Muphy Oil Soap

Any of you have the recipe for BP cleaner using Murphy Oil Soap?
Shoe

1 part murphy's soap, 1 rubbing alcohol(70-90%), 1 part hydrogen peroxide........It works great. You can make enough to last a year or two for just a couple of dollars.

See post "Stumpy's Moose Snot" in this forum

This works real good to clean with, but i was told once that this needs to be stored in a dark bottle as sun light will cause it to break down and become explosive. Anyone else heard this? I'd like to hear from anyone with proof of this :hmm:

Per NMLRA recipee 1/3 murphy's oil soap,1/3 denatured alcohol,1/3 hydrogen peroxide all by volume.

Halfstock :thumbsup:

I thought the dark-colored container was to keep the sunlight from breaking down the peroxide. I used to use the "Secret Formula" and it worked great as a cleaner. But then read somewhere that the peroxide opened the pores in the metal which could cause rust! :shocking: Haven't used it since.

Stumpy's Moose Milk

A general purpose blackpowder solvent and liquid patch lube. Shake well before using

Castor Oil 3 oz.
Murphy's Oil Soap 1 oz.
Witch Hazel 4 oz.
Isopropyl Alcohol (91%) 8 oz.
Water (non-chlorinated) 16 oz.

I dip my patching in this twice and let it dry laid out flat in between. Makes a semi-dry patch material that's easy to carry & use. If you don't mind carrying a little bottle it's a GREAT liquid lube as is.


Hydrogen peroxide is an oxidizer and will contribute to bore rust if any remains. It's chemical formula is H202, so water does the same thing as far as powder fouling is concerned . . . unless you need to kill some bacteria in the bore. :youcrazy:

I have used MOS and alcohol for years. I see no need for the peroxide. I would thin it depending upon conditions. Why the water? I was using the alcohol to avoid using water.

I will try your other ingredients someday soon just to see how it does for me.

CS

The soap needs a carrier and water works. The easiest way to neutralize the salts and acids in fouling is to flush them away, and the water does that at the least expense. Swapping out the water entirely for alcohol will work fine but increases the cost without really improving anything. A wipe with a patch soaked in alcohol or a squirt of WD-40 after cleaning chases all the water out of the bore.

If you're using rubbing alcohol you're already using 50% water. I use the 91% isopropyl and cut it down myself.

The use of M.A.P. works real well. All you need remember is to make sure and wipe the bore out with dry patches and then oil the bore ASAP. The Hydrogen Peroxide will cause flash rust and the speed in which it will happen is most surprising.

I was given a rifle by a person that thought they had ruined the gun because they had hunted with it, shot it a couple times actually using pyrodex, and then put it in their basement against the wall in the corner for about five months without cleaning. The owner figured I could use parts off the rifle to make other rifles.

My first examination through the use of a bore light of the rifle showed severe fowling in the barrel. The fowling was almost like cement it seemed. After a couple water baths the fowling still remained in the bore. I finally plugged the nipple and filled the barrel with MAP. After letting it sit for 15 minutes, I was able to pour the MAP out including additional fowling. Another water bath to dilute the MAP, and finally a good bore scrubbing started to bring the barrel to metal.

The rust and pitting in the barrel made it look like a lost cause. But having nothing to loose, I lapped the barrel and cleaned it up as best as I could. The good ending to this all is, 70 grains of Goex 3f and a patched roundball, and this rifle will really shoot!!

Whether the MAP made the difference in the fowling ... who knows. Could additional water baths done the same thing? Perhaps... But the MAP seemed to get the job done.

Woodsman, I heard the same thing, about 6 or 7 years ago...I think, but am not sure, there was a mention of it in Muzzleblasts...I don't usually respond to the "they say" kind of warnings, but this was strong enough for me to pour out the half bottle I had...I've been happy with hot water, Butch's Bore Bright and Sheath plus Bore Butter ever since..Hank

I swapped out the peroxide and added WD-40. So the mixture is about 60% Murphy's, 30% Rubbing Alcohol and about 10% WD-40. It works pretty well, but the best solvent I have used yet is hot water maybe sweetened just a little bit with dish washing liquid. And it's the cheapest too! I like to keep a bottle of Old Turkey Track handy in the box when I'm at the range. I'm not sure what's in it, but it works quite well too. There is a distinct smell of Dove soap in it. You can get it at Ft. Chambers Gun Shop in PA. But I still say nothing beats hot water, especially if you plug the vent, pour it in and let it set for a little bit.

