SPG recipe

[DGV]

Does anyone have any idea what SPG contains. I know Beeswax is a large percentage. What else is in that $4.00 a stick stuff?

[Maven]

It's a trade secret, but it smells and feels like white Crisco to me. If you have a cheese grater, you may want to shave ~1/2 cup of beeswax and add it 1 tablespoon at a time to 1 cup of melted, white Crisco/Crisco substitute until you get the proper consistency. Pour it into a pre-heated or at least warm lube-sizer when finished. Two cautions: (1) Don't overheat the mixture* and (2) don't use your wife's cheese grater as the beeswax will mess it up but good. Hope this helps!


*Using a simple double boiler will prevent overheating eliminate the danger of the blend catching fire.

[Tom Herman]

Does anyone have any idea what SPG contains. I know Beeswax is a large percentage. What else is in that $4.00 a stick stuff?

Hi DGV! The folks here turned me onto a dead ringer for SPG:

2 parts by weight Paraffin wax
2 parts by weight Sheep Tallow (Dixie Gun Works)
1 part by weight Beeswax

The stuff looks like SPG, and has the same consistency and feel.
I'm pretty frugal, and didn't like the idea of spending $30 a pound on SPG, either. Especially when I can make a dead ringer at about $5 a pound!
I bought a large pile of the sheep tallow from Dixie gun Works for about $3 a pound. It's very reasonable price. You can use beef tallow, but the sheep variety has lanolin in it.
The melting point of the lube is about 140 degrees fahrenheit. It works well in cold to warm climates, may be a bit low in melting point for desert work.
I use it with my cast bullets in midrange loads to about 850 FPS. Calibers used are .38 SPL, .44 SPL, .45 LC and .455 Webley.
All loadings (50/50 lead to WW with 2% tin for mold fillout) exhibit very good accuracy with little to no leading.

Happy Shootin'! -Tom

[Larry Gibson]

I use 6 parts beeswax to 5 parts virgin olive oil for my PB lube and for velocities under 1600 fps with some smokeless loads. Works every bit as good as SPG. I blend it in a Pyrex measuring cup in a small sauce pan with water in it as a double boiler on the kitchen stove. I then leave it in the Pyrex and put that in a gallon zip lock for storage. To use It can easily be remelted and poured into the 450 lubrasizer or a small amount scraped out with a tongue depressor for hand lubing bullets. Precut patches for a muzzle loader are easily lubed by putting them in a small sandwich ziplock with glob of the lube and microwave them until the lube is melted and soaked up. Easy to figure how much lube to use by just adding more if necessary. A few lbs of beeswax and a bottle of virgin olive oil go a long way.

Works for me.

Larry Gibson

[leadman]

I read once where there was vaseline in SPG. Has anyone used this in their lube?

[andrew375]

I read once where there was vaseline in SPG. Has anyone used this in their lube?

Yes, for my .577 minies. 50/50 Vaseline and Beeswax.[smilie=s:

[jdgabbard]

Yes, for my .577 minies. 50/50 Vaseline and Beeswax.[smilie=s:

And if you need to stiffen it up a bit, try some parafin mixed into that. Then you have Old NRA lube, which in my experience, works great!

[EDK]

Does anyone have any idea what SPG contains. I know Beeswax is a large percentage. What else is in that $4.00 a stick stuff?

A lot of people have wondered...and experimented to find...what the contents are. From the smell, I think there is some neatsfoot oil in it. Similar products are DGL and LARS' White Label Black Powder Supreme. I've had good results with all three.

LARS has a link at the bottom of the page, makes a good product, is one of our guys here....and it's less than $2 a stick. I buy his..and his other lubes for smokeless...and spend my limited time on more productive aspects of casting and reloading.

:Fire::cbpour::redneck:

[Dale53]

Lars will also sell you his black powder lube by the pound. Right now he is out of stock (I suspect it is seasonal) but it's well worth waiting for.

I, personally, use his Carnauba Red for my smokeless powder lube with great results.

Dale53

[Junior1942]

Lots of people use my "Junior Lube." The recipe is here: http://www.castbullet.com/makeit/lube.htm

You can make your own for maybe 50¢ a stick.

