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Patch lubes

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Read here and here and this is at the bottom of the window of the "three rivers lube"

This economical, easy to use solvent is the preferred choice of many a buckskinner and target shooter alike. It's easy to use as a patch lube, to wipe between shots and as a final cleaner. As with any cleaner, dry and oil the barrel before storing. 64 ounce plastic bottle, this is our best buy.

These are identicle in composition.
 
This came from the discussion of Stumpkiller's Moose Snot recipe. He used castor oil. I have brewed some up and it works great.
 
Castor oil. I'm guessing thats what was used by most of the old-timers. After all, it's derived from the beaver and readily available if you were a successful trapper right?
 
flinthunter said:
Castor oil. I'm guessing thats what was used by most of the old-timers. After all, it's derived from the beaver and readily available if you were a successful trapper right?

In case you weren't joking - castor oil is a vegetable oil made from the castor bean.......
 
I used to trap beavers and they have a couple of castor glands under their tails.
I don't think you would want to use what comes out of those glands for patch lube though. :barf:

LaBonte said:
flinthunter said:
Castor oil. I'm guessing thats what was used by most of the old-timers. After all, it's derived from the beaver and readily available if you were a successful trapper right?

In case you weren't joking - castor oil is a vegetable oil made from the castor bean.......
 
flinthunter said:
Castor oil. I'm guessing thats what was used by most of the old-timers. After all, it's derived from the beaver and readily available if you were a successful trapper right?

If you want to be PC, shoot a bear and render your patch lube from him... :)

If I remember Stumphy's story correctly, he also has these small airplanes and he uses castor oil in the gas to lube the 2 cycle engine...After cleaning his plane one day he noticed that the exhaust left on the plane was still greasy...Figuring if the oil could go through an internal combustion engine and still have some lubrication qualities it might work as part of a recipe for patch lube...

So, he used bees wax as a base, like many patch lube recipes and worked with how much castor oil was needed for the proper consistency...
 
In case you weren't joking - castor oil is a vegetable oil made from the castor bean.......[/quote]


I wasn't joking. I'm just a little ignorant I guess. Thank you for the education.
 
Grullaguy said:
I used to trap beavers and they have a couple of castor glands under their tails.
I don't think you would want to use what comes out of those glands for patch lube though. :barf:

Thats what I was refering to. Yes it does stink, awfully bad. Pardon my ignorance.
 
You're both right. The Romans used castor oil, and when beaver was discovered I guess they figured the oil from the glands was similar to the castor bean oil; or vice versa - the Latin name for the North American beaver is Castor canadensis, castor = beaver in Latin, but whether the bean or the critter was named first I cannot say. There were and are similar beavers in Europe and Asia (Castor fiber).

And yes, I noticed how well it (the bean variety) coats and holds up to heat on my R/C engines and thought I'd give it a try as a m/l lube additive. Pure is too viscous, but it plays well with beeswax and/or alcohol. It was used in WWI radial engines, jet engines and racing motorcycles as well.
 
Stump, viscosity shouldn't be a problem for a patch lube, I would think. I've used everything from Crisco to water and they all worked. Is it worthwhile to try it as a patch lube? I was dosed with that miserable manure on a regular basis when I was a lad and I'd sure like to shoot as much of that stuff as I can.
 
The one caution I would put out there for pure castor is that it may varnish. That's as bad as tar.

Castor oil has other unique properties. It is highly polar and has a great affinity for metal surfaces. It has a flash point of only 445 degrees F (229 deg C), but its fire point is about 840 degrees F (449 deg C)! This is very unusual behavior if you consider that polyalkylene glycols flash at about 350-400 degrees F (176-204 deg C)and have a fire point of only about 550 degrees F (288 deg C), or slightly higher. Nearly all of the common synthetics that we use burn in the combustion chamber if you get off too lean. Castor oil does not, because it is busily forming more and more complex polymers as the temperature goes up. Most synthetics boil on the cylinder walls at temperatures slightly above their flash point. The same activity can take place in the wrist pin area, depending on engine design.

http://www.go-cl.se/castor.html
 
I use Mink Oil from TOTW! Im a hunter first and a shooter second, here in MN our special "Muzzleloader" season doesnt open until the saturday after Thanksgiving and we have had some bitter cold temps! These cold temps can and have make certain patch lubes turn solid resulting in torn patches and loss of accuracy! Just what i want...a 4hr sit on stand with an opportunity for a buck of a lifetime on the edge of a cedar swamp with a frozen patch! I usually buy two tins a year and they last me through dozens if not hundreds of shots, and they dont FREEZE :bow: PS i had a friend miss that buck with a homemade patch lube! Torn patch was recovered, buck was not :redface:
 
I use any kind of animal lube I happen to have. Beaver is good, they are the greasiest things you'll ever want to skin. Bear grease works great, too. I know guys using rendered deer tallow, and right now I'm working on a bottle of goose grease from last Thanksgiving. A bit of beeswax helps stiffen all of them up for warmer weather. I'll use the animal oil straight to oil the guns after cleaning.

Rod
 
BIL and I were the first in Atlanta in the '60's to use fuel injection in gokart racing and we used Bakers brand food grade castor oil (purchased by the gallon can) for lubricant and yes, there was still clean oil in the exhaust after hours of screaming rpm's burning alcohol/nitro methane mix.
 
anyone ever try just plain old petroleum jelly wont freeze or melt(become runny) or cause rust seems like the perfect cheap readily available lube but i may be missing something id melt it over low heat and absorb it into the patches not cover them in goo :confused:
 
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