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Thread: Black powder lube question

  1. #21
    Boolit Master
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    60/40 beeswax (in pellets from craft store) and olive oil melted together in sauce pan and poured into tupperware for storage is like peanut butter in consistency and great for BP revolvers. 70/30 would be good for your needs, and keeps BP fouling soft and rifling clean.

  2. #22
    Boolit Buddy okietwolf's Avatar
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    I made up some 30% beeswax 60% old *** crisco and 10% olive oil

  3. #23
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    In my opinion using Animal fats like Crisco is not the thing I would put in my lube. It might be marked no salt, but it has a preservative in it to keep it from turning black. What is a preservative made of?
    If you want to use animal fat render it put into a tallow, not a lard. Nothing is added to tallow and it will keep with out spoiling or freezing it if it's made properly. Some smokeless shooters will just put the rifle away with out cleaning it and end up with rough bores. I know I will get the raspberries for saying I would not use Crisco.
    A very simple lube that works good is just a simple B-Wax and Peanut oil with maybe a little Hydrous Lanolin added. There is a difference between Anhydrous Lanolin and Hydrous Lanolin.

  4. #24
    Boolit Buddy okietwolf's Avatar
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    Well sir....unless my eyes are deceiving of me...the label of Crisco ALL VEGETABLE SHORTENING, has no animal fats and there is a zero sodium listed on the daily intake guide

  5. #25
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    They might say it's salt free but I would be willing to bet that some sort of nitrates are used like potassium nitrate or even something that is high in nitrates like Celery juice or powder. Something is needed to dry the moisture to kill the microbes to keep it from spoiling.
    Fatty acids an animal fats will react to metal. Ever see green on your brass when it has been loaded for a spell with lubes that has animal fat in in it......?

  6. #26
    Boolit Grand Master


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    One thing that always confused me. Crisco is vegetable oil processed into "shortening". Basically whipped vegie oil. Why would you add both Crisco and vegetable oil to the same lube?

    I can't speak for cartridge bullet lubes, but for muzzleloaders, I have yet to have anything beat just straight Crisco. If there is salt in it, I can't taste it, and my muzzleloaders have been lubed with it for a month straight now with no ill effect. The stuff is magic, it's soft in 70 degrees, and it's soft in 0 degrees. Tuesday morning I'll be out hunting, I'll wake up to -14, and I'll bet it's still soft.

    Sometimes it's best to just not over think things. Crisco itself is a perfect muzzleloader patch and bullet lube. Mixed 50-50 with beeswax makes a nice hard cartridge lube.

  7. #27
    Boolit Grand Master Good Cheer's Avatar
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    What? No one is using straight peanut butter?

  8. #28
    Boolit Buddy okietwolf's Avatar
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    That is great....I thought about this as I made my sammich today

  9. #29
    Boolit Master Lead pot's Avatar
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    [QUOTE=

    Sometimes it's best to just not over think things. Crisco itself is a perfect muzzleloader patch and bullet lube. Mixed 50-50 with beeswax makes a nice hard cartridge lube.[/QUOTE]

    So is straight vaseline

  10. #30
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    i use gato feo ("UGLY cat") as both a cartridge bullet lube and as a trad muzzy patch lube. works quite well, easy to make, cheap enuf.

    by weight ...

    1 part mutton tallow (dixie gun works - mutton tallow won't go rancid like some other tallows)
    1 part paraffin wax (gulf brand is what i use)
    1/2 part pure strained beeswax (local to ya or online)

    i do 1lb each of the tallow & paraffin and 1/2lb of the beeswax. put the ingredients in a pot or large jar, put the pot/jar in a pot of water, light the stove.

    when all melted, stir it a bit and then i pour it into 1/2 gallon milk or juice carton. when cool, it cuts up into chunks like cheese.
    Last edited by rfd; 12-12-2019 at 07:53 PM.

  11. #31
    Boolit Bub
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    I've used several of the aforementioned lubes with good results. Typical ratio I use is 60% melted lard & 40% beeswax, by volume.
    My current preference is for deer tallow, in fact I'm rendering a batch this weekend. Standard lube formula for Frankford Arsenal was 50/50 deer tallow & beeswax.