[missionary5155]

Good morning
I am partial to 55-45% beeswax and Olive Oil.
I would NOT use any lube with BK that has any petrolium product involved. Petrolium tends to make BK fouling gritty and crusty. Natural oils keep it soft and more removable with the next shot.
The GREAT thing with Olive Oil/ beswax is it is usable for many other applications ranging from skin to leather to coffee......
Mike in Peru HE is Risen !!!

[tbeazlie]

Coffee?

[jdgabbard]

I would NOT use any lube with BK that has any petrolium product involved. Petrolium tends to make BK fouling gritty and crusty. Natural oils keep it soft and more removable with the next shot.

You do realize that Petrolium oils ARE natural :-D

Just because we refine them doesn't mean their not something the earth made. Just something that it tried to bury, and for good reason if you ask me.

[DonH]

I may have misread but I have been under the impression from SPG (his own writing) that the lube contains refined beeswax. SPG may contain a petroleum product (vaseline) but given fouling issues related to combining BP and petro stuff, I would bet a few pennies against it.

I have used SPG lube. Don't now because I enjoy tinkering and making my own but for those who don't want to bother, they may buy good, less expensive lube but will never go wrong with SPG. It was formulated for both BP and low velocity smokeless loads. As to cost, does anyone know how many bullets can be lubed with a 30 lb block of lube? Out of one 3 lb coffee can of my own lube I lubed my own bullets for BPCR and Schuetzen for 3+ seasons plus a bunch for others then gave the goodly amount left to another guy new to the sport. IOW, a little goes a long way.

[Rattus58]

You do realize that Petrolium oils ARE natural :-D

Just because we refine them doesn't mean their not something the earth made. Just something that it tried to bury, and for good reason if you ask me.

Petroleum oils are indeed "natural"... however though I haven't run into any issues with my guns personally, I can say this... most petroleum products are more difficult to clean over vegetable products... but in fact protect longer, in my environment. Hawaii.

[country gent]

I use both SPG and a homemade version of Emmerts Improved. Both work good for me in Ohio heat and humidity. I do bow tube though. If you look at the old soap recipes and BP lubes a lot of the ingredients other than lye are the same. One plus to the fats and steam oils is the ability to hold moisture and keep fouling soft. Some lubes don't and in heat dry weather the fouling hardens making a crusty hard fouling that needs softened to be removed easily.

The emmerts improved I make is basically
50% Beeswax
40% Crisco vegetable shortening unsalted
5% canola oil. olive oil can be used also
5% anhydrous lanolin.

I mix this in a double boiler add Beeswax Crisco and oil heat and melt when liquid add lanolin stirring and mixing well. I sometimes add a single drop of murphies oil soap as an emulsifier to help mix blend it all. Pour in moulds or let cool in a block and use as needed.

[INTRLOPER]

If you believe the scientists, Vaseline, mineral oil, and even asphalt were veggie oils once upon a day. I have used Vaseline and mineral oil in black powder lube with no issues and I am sure anyone who has bought commercial BP lube likely has too. Personally I believe the scientists as would anyone who has waded through a black bubbling swamp of rotting veggie things. Every step is pretty convincing as to where gas/oil come from in my opinion.

I have tried the pure bitumen used to make asphalt also, but only in smokeless soap based lubes. Did not see much point in pushing my luck with the bitumen too far I guess. Using it with BP might be a bridge too far? Then again maybe not, I don't know as I simply did not have the urge to find out. Maybe some day if I ever get truly bored I will try it in my least favorite front stuffer. I do know that when one cooks bitumen with soap you get a hint of a familiar smell of a lot of the old school 50/50 bullet lubes exude.

[Skipper]

I use Paul Matthews' SPG copy:

2 parts yellow beeswax
1 part Pure Neatsfoot Oil
1 part Murphy’s Oil Soap

[StrawHat]

Many years ago, Wes Kindig shared this with me regarding BP lubes. Allow me to paraphrase, “ ...whatever you choose to make you lube with, use a medicinal grade... “. He explained that the medicinal grade of Vaseline and mineral were refined enough to remove whatever caused the tar like residue that was talked about.

So far, Vaseline and mineral oil have worked fine as ingredients for me.

