Paraffin Wax

[rodwha]

I’ve been using Gatofeo’s #1 lube in my black powder guns for a very long time and love it. But mutton tallow isn’t so readily available or as inexpensive as it once was, which got me looking around at what others are using. I’ve made 24 wads of various lube types to see what I see next week. One of them is 50/50 lard and beeswax, whereas Uglycat lube is 1/5 beeswax, 2/5 mutton tallow, and 2/5 paraffin wax.

What does the paraffin wax bring to the after party?

If making Gatofeo’s lube again but I wanted it to be a bit thicker would I add more beeswax or paraffin, and why?

[gwpercle]

Paraffin wax is :
relatively cheap
easy to find in any big box store
and is a hard wax

Make your lube with beeswax and lard / tallow ... but firm it up with a small amout of Paraffin Wax ... just enough to get the hardness you want .
Sometimes beeswax isn't hard enough to get the hardness you want ... so adding a little paraffin to the mix will get the job done .
Beeswax is a magical ingredient you want along with other natural ingredients (lard and tallow) Paraffin is a petroleum product and by itself not a great lube but in small amounts with the other natural ingredients works just fine ...
or so I've been led to believe .
Gary

[Winger Ed.]

A couple of official redneck ideas:

An older Lyman Cast book had a article about BP lubes for patches. Some old timers had real good luck with chicken fat.
It's easy to get, is real slippery, and sticks to everything like poop on a baby blanket.

Another guy was wondering about a good BP lube and someone suggested he contact a dog groomer or vet.
Some dogs produce this slimy, gooey something that has to be 'expressed' out of their ahhh,,, 'exhaust port'.
Give them your patches, and let them use those for the 'extraction procedure'.

[HWooldridge]

Crisco is a good additive to replace the soft part of the lube - and you can buy salt-free lard, which is similar to mutton tallow. I read an article around 30 years ago about Canadian target shooters who were shooting .577 rifles; they made a basic 50-50 mix of beeswax and Crisco with nothing else added. During the summer they would increase the beeswax and decrease it during winter. During extremely cold weather, the beeswax only constituted about 10% of the lube.

Nobody can get sperm whale oil anymore either, so we have to make do with whatever is available.

[Delkal]

Like others mentioned I would not use petroleum based paraffin for BP. Another natural option to harden your lube is Carnauba wax. It is a high melting point wax and is extremely hard. It doesn't take much.

[Sandro_ventania]

For those who don't know, carnauba wax is extracted from the leaves of a Brazilian palm tree of the same name.

[rodwha]

Like others mentioned I would not use petroleum based paraffin for BP. Another natural option to harden your lube is Carnauba wax. It is a high melting point wax and is extremely hard. It doesn't take much.

I can’t even begin to imagine how many bullets, Lee conicals, and felt wads I’ve used 2/5 paraffin wax in according to the extremely old recipe for outside lubricated bullets. And supposedly it’s an excellent patch lube as well. I have yet tried that.

[Castaway]

Delkal, there’s nothing wrong with paraffin in a black powder lube. The warning about petroleum doesn’t apply anymore than it would if using a plastic sabot, another petroleum product, in a muzzleloader. I, along with many others have used Gato Feo #1 for quite a while. In my opinion, there’s nothing better, and it’s 40% paraffin. It was resurrected from a 1940’s NRA magazine, but goes back further as Winchester was reported to use the same recipe for heeled bullets in the black powder era.

[Hick]

Beeswax, paraffin and vaseline (the last, like the lard or tallow, to get whatever hardness you want) works great in almost anything

[Delkal]

Delkal, there’s nothing wrong with paraffin in a black powder lube. The warning about petroleum doesn’t apply anymore than it would if using a plastic sabot, another petroleum product, in a muzzleloader. I, along with many others have used Gato Feo #1 for quite a while. In my opinion, there’s nothing better, and it’s 40% paraffin. It was resurrected from a 1940’s NRA magazine, but goes back further as Winchester was reported to use the same recipe for heeled bullets in the black powder era.

I guess I bought into the "natural lube" trend from the 80's and never bothered to go back and test if it was true. I always had a lot of beeswax and carnauba flakes are easy to get. That added to a natural oil / fat/ lard works good enough for me.

One note about carnauba wax though. It is much harder to melt so I always turn up the heat a little and add it as flakes at the very end. It is also the ingredient in Johnson's paste wax that everyone used for their hard tumble lubes. I never used JPL but use an equivalent amount of carnauba and mineral spirits at the end as an equivalent.

