Who's got a good recipe for black powder lube

[jh45gun]

Any one got a good recipe for a black powder lube that would be like SPG or Lyman black gold?? Jim

[Buckshot]

...........Jim, there are SO many good BP lubes out there! Some have differing 'Goodness' based upon how much you can use, the quality of your powder and a ton of other things, not the least being the current weather conditions .

Beeswax is the great equalizer and so long as the other ingredients are natural plant/animal fats/waxes and compatable, prolly 95% of them would be great. You can never go wrong with lard as an ingredient, but it has shelflife issues.

What I use is very basic and a cheat a little bit. I get beeswax, add a bit of Crisco and then add Bore Butter to it. Cheaper then straight Bore Butter, and it does a good job in the Whitworth and 58 Enfield. I know that some commercial lubes like Young Country have some lanolin in it.

One of my shooting buddies many years ago got tired of all the different lube cans, jars, tubes, tins and whatnot that he combined them all together in a double boiler. He had to add a bit of beeswax to stiffen it a bit, but came up with the most gawdawful ugly green stuff, but it worked just fine.

...........Buckshot

[wills]

Check here

http://groups.msn.com/BPCR/bulletlubes.msnw

[TCLouis]

Get ye down to the DoAll tool store and buy a stick of "DoAll Tool Saver".

It is a fine BP Lube and that big old tube will lube a BUNCH of boolits.

[utk]

DoAll ToolSaver msds:

http://www.doallsawing.com/doallcomm...Tool_Saver.pdf

DoAll Technical sheet:

http://www.doallsawing.com/doallcomm..._TOOLSAVER.pdf

[jh45gun]

Thanks guys

[omgb]

This is a very old thread, almost 20 years! Here's what I settled on after years of Crisco, Bore Butter etc. I use a mix of Bee's wax, anhydrous lanolin and castor oil. About 3/4 of the mix is bee's wax. The lanolin gathers moisture and keeps fouling soft...I think For really hot weather, I'll add some carnauba. This is a good hardener that will stiffen the mix but not ruin it's anti-fouling properties. I make a bunch of it and use it to dip lube minies, fill grooves on cartridge guns and cap off my cap and ball gun. For patch lube, I set aside some in a jar that was made without carnauba.

[Adam Helmer]

jh.

I have 5 butter tubs of my deceased neighbor's Secret Hungarian Formula that is the best lube stuff I ever used. Miklos told me it was pork lard, beewax, crisco and something else. It remains a mystery.

Adam

[LabGuy]

Well, I use 50/50 beeswax/unsalted lard. You might want to very the ratio depending on your climate/season. I’m in Florida.

[GregLaROCHE]

I’ve always believed that BP lube should be made with natural ingredients. That’s what I’ve always used and it’s always worked.

[junkbug]

Many N.SSA skirmish shooters I compete with use a rough 50/50 volume mix of beeswax and olive oil, adjusted for the season to make it the right thickness for ones own preference.

[Good Cheer]

In general using lanolin, olive oil and beeswax for most everything I can.

[Winger Ed.]

There is a article about that in (I think) an older Lyman Cast book.

It talked about 'old timers' using chicken fat that had been boiled and the oil part skimmed off when it chilled.
They tried it, and it actually did real well.

[imashooter2]

There is a article about that in (I think) an older Lyman Cast book.

It talked about 'old timers' using chicken fat that had been boiled and the oil part skimmed off when it chilled.
They tried it, and it actually did real well.

Schmaltz, a staple in traditional Jewish cuisine.

[762 shooter]

Olive oil and beeswax.

As natural as you can get.

762

[Sudsy]

Olive oil and beeswax.

As natural as you can get.

762

I do the same but with avocado oil - much higher smoking temp than olive.
Does that make a difference? I've no idea really, but it's been working well for me.

[Super Sneaky Steve]

Beeswax and Lard here. Any animal fat should work.

Be ware that most of the "beeswax" found online isn't real beeswax especially the stuff from China.

[yeahbub]

Going to have to try that chcken fat thing. Sounds like just the ticket to start with for a patch lube when hunting. Maybe add some canola/avocado/olive oil for cold weather consistency.

My usual habit is to make up a tub of Emmert's lube at the lowest temperature that will melt all the ingredients, ~140 degrees F, a little heavy on the oil to keep it soft for dual use as case lube and for PP boolits when I have only a handful to size and load. Accuracy out of a .45 Colt lever action using a Lee 452-255 RF over a thin card wad and 38gr of Goex 3f compressed to the crimp groove in Starline cases ran 2.5" for seven rounds at 70 Yards, all I had good daylight for. The bore had flecks of ash in it but the steel was shiny.

Something I haven't had time to try yet is to use "basal oil" in lubes that call for vegetable oil, which is mixed with herbicide to go in through the bark on the trunk rather than spraying all that foliage to kill problem vegetation. Basal oil was explained to me as vegetable oil mixed with enough surfactant to keep it water soluble at any concentration. I've got some left after going after the Asian honeysuckle and autumn olive on the farm. The jury's still out, but it seems to me the surfactant would make it easier to clean with a wet patch.

What we need is a way to chemically compound H and O in correct ratios into the lube in such a way that they would be combined and H2O released under the heat and pressure of firing the shot, thus leaving moisture behind to keep fouling soft. As a compund, H2O would'nt exist as moisture until the shot is fired, so no danger of rust in barrels or corroded brass prior to the shot. . . . Or that's how I imagine this magical goodness. Not being a chemist, I've no idea what would be necessary to come up with such a thing, but hey, its an idea.

[Castaway]

No one’s mentioned it, but Gato Feo’s #1 is hard to beat as a patch lube, cap and ball wad lube or cartridge lube. It’s an old, resurrected Winchester lube that was republished in the NRA magazine in the early 40’s. Mutton tallow has the advantage of not going rancid as easily as other tallows and is considered superior to deer kidney tallow and bear. By weight 2:2:1 of mutton tallow, paraffin, and bees wax. I’ve yet to have a cylinder foil out or get stuff with a cap and as a cartridge lube, it keeps the fouling goopy. Stays put in the Florida sun and doesn’t migrate in a loaded cartridge

[GregLaROCHE]

No one’s mentioned it, but Gato Feo’s #1 is hard to beat as a patch lube, cap and ball wad lube or cartridge lube. It’s an old, resurrected Winchester lube that was republished in the NRA magazine in the early 40’s. Mutton tallow has the advantage of not going rancid as easily as other tallows and is considered superior to deer kidney tallow and bear. By weight 2:2:1 of mutton tallow, paraffin, and bees wax. I’ve yet to have a cylinder foil out or get stuff with a cap and as a cartridge lube, it keeps the fouling goopy. Stays put in the Florida sun and doesn’t migrate in a loaded cartridge

I have always wondered why they use both paraffin and beeswax. Why not only beeswax? Does the paraffin help if it’s really hot weather?