Kevin

[Lead pot]

I been shooting muzzle loader and black powder cartridge rifles since age 13-14. We milked a lot of cows and used bag balm or udder balm if you want to call it that on them to keep them from getting sore. When time came to make patch rolls I used straight bag balm for the round ball front stuffers. I have found nothing that works better than it or straight Vaseline and it is still my major additive in my lube. In fact I use mineral wax for a carrier or soy wax.

Years back, I can't remember if it was on the old shooters forum or Graybeard, but Steve Garbe has a enlaw down in New Zealand that spilled the beans on his lube.

[AZ Pete]

I use 6 parts beeswax to 5 parts virgin olive oil for my PB lube and for velocities under 1600 fps with some smokeless loads. Works every bit as good as SPG. I blend it in a Pyrex measuring cup in a small sauce pan with water in it as a double boiler on the kitchen stove. I then leave it in the Pyrex and put that in a gallon zip lock for storage. To use It can easily be remelted and poured into the 450 lubrasizer or a small amount scraped out with a tongue depressor for hand lubing bullets. Precut patches for a muzzle loader are easily lubed by putting them in a small sandwich ziplock with glob of the lube and microwave them until the lube is melted and soaked up. Easy to figure how much lube to use by just adding more if necessary. A few lbs of beeswax and a bottle of virgin olive oil go a long way.

Works for me.

Larry Gibson

Larry, I do about the same, just use Canola oil...has about the same consistency as SPG, and works on everything I shoot, smokeless, black, pistol and rifle. If it needs stiffening up, just add more wax.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[greenjoytj]

Next time I make up a batch of Emmerts I’m going to replace the EVOO with Jojoba oil.
The colour of my batch of Emmerts looks very similar to the bees wax that was used.
I was expecting the colour to look whiter, like my example sticks of SPG.
It hasn’t affected the performance of the lube.

[1hole]

The ingredients and percentages of bullet lube mixtures isn't exactly critical as proven by the large number of totally different mixtures satisfied reloaders use.

I won't use any animal oil/fat in any way because it does become rancid over time and I don't want that in my ammo.

I also don't want a petroleum product in my lube, including paraffin, because the residue of squished dynasoars have been proven to degrade accuracy. I don't know why that is and I don't care why; I just trust the findings of the old NRA team that tested a wide range of home brew lubes back in the mid 60s. They developed the simple mix of (approximately) equal parts of beeswax/Alox which, IMHO, remains the all around best bullet lube ever concocted.

[country gent]

I normally use canola oil in my emmerts but have used olive oil. I make the improved version with anhydrous lanolin. I have also though about JoJoBa oil in place of the canola. I do lightly wipe PP with JoJoBa oil.

Colors of materials may vary do to what is around bees using different flowers for honey will affect the color, crops have slight changes in shades from soil they are grown in. My emmerts improved is normally a light tan color. A crayon can be used to color if you want

[Bookworm]

I also don't want a petroleum product in my lube, including paraffin, because the residue of squished dynasoars have been proven to degrade accuracy. I don't know why that is and I don't care why; I just trust the findings of the old NRA team that tested a wide range of home brew lubes back in the mid 60s. They developed the simple mix of (approximately) equal parts of beeswax/Alox which, IMHO, remains the all around best bullet lube ever concocted.

You do realize that Alox is a petroleum product ?

[quail4jake]

I needed a stiffer version of SPG for expanding balls lubed in my Star sizer. I landed at 80% Beeswax, 10% Jojoba oil, 10% lanolin and it works well. For lubing blackpowder cartridge boolits I up the Jojoba oil to 30% and take the beeswax down to 60%. PRB lube is 75% Jojoba oil and 25% beeswax, really works well. I really like Jojoba oil and it is the only natural oil that can be used to replace sperm oil which was used by Sharps rifle co. with beeswax to make their lube back in the day...FWIW.

[Springfield]

For BP I make my own.
9 parts beeswax
6 parts soft paraffin, not the hard canning type from Safeway
3 parts synthetic 2-stroke oil
I was trying to replicate NASA lube from The Bullshop, as it worked great, and this was as close as I could get. Stays in the lube groove but doesn't stick to your hands or dies. All my BP guns clean up with one pass of a boresnake. And I can shoot 2 CAS matches without any carbon build-up.

