Olive Oil for a bore protectant ???

[Skychief]

Yes, no, maybe, pros, cons, etc, etc???

 

[Dphar]

Yes, no, maybe, pros, cons, etc, etc???

Vegetable oils are drying oils to some extent.
No reason to use this stuff that I can think of.
If you want something traditional get some bear oil or find some Sperm Whale oil.

Dan

 

[jmac]

"drying oils"? please elaborate...

J-Mac

 

[jmforge]

vegetable oils also go rancid after a short time. Okay for oiling your cast iron skillet because you are going to be using it fairly often in theory and you don't really want to eat WD40.

 

[nw_hunter]

Makes a pretty good lube, but as a rust preventive........."It stinks"

 

[Halftail]

I had a Brain fart once and thought I'd use it.Now I'm using Ballistol again.No worries.

 

[Billnpatti]

As a patch lube, it is okay. I have heard some folks say that they have mixed it with bees wax to make a bullet lube. I have never used the stuff. If you had in mind using it as a rust protectant, forget it. It has no rust preventing properties at all. When it comes to protecting your gun from rust and corrosion, there are two things that must be done. Get it completely clean and then use a grease or oil that has a rust preventive in it. I like Ballistol. WD-40 is not a rust preventive in spite of what you may hear. The "WD" in WD-40 stands for "Water Displacer". That is what WD-40 excells at and what it should be used for. When I clean my guns, I finish by scalding the bore with boiling water. Then I run a dry patch through the bore followed by a good spray of WD-40 to get rid of the rest of the water. Then a couple of dry patches to get rid of the WD-40 followed by a couple of patches of Ballistol.

Olive oil.....cook with it, it is good for you. Use it as a patch lube, it may work well for you. But do not try to use it as a rust preventer. It just ain't no good in that area!! :thumbsup:

 

I use automatic transmission fluid and have never had any problems with rust.

Flyboy

 

[LaBonte]

vegetable oils also go rancid after a short time.

Sorry Joe but this is one of those pieces of mis-information that is too often passed of as fact. Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOES NOT go rancid in a short while or even in a long while except in unique circumstances of high heat and high humidity. And that statement is based on years of use by myself and many, many others...
1) They have discovered ancient Greek and Roman jars full of the stuff that is completely edible
2) A good portion of leather made for hundreds of years has had EV olive oil applied and a large number of pro leather workers still use it - rancidity is NOT a major factor with EVOO. FWIW most neatsfoot oil today is made from lard and not in the traitional manner from calf legs.

As a long term protectant none of the period oils/greases are that good for long term protection, but then the old timers didn't need long term protection very often except for military guns kept in storage...

 

[Claude Mathis]

Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOES NOT go rancid in a short while or even in a long while except in unique circumstances of high heat and high humidity.

Correct. :thumbsup:

 

[Eric/WV]

I use olive oil/beeswax it works great for me.

I recall awhile back...someone on this or another forum conducted an experiment with all of the commercial and homemade lubes. He cut squares from the same piece of steel and labeled them. He applied a different lube to each steel square and put them outside in the weather for a month or so and monitored the surface rust. The winner was olive oil and beeswax lube. I'll try to find the thread.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Extra Virgin Olive Oil DOES NOT go rancid in a short while or even in a long while except in unique circumstances of high heat and high humidity.

Correct. :thumbsup:

This is why the old timers refered to olive oil as "sweet oil" since it did not get rancid as did animal fats.

 

[LaBonte]

If you want something traditional get some bear oil or find some Sperm Whale oil.
Dan

Olive Oil IS traditional - as others have noted it was called sweet oil and it was WIDELY sold and used and is heavily documented for use in all kinds of mechanical items including clocks, watches, and guns. During the historic period it was considered to be second best only to sperm whale oil for such uses, and it's documented use is not just for urban areas in America.

This is why the old timers refered to olive oil as "sweet oil" since it did not get rancid as did animal fats

Actually properly handled and rendered animal fats are some of the least likely natural fats to go rancid. For instance pure lard is available in most any grocery store - but don't look in the cold section look for it wherever the other cooking oils are sold. Even after opening it does not go rancid easily.
On the other hand animal fats that were not kept clean or was contaminated with blood or remaining bits of meat while rendering will go rancid as will used animal fats.

BTW - pure lard is a VERY good substitute for bear fat........

 

[Halftail]

Olive oil.....cook with it, it is good for you. Use it as a patch lube, it may work well for you. But do not try to use it as a rust preventer. It just ain't no good in that area!! :thumbsup:

That's just plain good advice right there!

 

[jbwilliams3]

I use olive oil as a short-term rust preventative from time-to-time (overnight). But good gun oil is the way to go to be certain.

IT DOES NOT GO RANCID, as has been stated. I tried it in a barrel that I didn’t care about- after three months there was still no sign of rust. I don’t make a habit of this, though.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Today, the best, and easiest way to render fats so that they won't be rancid is to run them through coffee filters after the fat is melted to oil. The fine mesh of the coffee filters will remove all solids, and blood, and other very small inclusions. If you are working with very coarse fats, cycle the oil through filters a couple of times. The filters are cheap. The result will be a clean, very light colored oil.

In the past, I have used Cheese Cloth, paper toweling, and washed flannel, as filters, but they do not work as well as the paper coffee filters. :thumbsup:

 

[Ridge]

I've coated the inside of my barrels with olive oil/bees wax for years and haven't had a problem with rust. YMMV

 

[dloud]

paulvallandigham
You are correct on the filtering animal fat.I was doing some work at my Dad's house a while back and found a quart of beef tallow he had stored in the pantry. He had rendered it out in about 1975, it was was in perfect condition. I picked his brain about it, he said tallow would keep indefinitely if it was filtered properly. He stressed the fact that it should be free of any contamination or it would go rancid.