Making / Experimenting with Patch Lube

[Ohio Joe]

Thanks Al and Doggoner...

I might mention that here where I live in northwest Nebraska, I'm about 3700 feet above sea-level and though we get our share of snow and not a whole lot of rain, our humidity levels are normally pretty low year round. Many a times a 10 degree morning here can feel more like a mid to high 20's degree day and the same hold true for a 20 degree morning feeling like a mid to high 30's degree day. 'course when that wind blows, all bets are off, and we have no shortage of that here of late.

I'll have to check out that castboolits site. I know many a folks on here at the TMA Forum have mentioned this site many a times. 

[Winter Hawk]

Joe, I found out about Ed's Red on the TradRag site.  The following is a quote from the person who first posted about it:

Trying out something old and new

Post by hawkthrower » Fri Feb 05, 2016 2:54 am

I found a recipe for a bore cleaner/patch lube and am in the process of testing it out. All accounts from other sites and from other records seem to confirm that this formula is one which both cleans up residue and removes deposits from lead and powder..... It's not friendly with wooden components so ..... don't get it on the wood!
So the formula is equal parts of the stuff in the cans = bore cleaner. If you add the lanolin you have something that will have longer lasting rust protection and which is supposed to be a little better on the hands...(I'd keep this off the hands). Then if you remove the acetone, turpentine and lanolin you have an excellent gun oil. Finally if you mix equal parts of the canned items and add a little lanolin and add some beeswax you are supposed to end up with a fantastic patch lube/bore cleaner!
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Ok guys - an update - the patch lube does not freeze! and the cleaner works better than almost anything I've tried over the last 50 years! all I can say so far is the stuff works great!! It is easy to mix up and seems to be very protective on the metal - only downside is the red might darken lighter wood if you spill. On metal parts it works fantastic for a fully clean and protected result.....
more later after I've had time to test the anti rust potential
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What was the ratio of beeswax to Ed's Red that you used?

Thanks,
~WH~
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about 1cu.in. of bees wax to 1/8 to 1/4 ounce of Ed's Red and add 1/8 tsp more lanolin..... heat gently to melt the bees wax first add lanolin then add Ed's Red to taste..... the more you add the stinkier and the more liquid the paste will be. I like the paste to be just a "little bit soft" so it stays put in the tin. The consistency is difficult to determine before the wax has cooled so go slow, you can warm the tin and add more Ed's Red if you want to soften it, if you over do it and its too soupy you'll will have to add wax..... You may like it a bit more soft or hard depending on your taste......
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You might also look at Junior Doughty's site and his "Junior Lube": http://castbullet.com/makeit/lube.htm

While you're there, check out the rest of the site; it's chock full of good information.  The world lost a good man when Junior died!  You might send an email to his daughter in appreciation that she is keeping the site up....

~Kees~

[Uncle Russ]

Kees....I do miss Junior and the many "late night" discussions we had many years back. Good man for sure!

I'm also a fan of Ed's Red, have been for a very long time.

Also, here lately, I have become more interested in the combination of Sweet Oil and Veg. Oil, this comes from my reading, and boredom of being home bound for long periods of time.
Like Joe, I made up a small batch and put it on patches on a ball board....just checked that ball board and although it looked dry when I punched one out, lube was still present when I rubbed it between my thumb an finger.
I'm not exactly sure when I did this but, IIRC it was early to mid October and the heat has been on in the shop for a good 45 or so days.
I'm not sure how significant that is in the long run, but to a simple man, using such simple products, I was impressed.

Russ...

[Ohio Joe]

Kees....I do miss Junior and the many "late night" discussions we had many years back. Good man for sure!

I'm also a fan of Ed's Red, have been for a very long time.