[John Boy]

I won't use any animal oil/fat in any way because it does become rancid over time and I don't want that in my ammo.

I also don't want a petroleum product in my lube, including paraffin, because the residue of squished dynasoars have been proven to degrade accuracy.

1hole, your post is a false opinion not based on analytical facts of mutton tallow or paraffin! And your post is Dead Wrong!
I use only a lube based on the 1942 NRA Rifleman article from an 1800 formula that is mutton tallow-paraffin and bees wax. Have been using it for over 10 years, the same today as the 1st day I made it including lubed bullets made of it in 2012 and several unused open cans. They are today the same as the day I made them and use these bullets for smokeless and black powder reloads with the lube fully consumed in the bore with no lube starvation or leading that are shot out to 1000 yds with accuracy and with groups that are MOA at 500m. Example, fifty BP 38-55 reloads using the tallow-paraffin and bees wax lube, shot consecutively with no patching or blow tubing from 500 to 200m, with minor sight adjustments with the steel targets going down... then the bore foul cleaned with 4 water cotton balls and the 4th cotton ball was almost white

[SSGOldfart]

It's a trade secret, but it smells and feels like white Crisco to me. If you have a cheese grater, you may want to shave ~1/2 cup of beeswax and add it 1 tablespoon at a time to 1 cup of melted, white Crisco/Crisco substitute until you get the proper consistency. Pour it into a pre-heated or at least warm lube-sizer when finished. Two cautions: (1) Don't overheat the mixture* and (2) don't use your wife's cheese grater as the beeswax will mess it up but good. Hope this helps!


*Using a simple double boiler will prevent overheating eliminate the danger of the blend catching fire.

And use salt free Crisco

[DonHowe]

I used some SPG early in my black powder cartridge shooting/loading. I am confident that SPG is not simply beeswax and crisco. Not saying that mix won't work.
I am also fairly sure SPG does not contain paraffin as SPG was developed for use with BP and BP shooters tend to avoid petroleum products like the plague. Steve Garbe developed his lube when competing in BPCRS matches, which place rigorous demands on a bullet lube.
Casual shooting with black powder does not demand much demand on bullet lube. In fact almost anything will work. Match shooting in all kinds of weather is a different animal. Lube must
have the lubricity to prevent leading but also keep BP fouling soft, ideally whether the barrel is cold or hot. With all that, use of a blow tube to moisten fouling via one's breath. Some shooters wipe the bore between shots. Of necessity for match shooting is to maintain consistent consistent accuracy throughout a match. Many lubes fail that test. For a casual day at the range pure crisco might work but if many shots are fired I betting cussing will result.

[greenjoytj]

For BP I make my own.
9 parts beeswax
6 parts soft paraffin, not the hard canning type from Safeway
3 parts synthetic 2-stroke oil
I was trying to replicate NASA lube from The Bullshop, as it worked great, and this was as close as I could get. Stays in the lube groove but doesn't stick to your hands or dies. All my BP guns clean up with one pass of a boresnake. And I can shoot 2 CAS matches without any carbon build-up.

You can simplify your formula for the ratio of ingredients to 1,2,3.
1 part synthetic 2-stroke oil, 2 parts soft paraffin, 3 parts beeswax.
Easier to remember.

Question, soft paraffin? A Google search tells me soft paraffin is white petroleum jelly, also known by the trade name of Vaseline. Are you putting vaseline in your black powder bullet lube?

[Springfield]

Greenjoytj: I prefer a 3,2,1 ratio:) As for the paraffin, I researched it a little, and found there are many variations. So looking at the melting points, stickiness, ease of mixing and shrinkage characteristics, and after trying out a few different versions, I found that the IGI-4630A wax works well for me. I shoot mostly Blackpowder so a different wax might work better for you.

