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homebrew .357

36 Cal.
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Hi just made up a patch cutter, 1" pillow ticking round one`s for both .45 and .50, now I have olive oil, Alfa bran oil and soluble oil from my lathe. Which one would be ok for patch lube, :eek: AAhh, Pandora's box. I know every one`s got the best stuff, but this is what I have at hand. homebrew.357.
 
I would pick the olive oil for the following reasons. 1) it’s an historic oil, called sweet oil in the English colonies, 2) I’ve used it myself and it worked well 3) dont know nothin’ ‘bout alpha bran oil.
Just shooting in the dark here, bran oil? Is that an oil from some sort of grain bran? If so it should work. water soluble oils are oft mixed with water to produce moose milk, and this is an old stand by for ml.
 
Been using wax and veg oil melted together that is a thick sticky consistency when cooled.
 
Tried cooking oil, Ballastol, even regular 30/40 motor oil. All worked but I use Olive oil these days. Motor oil made things a little harder to clean.
 
Tried wax oil mix, mink tallow, lambs fat etc , what worked best for one of the 54's after trying a bunch of load combo's was spit and some very old linen. Gun stayed the cleanest with spit also.
 
With spit I think it would be a good idea to put the patches in your hot pot stew, then dry, would have a nice flavour but after 50 or so shots you could run dry. I use a mix of bees wax, olive oil, bit of lanolin and some red crayon for my bullet lube, so will go with the olive oil, good for the hands to, but have to talk nice to my wife first. Thanks guys, homebrew.357.
 
For cloth patch, 2/3 cheap olive oil, and 1/3 melted beeswax mixed while very warm and allowed to cool.
For lubing minies or other conicals, reverse the ratio, and 2/3 melted beeswax and 1/3 cheap olive oil, very warm when mixed, and allowed to cool.

LD
 
Based on using only what you have on hand, all of the oils would work as a patch lube. I have no knowledge of an Alfa-Bran oil, but that should work much the same as olive oil. The water soluble oil is somewhat an unknown. I use the old formula NAPA water soluble oil and it works fine. The present WSO from NAPA does not work based on a number of reports and Ballistol has replaced it. You don't need much WSO to make a lubricant. 1 part WSO to 7 parts water is good. I like to dampen the patch with that mix. Some like to dampen the patch material, let the water evaporate and use the patch dry. Its all a basic part of the load development procedure. Dry patching will require frequent wiping of the bore to keep the fouling under control.
 

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