[Gobeyond]

Paraffin wax is :
relatively cheap
easy to find in any big box store
and is a hard wax

Make your lube with beeswax and lard / tallow ... but firm it up with a small amout of Paraffin Wax ... just enough to get the hardness you want .
Sometimes beeswax isn't hard enough to get the hardness you want ... so adding a little paraffin to the mix will get the job done .
Beeswax is a magical ingredient you want along with other natural ingredients (lard and tallow) Paraffin is a petroleum product and by itself not a great lube but in small amounts with the other natural ingredients works just fine ...
or so I've been led to believe .
Gary

He’s right you know. The beeswax wasn’t hard enough in some added to atf, 50-50. So a little 1/10 pound firmed it up nice.
It’s in the spg clone. Like Vaseline paraffin is a good product for bp lube too.

[barnetmill]

A couple of official redneck ideas:

An older Lyman Cast book had a article about BP lubes for patches. Some old timers had real good luck with chicken fat.
It's easy to get, is real slippery, and sticks to everything like poop on a baby blanket.

Another guy was wondering about a good BP lube and someone suggested he contact a dog groomer or vet.
Some dogs produce this slimy, gooey something that has to be 'expressed' out of their ahhh,,, 'exhaust port'.
Give them your patches, and let them use those for the 'extraction procedure'.

WOW
I would have to hide the patches from my dogs and in woods coyotes and wolves just might come running to you.

[barnetmill]

Beeswax, paraffin and vaseline (the last, like the lard or tallow, to get whatever hardness you want) works great in almost anything

I use something like that for grafting wax. Instead of vaseline, a ring of toilet seal grease is used. 1lb beeswax, 1 lb parrafin, and one toilet ring that is melted and paint brushed on a bound graft.

[Land Owner]

I made a gallon of Satan's Lube - 6-parts beeswax, 6-parts paraffin wax, 6-parts Vaseline, and IDK how many parts, probably 6, of Ivory Soap flakes. Cooked together, but not so hot the beeswax gets scorched, it is originally white and may be colored with a wax crayon in part or in total. Coloring is fun and allows visual representation of boolets by caliber or watever. Only then, I found Powder coating and was off on another tangent, so the gallon of 6-6-6 lube and the mold I made with PVC and dowels sits and waits for another day. There is a formula and methodology for this lube in the Stickies here.

[barnetmill]

I made a gallon of Satan's Lube - 6-parts beeswax, 6-parts paraffin wax, 6-parts Vaseline, and IDK how many parts, probably 6, of Ivory Soap flakes. Cooked together, but not so hot the beeswax gets scorched, it is originally white and may be colored with a wax crayon in part or in total. Coloring is fun and allows visual representation of boolets by caliber or watever. Only then, I found Powder coating and was off on another tangent, so the gallon of 6-6-6 lube and the mold I made with PVC and dowels sits and waits for another day. There is a formula and methodology for this lube in the Stickies here.

I use tiny crock pot set to a low temp that will not burn the bees wax. Takes a while to melt.

[trapper9260]

I’ve been using Gatofeo’s #1 lube in my black powder guns for a very long time and love it. But mutton tallow isn’t so readily available or as inexpensive as it once was, which got me looking around at what others are using. I’ve made 24 wads of various lube types to see what I see next week. One of them is 50/50 lard and beeswax, whereas Uglycat lube is 1/5 beeswax, 2/5 mutton tallow, and 2/5 paraffin wax.

What does the paraffin wax bring to the after party?

If making Gatofeo’s lube again but I wanted it to be a bit thicker would I add more beeswax or paraffin, and why?

You can make your own tallow from deer fat . Just render it down. It has more uses then one thinks. That is what I done wanting some tallow.

[Land Owner]

Deer fat? Deer is some of the leanest meat. Well, I guess there is some fat in the belly at or near the tender loins. That do.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I use tiny crock pot set to a low temp that will not burn the bees wax. Takes a while to melt.

Satan's Lube:
The soap is optional, I think it helps a lot. If soap is added, it requires lots of heat (near 460º) to get it saponified into the waxes. The trick is to cook everything, except beeswax, until it mixes, then cut heat, let it cool to about 300º then add beeswax. You'd think the beeswax could still scorch, but the room temp beeswax melts absorbing the heat of the mix, which cools even more. Stir constantly and the beeswax will blend in easily.

My opinion:
(we all have one), is that 6 parts Paraffin is too much. If I were to mix it, I'd use 2 parts paraffin. I would also use 6 parts Soap...the original recipe was one part soap, which will mix together more easily then 6 parts, but the more Soap the better, until you get to 33%. All measurements by weight.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Deer fat? Deer is some of the leanest meat. Well, I guess there is some fat in the belly at or near the tender loins. That do.

I think the Deer in the Cornbelt part of the Country, are a little bit fattier than other parts of the Country.

[rodwha]

I think the Deer in the Cornbelt part of the Country, are a little bit fattier than other parts of the Country.

Yeah, down here in Texas the Hill Country deer just don’t have measurable body fat, and when you look out there you realize why they’re so little with thinner antlers, though their numbers are thick. Their food just isn’t very nutritious I guess.