[John Boy]

Gentlemen, education time ....
* Paraffin started out a crude oil and is refined to be an alkane with a chain of 20 to 40 hydrocarbon molecules
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paraffin_wax

Joboba Oil, an excellent lube ingredient also has a long chain of hydrocarbon molecules
What one wants in a lube also is stearic and oleic acids .... and they come using mutton tallow
Add ... esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols in bees wax
Now you have one of the best smokeless and black powder lubes there is with a high melting temperature

[sharps4590]

Maybe I should have taken high school chemistry.....:(

[John Boy]

Sharps, don't need to have taken chemistry in school. Just hang around the BPC Community shooters who learned that a good lube was needed for black powder reloads. Have to remember that in the 1800's, black powder was it before smokeless powders that folks of today are primarily shooters of and are trying every modern compound on the market in search of the Holy Grail bullet lube
And FYI, the mutton tallow-paraffin-bees wax lube IMO is the clone of Steve Garbe & Mike Venturino's SPG invention, good for smokeless & black powder reloads, which he is selling for big $$$. And it doesn't go bad with age ... have a 2009 open can is as good as the day I made it

[Castaway]

Not only is the lube described by John Boy, an old formula with roots back in the days of heeled bullets by Winchester, published by the NRA in the 40’s and brought back to life by Gato Feo a great bullet lube, but also doubles as an alternative to Sno-Seal on leather items

[greenjoytj]

Greenjoytj: I prefer a 3,2,1 ratio:) As for the paraffin, I researched it a little, and found there are many variations. So looking at the melting points, stickiness, ease of mixing and shrinkage characteristics, and after trying out a few different versions, I found that the IGI-4630A wax works well for me. I shoot mostly Blackpowder so a different wax might work better for you.

IGI-4630A wax looks interesting with its ability to hold 10% fragrance for making scented candles
I suspect that in candle making the the fragrance additive is a scented oil. So substituting a good oil like the 2 cycle oil looks like its the start of a good BP lube.

[greenjoytj]

I just trust the findings of the old NRA team that tested a wide range of home brew lubes back in the mid 60s.
They developed the simple mix of (approximately) equal parts of beeswax/Alox which, IMHO, remains the all around best bullet lube ever concocted.

That 1960 era Alox hasn’t been made for years, so the current Alox is not exactly same stuff.
The current Alox is no longer available either it’s discontinued by the Lubrizol company that made it.
I suspect the industry’s need for the product is gone or cheaper and or better product has supplanted the need for Alox.

[Desertbuck]

The best black powder recipe I messed around with to replace expensive SPG lube. And I have stuck with since I was a teenager. It is a modification of Paul Matthews lube
50% beeswax
25% Crisco plain
12.5% neatsfoot oil
12.5% Murphy's oil soap

[DonHowe]

No disrespect intended but "best" is a relative term depending greatly on how lube is used. For casual BP cartridge shooting most anything will work. For BPCR competition where match accuracy is required over long strings of fire, especially in hot dry conditions things are very different. The commonly used olive oil gives way to oils which stand up to much more heat, like peanut oil for example. Some have used jojoba and Ester oils. If it can still be found online, a guy named Dan Theodore did extensive test with many ingredients which he posted online under the label Lube Torture Tests. Well worth reading if one can find it.
This I know, unless some secret has been recently lubes used by shooters capable of competing at the national level have avoided petroleum products like the plague.

[greenjoytj]

I was in the local grocery store yesterday and saw Murphy's oil soap on the shelf.
The bottle label said “New Formula”.
This new version may or may not work in any lube recipe that used Murphy's oil soap as an ingredient.
Testing with a small batch would be wise until this new formula Murphy's oil soap proves its self.

[quail4jake]

Can others who fool with this stuff please reply with thoughts on lanolin. I've landed at 10-20% to make lube sticky so that it clings to lube grooves especially on expanding balls which won't be loaded in a brass case but are handled open and loaded into paper cartridges. My questions are: 1)at what percent is minimum performance and what percent diminishing returns? 2) What does lanolin contribute to lubricity? We use jojoba oil for lubricity but can lanolin replace it? (except that jojoba oil is a liquid component and lanolin soft solid). Thoughts? Overthinking?

