do you graphite your balls?

[Whitesmoke]

Why not pour some cheap vegetable or olive oil in your round ball storage container.Basically something to keep the atmosphere from dioxidising the lead.

[rfd]

just-cast ball storage in a baggie, and rolled around with a spritz of wd40 - keeps off the oxidation and on the shine.

powder coating trad ml balls??? OMG!!! that's just plain Heresy!!!

[Col4570]

[QUOTE=Whitesmoke;3881960]Why not pour some cheap vegetable or olive oil in your round ball storage container.Basically something to keep the atmosphere from dioxidising the lead.[
A sensible Idea if you cast more than you need,they soon oxidise in storage.

[rancher1913]

thanks, figured you guys would have fun with this but it was also a real question because I noticed that some of the store bought ones looked to have graphite on them.

[ascast]

Whhhaaaaaaattt?

[waksupi]

If you just want to keep them shiny, drop them in a container of soapy water, then let dry without rinsing.

All in all, I'm against graphite on the balls, as it tends to make a terrible mess in my underwear. Black in front, racing stripe in the rear.

[curator]

About once a year I cast around 2000 .490 round balls for our local Boy Scout Camp's muzzle loading rifle program. About five years ago the Camp Director brought a half-filled container of white-oxidized balls back to me for remelting. Apparently one of the lady-scout-mistresses correctly identified the lead oxide as toxic and would not let her snow-flakes shoot them. Fearing she would make a huge fuss at Council office he took them away and substituted some of his store-bought balls that had no oxide (visible). Since then I have taken the precaution of tumbling freshly cast round balls in Lee Liquid Alox thinned about 4 to 1 with mineral spirits. Alox is what the Navy uses to "moth-ball" its ships exposed to salt air. The coating is invisible, not sticky and completely eliminates surface oxidation. Balls I cast and coated 4 years ago are oxide free in my shooting cabinet while the uncoated ones are dusty white.

[Multigunner]

Does it cost extra in Bangkok?

[Omnivore]

I have taken the precaution of tumbling freshly cast round balls in Lee Liquid Alox thinned about 4 to 1 with mineral spirits.

That's actually kind of a neat idea, snow-flakes, or snow-flake marms, notwithstanding. I've been placing fresh-cast lead in zip lock bags, but I have some very old ones (switched sizes, and so haven't used up the old size) that are very oxidized. I suspect that some of the commercial, swaged round balls are similarly coated. I've had Speer balls for a long time and they don't seem to oxidize much if at all, whereas some Hornady balls have been white oxide-covered since I got 'em. In any case, a dilute Alox coating would be easy, cheap, and can't hurt a thing.

[Walkingwolf]

If your balls have oxidized you are not using them enough.

[Outpost75]

If you just want to keep them shiny, drop them in a container of soapy water, then let dry without rinsing. All in all, I'm against graphite on the balls, as it tends to make a terrible mess in my underwear. Black in front, racing stripe in the rear.

I am reminded of the famous Johnny Carson skit about the new ball washer on the golf course in Vegas. If Joey Heatherton or Anne Margaret offered to graphite my balls my reaction would the the same as Johnny's...

[carbine]

I cast up 120 to 240 pounds of boolits and balls each year and store them in cookie tins. They stay shiny for a couple of years. Been doing it this way almost 40 years

[mozeppa]

how about using liquid alox on yer balls?

[RogerDat]

how about using liquid alox on yer balls?

When I had a balls getting dusty from disuse folks suggested that a bit of time with the vibrator and media would get rid of the dust and afterwards a tumble with liquid alox would prevent future dustiness for a long time to come. Working so far....

[Omnivore]

OK, let's get it out of our systems;
We have balls (for our guns), we often shoot wads, and we always shoot our loads (some have hair triggers, and thus pre-mature “discharge”, which can be “dangerous”), otherwise we might smear lube over our balls, the guns have nipples, we use "nipple twisters" to screw them, and so on. Yuk yuk, funny funny, hah hah. What have I missed? Oh, we might as well mention our cocks and our pricks (flintlock shooters all use those, and you should know that the term “prick” as used for a part of the anatomy started out as a euphemism because a prick is what you use to puncture a powder bag prior to priming a cannon, or to clear out the flash hole in a flintlock barrel, which we might have forgotten a few generations back). Can we be done with it now, or do these age-old terms have to result in a perpetual snicker-fest among black powder shooters?

You know it’s not exactly inviting to some people, to have to filter though all that when they're looking for useful information. I know a young woman who is very interested in learning to shoot, and to hunt, but some of the men she’s been forced to hang out with in order to learn these things have been less than inspiring because of stuff like this. She soldiers on, but it isn't pleasant. At one point she was near the point of vomiting. I thought she was ill, but she later said it was something one of those guys said (one of my "friends"). She never did repeat it.

Also look up the term "Markley's Law". It states, more or less, that any discussion of guns in mixed company eventually degrades into penis references, usually in the form of "Uh-huh; those gun owners must be, uh, 'compensating for something' (if you know what I mean - nod nod, wink wink)" meaning that the only reason a man owns a gun is to compensate for some kind of sexual dysfunction or inadequacy, and this sort of talk doesn't help.

Yes, I know; “lighten up” and all, but it had to be said. Carry on.

[RogerDat]

When I had a balls getting dusty from disuse folks suggested that a bit of time with the vibrator and media would get rid of the dust and afterwards a tumble with liquid alox would prevent future dustiness for a long time to come. Working so far....

Actually that is exactly what I did. Vibrator with crushed walnut media, to clean the dust off. Followed by tumble lube in liquid alox. I know very few women who would become ill at any double entendre interpretation of that post. The information was passing on suggestions made when I first discovered the problem that worked for me so far.

[Texantothecore]

I've heard that Ben Gay works well.

[waarp8nt]

OK, let's get it out of our systems;
We have balls (for our guns), we often shoot wads, and we always shoot our loads (some have hair triggers, and thus pre-mature “discharge”, which can be “dangerous”), otherwise we might smear lube over our balls, the guns have nipples, we use "nipple twisters" to screw them, and so on. Yuk yuk, funny funny, hah hah. What have I missed? Oh, we might as well mention our cocks and our pricks (flintlock shooters all use those, and you should know that the term “prick” as used for a part of the anatomy started out as a euphemism because a prick is what you use to puncture a powder bag prior to priming a cannon, or to clear out the flash hole in a flintlock barrel, which we might have forgotten a few generations back). Can we be done with it now, or do these age-old terms have to result in a perpetual snicker-fest among black powder shooters.

I believe you forgot to mention anything about Ramrods....I once got my ramrod stuck in a side hammer action of a box lock. It took a nutcracker (no aggressive teeth like pliers), a strip of leather wrapped around the shaft and two hands to pull it out. Once removed, I noticed the tip came off and was stuck in the barrel. I put a little extra powder under the nipple in the touch hole and was able to get the the obstruction (cleaning patch and ramrod end) to discharge. There was a substantial penalty for acting in such a manner as the ramrod was never the same. Reminds me I need to get that looked at sometime...a new tip may be in order.

[Hickory]

I've heard that Ben Gay works well.

Fake news.

[mozeppa]

Fake news.

how do you know?