Also, here lately, I have become more interested in the combination of Sweet Oil and Veg. Oil, this comes from my reading, and boredom of being home bound for long periods of time.
Like Joe, I made up a small batch and put it on patches on a ball board....just checked that ball board and although it looked dry when I punched one out, lube was still present when I rubbed it between my thumb an finger.
I'm not exactly sure when I did this but, IIRC it was early to mid October and the heat has been on in the shop for a good 45 or so days.
I'm not sure how significant that is in the long run, but to a simple man, using such simple products, I was impressed.

Russ...

That's good to hear Russ. Thanks for that info - it's very helpful! 

[Ohio Joe]

Okay, I started some experimentation tonight;

I melted and mixed up; 1 oz of Lambs Tallow and added it to 1 oz of extra virgin olive oil, and added both of those to 1 oz of pure vegetable oil... Mixed it together really good and then lubed up some patches with it and put them in a ball block to be tested in two to three weeks, depending on our weather.

The mixture certainly seems slick enough.

A quick note; As the mixture cools it's stiffing up a bit (not a lot at this point) and it also looks like the same color as the TC Bore Butter, only a tad lighter...

[prairie dog]

Nothing works as well as Ballistoil and water mixed in the proper raito.

Not sure how much shootin you do below zero on the Fahrenheit scale, but I wind up doing a fair bit. I had a spit patch freeze in the bore once! before I switched over to mink oil. I would think the water in the moose milk would freeze too, wouldn't it? Have ya had any chance to shoot it in cold weather?

Hey Riley,

I don't do much shooting when it's below zero, I've never been anywhere it gets that cold.  However, you let all the water evaporate out of the patching.  Only the oil is left.  It wont freeze.

[Ohio Joe]

Just a quick note before I head off to work;

Here's what I landed on and it seems to be the right formula (for me) - and I still have to test it, but I'm a thinking it'll do what I want it to do;

2 - Table Spoons Lamb Tallow
2 - Teaspoons Virgin Olive Oil
1 - Teaspoon Pure Veg. Oil

[Bigsmoke]

Look at the bright side of things, Joe.  Pretty soon, you won't have to interrupt your scientific experimentations by running off to work.

Looking at your formula makes me wonder about something.  Why 2 tsp olive oil and 1 tsp veggie oil?
Adding the veg oil to the olive oil just sounds redundant to me.  But, what do I know?  I don't think I would have thought of mixing the two.

Hoping it works great for you.

John

[Two Steps]

Aw John, think about it...Joe can just wrap some patching around what ever he shoots and cook it right up! 

[Ohio Joe]

Aw John, think about it...Joe can just wrap some patching around what ever he shoots and cook it right up! 

  You know me to well Two Steps 

John, I can't rightly say why I added the veggie oil - but it sounds healthy and I had it, so's I was a'gonna try it...  

[Ohio Joe]

Here's a picture of the patch lube I made... Don't mistake it for cupcakes...

Still have to Range test it.

[rollingb]

Looks good 'nuff to eat!   

[Two Steps]

WHAT!?!  No sprinkles? 

[doggoner]

Ohio Joe

Here is another read for the lube hunt.

https://user.xmission.com/~drudy/hist_text-arch5/msg00973.html

It is a good read.

doggoner

[Bigsmoke]

Following on to what they were talking about on that thread, first I must say that was a great walk down memory lane.  I really hadn't thought much about the "lube wars" between Ox-Yoke and Lub103 and the "How many shots can you get without cleaning your rifle" silliness.  In the middle of all that, we happened to visit with the good folks at Ox Yoke one year.  Stan took me into the basement and showed me their test range, a 50 yard target lane.  They had the rifle leaning on a loading bench and it did look like it had fired how ever many hundreds of shots, and the outside of it surely had not been cleaned.  The more I thought about it the more convinced I became that the only way they could have accomplished that was to shoot squib loads of maybe 25 grains of Ffffg powder.  Pooooofffff, that was it.  I seriously doubt if they ever loaded it up with a real life charge.  I think they were using a New Englander rifle, but I don't know what that would have to do with anything, one way or the other.