I made up a batch of equal parts murphy's/water/alcohol 3+ years ago (it was a big batch) to use as a patch lube/cleaner. I met the Les and Ron who made the original Lehigh lube and used a couple of bottles, then I went back to my homebrew. Although there was some difference, it sure wasn't worth the postage since I shoot A LOT. I started using my own mix of bear fat/beeswax for patch lube and mwa mix does just fine. Half a dozen good wet patches prior to heading home and the murphy's / hot water does the job in less than 20 minutes.

There just ain't nothin' like making it yourself. :results:

1 part murphy's soap, 1 rubbing alcohol(70-90%), 1 part hydrogen peroxide........It works great. You can make enough to last a year or two for just a couple of dollars.

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Hydrogen peroxide is a powerful oxidant. It will cause rust in the bore. :m2c:

I had to check with my chemistry Prof before I said anything and really made myself look stupid But. The H2O2 in the hydrogen peroxide is usually no more than 3%-5% in solution. Although H2O2 is by itself a powerful oxidizer. Diluted as it is in household HP its effects are greatly decreased. The Alcohol being amphipathic bonds with both the water and the oils in the residue. As it rapidly evaporates it with take the H2's and O2's with it, neutralizing the Oxidizing effect of the Peroxide. The Murphy' oil soap is a phospholipid, meaning it can bond or mix with water and oils or fats. This is broken down by the HP and the alcohol to a solution that can desolve both Carbon and oily residues left behind by black powder. The Alcohol takes the H's and the O's with it when it evaporated and leaves behind the Lipids or oils from the murphy' soap.
this is not to say you souldn't oil the barrel but if you don't right away there is very little or nothing left of the oxidizers to do much harm. I have some sitting on a piece of mild steel just to see if it will rust, but I have used it on three different guns and had no rusting problems.

Woodsman 1757, The Brown bottle is to keep the HP from breaking down in ultraiolet light, If you did leave the 1 to 1 to 1 solution in the sun in a clear bottle the worst that would happen is you might get a small amount of Hydrogen gas built up but no more than is already in the atmosphere. I am trying this experiment also.
In the Name of science I will let you know what happens. Unless my house blows up
:imo: :results:

The Myth Busters Rule!!!!!

Ask your chemistry professor what advantage hydrogen peroxide at 5% concentration in 95% water might have over 100% water (especially with the Murphy's and alcohol added). I never have figured out why folks use[url] H.peroxide[/url] in blackpowder solvent brews.

Killer, The H2O2 is a powerful oxidizer as is, That is why it has to be diluted in water. H2O is very stable H2O2 wants to kick off one of its O's to become stable, That is when it becomes an oxidizer. As it does this it, it becomes bondable to carbon compounds in the residue, and the soap helps hold them in solution to be washed away. I'm sure that it works without the HP. The HP just gives a faster reaction. The waste product from this is O2 (oxygen).

:yakyak:I'd like to meet the guy that figured all this out the first time.

I have found that just hot water and Murphys works fine, then a few rinse's with just the hot water, oil/WD40 and I'm done.

1 part murphy's soap, 1 rubbing alcohol(70-90%), 1 part hydrogen peroxide........It works great. You can make enough to last a year or two for just a couple of dollars.

Click to expand...

"hydrogen peroxide" will help cause RUST per MAD MONK! :thumbsup:

The H2O2 is a powerful oxidizer as is, That is why it has to be diluted in water. H2O is very stable H2O2 wants to kick off one of its O's to become stable, That is when it becomes an oxidizer. As it does this it, it becomes bondable to carbon compounds in the residue, and the soap helps hold them in solution to be washed away.

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It's bad enough that H2O2 might shed an oxygen. Oxygen never exists as "O" in nature, always O2 as a binary (the seven diatomics: BrOFINClH - Bromine, Oxygen, Fluorine, Iodine, Nitrogen, Chlorine & Hydrogen always travel as conjoined pairs in their elemental state). It's not going to just leave. It's going to bond with the first molecule that winks at it in the solution in the bore. That's why oxidizing compounds are "dangerous" around metals. They're of very easy virtue for combining with anything handy; like iron molecules in the barrel.

So, with all this alphabet soup of letters in the fouling trying to reach equilibruium, if[url] H.peroxide[/url] (H2O2) picks up carbon monoxide (CO), a product of combustion, you get H2CO3 - carbonic acid. Add that to the nitric and sulphuric acids already kicking around from the residue in the black powder.

At least plain water dilutes and mechanically flushes the acids and salts away without adding to the problem.