    Also very good are: mutton tallow/beeswax & olive oil/beeswax
    Crisco is just "ok" in my book, my sniffer said "something not right" after two years shelf life. Haven't had that issue with the others I mention.

    Regards,
    Slim

  12. #32
    Boolit Buddy Littlewolf's Avatar
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    i run a mig welder for a paycheck and jars of nozzle dip get too shallow to do my mig nozzle any good. now before yall ask what nozzle dip is for, its for keeping the soot and slag from sticking to the bronze and keeping a conductive lubricant between the bronze tip and the copper coated steel wire. would these properties in yall's opinions work for BP or slow cartridge pistol?

  13. #33
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    Learned to use just beeswax and olive oil from Spence Wolf and it's what he recommended in his book on replicating M1873 Trapdoor loads. I used a 5/4 part mix up north and it stayed soft in colder weather. Down here in Arizona I use the 50/50 mix Spence recommended. Works extremely well in not only my 45-70 BP and smokeless loads but also my MLs with BP and Triple 7 (on MaxiBalls, REALs and patches for RBs) and also on my .454 sized 45 Colt bullets for revolver and M1873 (Uberti) with smokeless powders and BP.
    Larry Gibson

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  14. #34
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Larry Gibson View Post
    Learned to use just beeswax and olive oil from Spence Wolf and it's what he recommended in his book on replicating M1873 Trapdoor loads. I used a 5/4 part mix up north and it stayed soft in colder weather. Down here in Arizona I use the 50/50 mix Spence recommended. Works extremely well in not only my 45-70 BP and smokeless loads but also my MLs with BP and Triple 7 (on MaxiBalls, REALs and patches for RBs) and also on my .454 sized 45 Colt bullets for revolver and M1873 (Uberti) with smokeless powders and BP.
    My friend Giorgio in Italy says that the 50-50 olive oil and beeswax was the original lube used for the Italian 10.4mm Vetterli service rifles and also for the .41 Swiss rimfire Federal rifles which were so famous for their accuracy at 300 meters. It was also used through the WW1 period in ammunition for the Glisenti 1889 Bodeo 10.4mm revolver, many of which also saw WW2 service with various partisan groups.
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  15. #35
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by okietwolf View Post
    Well sir....unless my eyes are deceiving of me...the label of Crisco ALL VEGETABLE SHORTENING, has no animal fats and there is a zero sodium listed on the daily intake guide
    Beware that the so-called "butter flavored" Crisco does contain salt. Wayne Schwartz can testify as to what it does to barrels.
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  16. #36
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    So what is Crisco really made from?

  17. #37
    Boolit Grand Master Outpost75's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by GregLaROCHE View Post
    So what is Crisco really made from?
    hydrogenated cottonseed oil — which they say contains no trans fat.
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  18. #38
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    Quote Originally Posted by Lead pot View Post
    They might say it's salt free but I would be willing to bet that some sort of nitrates are used like potassium nitrate...
    Why would that bother you? It is a primary ingredient of Black Powder...

    Long ago I was advised to use 60/40 Bees Wax and petroleum jelly or a +/- mix for cold or hot weather.
    Never had an issue with that composition and it flows very well in a lubesizer too.
    That said, I did just buy a can of Crisco and have other ingredients like anhydrous lanolin which I mix with castor oil for swaging lube along with all of the usual stuff like Olive, Peanut, Canola, Walnut, regular veg. oil, ATF, paraffin, Marvel Mystery, Murphy's, Johnson's etc. etc. etc.
    Its enough to get dizzy thinking about it...
    Some day I will just make a huge supply of something and stop thinking about it!!

  19. #39
    Boolit Grand Master

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    I save the walnut oil to wipe down my Gerstner journey man tool boxes

  20. #40
    Boolit Buddy okietwolf's Avatar
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    Ok...got to the range today and the shooting went well. The lube however, I don't think so good. I feel it was proboobly too hard for the 30ish degrees it was today. Now, do I add more Crisco, more olive oil or less beeswax? Wich is most effective for softening and lowering the effective temp it'll operate in?

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