[DonHowe]

Lanolin is a very high strength lubricant often used in industrial drawing operations. Such usage places much higher demand on a lubricant than cast bullet situations.
As far as I know there is no dismissing return but a little goes a long way and a lot is unnecessary expense. My BP/Schuetzen lube is the same proportions as Emmerts lube but consists of beeswax, tallow and peanut oil plus lanolin. It's been a while since I made any or looked at the recipe but the amount of lanolin is something like 2 tablespoons per pound of lube. My lube stays put in lube grooves.

[rfd]

Gato Feo #1 ... the one and only Ugly Cat, and in his words ...

GATO FEO LUBE
********************

by weight ...

1 part mutton tallow (dixie gun works)
1 part canning wax (gulf)
1/2 part beeswax

Yes, canning paraffin is a petroleum product, but it's also pure paraffin. There are no scents, unrelated oils, glitter, etc. such as are found in decorative or scented candles. It's pure, and that' why I specify it.

When I first began using canning paraffin, I too wondered why it didn't create the tarry fouling when used with black powder, as other petroleum products do. Fact is, I posed this question in various message boards years ago. A chemist provided what seems a plausible answer: Canning paraffin lacks the hydrocarbons found in other petroleum products. Apparently, these hydrocarbons are the offender.

I'm no chemist, and I don't have access to a lab that could test for the presence of hydrocarbons, so I remain uncertain if what he said is true, opinion or S.W.A.G.

All I know is that canning paraffin -- the same translucent stuff that is melted and poured into the open mouths of preserve jars, does not create the hard, tarry fouling I typically find with other petroleum products (automotive grease, transmission fluid, rifle grease, lithium grease, etc.).

The natural greases (animal and vegetable in origin) also dissolve more easily in soapy water during cleaning. Petroleum grease resists dissolving and tends to float around in the water as tiny clumps, often sticking to the steel surfaces of guns and requiring additional cleaning.

Canning paraffin works. I can't explain it. The original 19th century factory recipe called for "paraffin" and that was the only description. There are different types of paraffin, but I chose canning paraffin for its purity and availability. Luckily, it worked just fine and I didn't have to search for a more esoteric paraffin.

Perhaps it lacks the hydrocarbons that are claimed to be the culprit. Perhaps not. But I do know that canning paraffin is the best paraffin I've found and it doesn't create a hard, tarry fouling when used with black powder.

I've made other variations of Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant with substituted ingredients, including old candles, and the resulting lubricant is not as good.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The old recipe I found only listed:
Tallow
Paraffin
Beeswax

No specifics beyond these were given.

The recipe was originally used by factories for bullets that were outside lubricated, as found on heeled bullets. The only heeled bullets loaded by factories today are the .22 Short, Long and Long Rifle, and the .32 Short Colt (occasionally loaded by Winchester).

I used the above recipe and assembled it with mutton tallow, canning paraffin and beeswax because it's what I had on hand when I found the old recipe.

I have a Marlin Model 1892 rifle that uses heeled bullets, which I cast myself. After using the lubricant with .32 Long Colt reloads, I decided to try it with felt wads for my cap and ball revolvers, and patches for my CVA Mountain Rifle in .50 caliber.

Doing so, I was impressed with the old recipe assembled with mutton tallow, canning paraffin and beeswax. I've also used it with black powder loads and lead bullets in my .44-40 and .45-70 rifles, as well as .45 Long Colt revolver.

I used very specific ingredients, but didn't change the ratio of 10/10/5 parts.

I first posted the recipe -- with mutton tallow, canning paraffin and beeswax -- about 1999 or 2000 on many message boards. Shortly after posting it, someone dubbed it "Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant" and the name stuck.

Did the old factory recipe specify liquid or solid paraffin? I don't know. I suspect it was solid, because the lubricant must be sticky and solid, to stick to the bare, smooth lead of an outside-lubricated bullet not protected by the case. Only a very small portion of the bullet is inside the case -- the heel -- the rest of it is exposed to grit and lubricant wear-off while carried in pockets and game bags.

Modern .22 rimfire lubricant that covers the bullet is much harder and tenacious than the old factory recipe I found.
I suspect it's entirely wax of some type, with no grease or beeswax.

From what I've observed -- tiny teats on the point of the lead .22 bullet -- it's applied by dipping the completed cartridge upside down in melted wax up to where the bullet meets the brass case. Dipping in melted lubricant was the old method and is evidently still used today.

