my beeswax from Lars when I bought some of his lube, and it's bright yellow.

Sure do like Bullshop's Speed Green! It's sticky on my fingers, but doesn't need a heater and eliminated the slight leading I got with other lubes.

[NuJudge]

Alaskan bees are tougher . . . They produce tougher beeswax (sorry, I couldn't resist).

CDD

[Bullshop]

G'Day Gents
I too think the differance is the wax. I got some of the big buy in Texas from Glen too and I still have it. I didnt use it because I felt it was not pure bee's wax. No offence Glen just my feelings. This wax was a light yellow and somewhat transparrent, and had no odor and also was somewhat flexable.. The wax I am getting now from Randy Rat a member here is hard, dark yellow and has a strong smell of honey. If the wax does not smell sweet when melting I cant call it pure bee's wax.
What you made will still work well for lube and may be an improvment over mine, who knows, but I bet if it is the same wax I got from Glen it will be much softer than my lube.
A good grade of wax is important but not as important as the lube. The wax is only the carrior the bullplate is what does the work.
Think about how well bullplate works at preventing lead from sticking to your mold when casting. Now apply the same idea to your barrel, BINGO no lead.
Leading or no leading is only one part of what a good lube does. It also has to shoot good. That is where the quality of the wax comes in. Some waxes will cause more fouling than others to build up causing flyers from lube perging and worse even yet hard fouling that will just plain cause inaccuracy. Once the fouling builds up to where the boolit begins to ride up on it you have accuracy problems. So a good lube prevents leading but also leaves a consistant film of lube in the barrel and does not build up after many shots. With a well balanced load and a good lube barrel cleaning is rarely neccessarry.
BIC/BS

[No_1]

Dan and all,

Not trying to butt in here but since the Bullplate lube does work so well at keeping the lead off the moulds how do you think it would work if I ran a patch of it down the barrel before shooting? Think that might prolong leading issues? I know I could try it and see but was wondering if you had done any testing of this nature.

Robert

BTW, I thought you had posted once that the mix was 3 to 1 by weight.

[Bullshop]

No 1
Yes on the rare ocasion that I do clean a barrel I run a patch dampend with bullplat through the barrel as the final step.
It is never a good idea to run the first shot with a boolit over a squeeky clean dry barrel.
Even then I like to fire two or three shots before getting down to any serious shooting.
Yes the mix is 3 to 1 bee's wax to bullplate by actual weight not liquid weight/volume
I use a digital postal scale for weighing. Fairely inexpensive at Sam's club.
BIC/BS

[357maximum]

That bulk buy beeswax is very likely cappings grade beeswax. This is the "NEW" beeswax of the year. The more brownish yellowish stuff with more smell has been recycled once or more...the more it is used by melting down and being remade into forms..the darker it will get. The guy I used to get my beeswax from charged more for the "VIRGIN" wax than the "used" wax. It all seems to work, but will throw your oils off a bit as far as to amount required...sometimes ...it depends on how fussy you are.

I have seen it from almost clear to black and everywhere in between. I know what he used to do with the D. brown/black wax...and it hurts my feelings...he burned it in his stove out in the shop...aaarg.

[mtgrs737]

A friend has some U.S. Navy beeswax and it is more transparent and does not smell of honey. I think I read somewhere that some beeswax is refined using boiling water which will remove the honey form the wax better than straining does. I think the water desolves the honey and maybe other elements leaving the wax pure. I like mine to smell like honey!

[randyrat]

My Beeswax is not referbished or remelted ever. There is two kinds of beeswax one is cappings - lighter and less smell and is ok for crafts and danty projects.
Mine is scrapings where the propolis is found, it's a tougher, stronger,honey smelling..The color is all dependent on what the bees eat. Unless you melt it and remelt it. Capings are more apt to get ruined by handling, molding/melting too many times.
(I don't have any right now and i'm not taking any waiting list.)