Synthetic grease in black powder lube, OK?

[guninhand]

Accepting that a black powder lube formula shouldn't have mineral oil or petroleum products, how do synthetic products, like synthetic grease, figure into it? It doesn't come from the ground. I got a big batch of very high quality synthetic grease for free, and have been using it 5 parts to 5 parts beeswax to 3 parts lanolin (by weight) and it seems to work fine with BP, but is very messy. (I do get a crunchy feel in the last 2 inches of barrel when wiping between shots). I next want to try adding some Murphys Oil soap to harden it up. Anyone else using synthetic in their lube?

[craig61a]

I'm no expert on synthetic grease, but I would guess that if there is a crunchy feeling in the last two inches of the barrel it's burnt up remains of whatever is in the grease, or possibly some kind of residue that gets left there.

I use beeswax - 50%, cooking oil - 40%, and 10% lanolin (by volume). That works well for me, and I've never had any reason to change it. The last batch I made up was a couple of years ago, and it goes a long way. I probably need to make up some more soon.

It's never bad to try something new, and if that works for you that's good. I guess the thing that I would be concerned with is the crunchy feeling, and whether or not is has an effect on how many shots you can go between cleanings. If the number of shots is say between 5-8 before you really have to give it a good cleaning, perhaps a different lube recipe is in order...

Good Luck!

[country gent]

I use 50% beeswax, 40% vegtable shortening, 5% canola oil and 5% anahydrous lanolin for BP lube. Your lube with the syntetic may be working okay and doing what it needs to to an extent, but the "crunchy" feeling you describe is a sighn of not enough lube making it thru the barrel to keep fouling soft. Do you have a lube Star on the muzzle after a few rounds, If so how does it look: Wet and soft able to wipe off esily with a patch or finger? Or is it dry and crusty looking. The barrels on most BPCR are 30"-34" in length thats 6"-10" more barrel for the lube to work on. SOme desighns grooves dont carry enough lube for the heavier fouling and extra barrel length. When wiping How does the fouling look on the patch moist and wet soft texture or dry hard and crunchy? A grease cookie may be needed or the addition of a small amount of vegtable oil

[guninhand]

I get a very nice soft lube star. Barrel is 30 inches with a gain twist. The patch has a lot of black gook which is either unburnt BP or burnt BP residue, or a combination of both. I'm using OE 1 1/2. I can get by 8 shots just with blow tube. I just started running a Money boolit and have an exposed groove, so have to overcome the problem of this soft lube being disturbed or contaminated while handling and loading. Smokeless lube is normally of the harder type so if I can harden this formula with soap, will it turn out to be like those smokeless lubes that mess up a BP barrel due to having synthetic grease as a component?

[bigted]

Might try more bee wax to thicken up your gooy mess. This very soft lube sounds like the reason for the crust at the end of the barrel.

I use syn grease on the arbor of my six-guns all the time and it works very well to say the least.

Maybe try a mix such as 50% bee wax ... 30% syn grease ... 20% lanolin.

I'd bet this does the trick and prolly will be stiff enough to not be too messy. Of the crust continues I would pour a 1/8th inch thick lube sheet for making lube cookies from. Elmer Keith liked the lube cookies in his 50/2.5 inch sharps. Others here that compete also use the cookie in their winning load column's.

[guninhand]

Thanks BT, I'll do that. In the meantime I tried adding the Murphy's Oil soap mostly to get an idea of how it would react. It was not quite 2oz. to 15 oz of existing lube and results are shown below. Had the toaster oven up to 300F as even that high you got to manually blend to get the grease to dissolve. Added the MOS after it cooled a bit and put it back in the oven. It bubbled a bit (very small bubbles) for awhile then I took it out and stirred again. I'm guessing here but it looks like the lanolin part (maybe it's something else) of the formula separated out during cooling. The first picture shows the lube melt with the bottom flipped up, and the caramel stuff made a layer on the bottom. The result is the 2nd pic, a two tone boolit. The green part seems more plastic than before and smells pretty. I should get a chance to shoot them in the next 3 or 4 days.
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[Dan Cash]

Forget the synthetic and reduce the lanolin. 50/50 or so beeswax to oil such as neats foot, peanut, canola etc. then add a couple oz. lanolin per 2 lb. lube mixture. If you want stiffer lube, add bees wax. If you want it more plastic, add lanolin. 10 rounds with blow tube before foul out is unacceptable. You should be able to run a match, 30-50 rounds with only a blow tube.

