Rosin?

[.22-10-45]

Hello, I note there is mention of using Rosin in some lube mixtures. Now I first heard of this stuff back in the early 1970's, when I nearly wore out the pages of Phill Sharpes Complete Guide To Handloading..I used to check it out of the library...heck, I wasn't even loading yet.
I understand Harvey Donaldson and others in that time frame used it.
Donaldson said a lube with it provided lubrication "with drag". He felt it allowed the smokeless to build pressure behind bullet.
There has been some discussion of bore wear from it's use..one author mentioned his barrels 'just shine" after using it.
Any comments? Thanks.

[runfiverun]

makes good flux from the tree.
and is good for keeping your hands dry when on the mound.

[stubshaft]

H.M. Pope posted some recipes for it too. As for myself I'll just keep on using it for my fiddle bow.

[fryboy]

one thing that got me about rosin in ye olde recipes is that it does vary from tree/plant type ( and turns to amber when petrified ) when i was young i found that some tasted good for chewing and some was plain bleh , i agree about making a good flux as five stated , IMHO it's in part why pat marlin's flake flux works so well ( well in addition to the carbon ) and resiny woods such as pine/cedar seems to work best for flux imho , in fact if you've ever added a strip of resin cored solder to your pot after it's been brought up to temp you can see just how great of a flux it is , fair warning however - there are many kinds of rosin sold , some have undesirable properties added ( such as one for strings that supposedly has little gold flakes added ,hence why they call that particular brand "goldflex" ) personally i've never tried it in lube but believe the softer varieties might be better than the harder ones as either would add some brittleness and some more tack than others , wiki has a decent read on it
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosin

[DukeInFlorida]

Good for flux. Not so good as a lube ingredient.

[DLCTEX]

Mesquite rosin tastes blah! Makes a good glue, though.

[smokemjoe]

Rosin under pressure makes a fine lub, I dont use nothing else since 1998, I tested it from 25 below to 110 deg. and it dont let me down, dont have to clean barrel when shooting in 100 rd. match,
For single batch
3 oz. yellow beeswax
1 Fl. oz. Dexron No. 2 red. Trannissom Fluid
35 grs. of rosin- from saddle shop or off pine trees.
70 gr.of gound up ivory soap.
Email me on how to melt and add as you go.. We worked on this lub. for 15 years before we settled on something that worked perfect.