Today I tried another oil with the castor. Same result - separation.
In all my cookings, I have only used the two oils. No soap, sodium stearate or stearic acid.
I have assumed that polymerized means that the oils have merged into one un-separable quantity of oil. Correct?
I find it odd that I have failed with four different oils while others report success.
If you use stearate etc, I can understand that the oils stay together. I've done some experiments with the oils + sodium stearate. Some slight separation after a long time but stearate definitely bind the oils together.
I've also made a few lube batches with different quantities of sodium stearate (not soap) and different mineral oils and they are all dry and nice in their plastic bags. No signs of separation or oil seepage/leakage even after a long time (years).
I placed a couple of small balls of lube from these batces on a piece of paper for a couple of days in the sun, temps approx 130F maximum. There was some bleeding into the paper. A "reference ball" of Calif. Saeco Green bled more and the lube ball was visibly "sweating" in the heat whereas the other lube balls looked dry. (Next time I will use the oven - more controllable).
Do I have good lubes or will they withstand heat even better if I manage the polymerization?
Then - what does it take to reach this illusive goal?
Now, If the oils don't "connect" - could there have been some change in the length of the "chains" or "molecules" of especially the castor after the long cooking time? So that the castor (with the extra help of stearate) now can be contained in the beeswax? This could explain why some report seepage after cooking too little time?
I have always cooked for at least half an hour, often more and the finished lube looked ok. Judging from the last days experiments I have never managed to poly the oils as described though...