[mazo kid]

The only place I use synthetic grease is on the cylinder arbor on my C&B revolvers and pivot screws.

[MikeT]

Try heating your lube in a double boiler on the stove. The lube will not burn in a double boiler.

Keep on hav'n fun!
MikeT

[guninhand]

Thanks for all the advise. Gotta switch to store-bought BP lube to be ready for matches, will have to play with my home-mades later. I kind of hold on to the dream that the synthetic grease has some magic to it. It was used for gears on radar dishes of shore-based coastal surveillance radar and had to work from -40F to 110F and was imported from europe. Techs said it was extremely expensive. Throw in clippings from the toenails of a holy man and who knows what might happen.

[freedom475]

Thanks for all the advise. Gotta switch to store-bought BP lube to be ready for matches, will have to play with my home-mades later. I kind of hold on to the dream that the synthetic grease has some magic to it. It was used for gears on radar dishes of shore-based coastal surveillance radar and had to work from -40F to 110F and was imported from europe. Techs said it was extremely expensive. Throw in clippings from the toenails of a holy man and who knows what might happen.

I used to make all my own lube. Wasted a ton of good ingredients making sub-par lube...one thing I learned by adding Murphy's Oil Soap to my mix(es) was that it rusted my cake pan bad...and it rusted my luber/sizer too!! NO more Murphy's for me.

Just like you, I finally threw up my hands and bought SPG. What a difference!! SPG is so nice to use and worth every dime. I wish I would have been using it all along.

SPG reminds me of a good woman.. Not too expensive, it smells nice and its' texture is silky smooth!...oh yeah, and it works.

At the 2015 Quigley match I shot for 3 days with a blow tube..and never cleaned my gun once...Just 10 breaths and pushed a cotton ball at the end of each day. About 150-200 rounds...Using Old Eynsford 1 1/2 and SPG and a blow tube. I proved to myself that the combination really works well.

[guninhand]

Freedom475, thanks so much for your input. I was at the Quigley last year and will be leaving to go again June 11 or 12. Last year I had a BPCR in 45-70 shooting a BACO 505 grain with my "radar" lube (no exposed grooves) and OE 3F. This year I'll have a Sharps with a RKS barrel in 45-90 with Dragon Lubes BP lube which I am mighty sure is very close to SPG. It comes out of the pan lube cake perfectly with gentle coaxing from my drill press spindle.

You may rest assured I hung on every word of your post victory analysis last year and I extend my heartiest congratulations. Last year I was 120 something in standing and hope to break below 100 this year. But it's the fun and the friends that draws me there. I got a 1 1/4 group in 4 shots at 200 yards the other night using OE 1 1/2 and a BACO money bullet;of course the 5th shot was another inch away. At least it leaves room for hope.

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[EDG]

I think a lot of people are faked out by the term synthetic grease or motor oil.

In most if not all cases the original stock that is cracked to make the synthetic is petroleum or something cooked out of coal.
Think about it a minute. Where else would the basic oil stock come from? It would have to come from some animal or vegetable.
If you are buying a synthetic thinking it is some magic soup most of the time you will be surprised to find it originated as crude oil.

Quote
Some confusion has arisen recently regarding the use of the word “synthetic.” Several petrochemical companies have developed processes involving catalytic conversion of crude oil base stock under high pressures and temperatures in the presence of hydrogen to form very high-quality mineral lubricants. These oils, which are known as API Group III, are so highly refined that their properties almost match that of the Group IV synthetics. They are so close in fact that the U.S. court system sided with a manufacturer of these Group III “synthetics” when a lawsuit was brought up for false advertising. Even though these Group III base oils are derived from crude oil, they can now legally, from a marketing standpoint, call them synthetic.

http://www.machinerylubrication.com/...il-technology-