I know of liquid paraffin used for lamp fuel, but don't believe I've ever seen it. Perhaps I simply haven't recognized it.

Interestingly, one muzzleloading outfitter's site claims:

WARNING: Paraffin and other petroleum products can cause "Cook offs". It is neither fun nor healthy to have your musket unexpectedly fire while you are loading.

This is the first warning of this type I've seen, and I've been using black powder for nearly 40 years. I don't understand how a "cook-off" can be generated by paraffin. Does he mean it creates longer-lasting embers?

The age-old definition of "cook-off" means that the gun metal becomes so hot that the powder is ignited by this heat. This is a common problem in machine guns, and perhaps semi-autos fired quickly with a great deal of ammo, but in a black powder rifle?

The owner of the site clearly has a great deal of experience in black powder shooting, but i have to doubt this assertion. I've yet to hear of anyone experiencing unexpected ignition by using petroleum products. I and others have learned that most petroleum products, when used with black powder, create a hard, tarry fouling. Of this there is little doubt.

Canning paraffin lacks this characteristic. A chemist wrote me long ago that canning paraffin lacks the hydrocarbons that petroleum greases and oils contain. I don't know about this; I'm not a chemist, petroleum engineer or geologist. However, I DO know that I don't experience the hard, tarry fouling when using canning paraffin.
Whatever it lacks or possesses, it's clearly different from other petroleum products.

[DonHowe]

Regarding cleaning:
The ingredients for homemade soap are animal fat, wood ash and water. A traditional black powder lube leaves the animal fT in the bore. The black powder provides the wood ash. Add moisture from a blow tube between shots or clean with water after a shooting session and you are making soap in the barrel.

[Jeff Michel]

The "paraffin" used in lamps is another name for kerosene.

[Tar Heel]

Good morning
I am partial to 55-45% beeswax and Olive Oil.

By weight or by volume?

[Tar Heel]

I was in the local grocery store yesterday and saw Murphy's oil soap on the shelf.
The bottle label said “New Formula”.
This new version may or may not work in any lube recipe that used Murphy's oil soap as an ingredient.
Testing with a small batch would be wise until this new formula Murphy's oil soap proves its self.

Murphy reports that the formula is the same. Had the same concern and getting an answer was like pulling teeth but they finally answered, Same soap.

[greenjoytj]

Always weigh your ingredients. Use a kitchen digital scale, a good one will be accurate to the tenth of a gram. Keep good records of how many grams of each ingredient is used so your lube can be duplicated again in the future. Also make note of temperatures and order the ingredients were combined. A lube recipe isn’t just a list of ingredients, if should describe the steps use to make it.

[echo154]

In regards to PURE paraffin oil........it is not the same as kerosene. It is more refined to ensure cleaner burn and less soot( ie carbon) . I use it in my Aladdin mantle lamps...it is more expensive but it produces almost no odor or soot...something I like, as apposed to kerosene which is quite strong in the odor department! The paraffin oil I use comes in different sizes (quart, gallon and 5 gallon) It will also Harden somewhat at colder temps. I've never used it in a lube so I have no input for how to mix it. I found some interesting stuff on homemade lubes might have to give it a whirl. I'm getting low on the SPG I bought years ago.

[MichaelR]

Many years ago, before SPG, Bill Ballard made the things required to shoot the Sharps rifles. In his catalogue was information on how to patch a bullet and other things you needed to know to get your BPCR working. There was a recipe for lube. It was; 1 part bees wax, 1part paraffin wax, 2 parts crisco . It looks and performs like SPG and I used it for years with success.

[rfd]

Hard to beat the old NRA lube (aka "Gato Feo") - 1 mutton tallow, 1 paraffin wax, 1/2 beeswax, all by weight, double boiler cooked.

[Castaway]

SPG is good, but doesn’t work as well for me as does GF # 1. Normally I wipe between shots, but was working on hunting loads with both. After three shots with SPG, I had to pound a wet patch through. Not so with GF’s lube. I could push the rod through the barrel.

[rfd]

I recently used a friend's NASA lube concoction and Really liked it a Lot, but it's Very greasy, sticky. But boy does it work no less than Awesome.