Does Olive Oil in BP lube go rancid?

[TheOtherLeft]

I'm new to BP so am getting a few things together. I'm going to make my own lube and am wondering with the 50/50 beeswax/olive oil recipe, does it go rancid due to the olive oil and hence does it have a shelf life? My other option is 50/50 beeswax/tallow. Temperatures in my parts are between 10-40 deg C (50-100 deg F).

[Drydock]

No.  At least mine has not.  Several years old.

[Mogorilla]

Was a food oil chemist for 5 years.  All oils and fats will go rancid, just at different rates.   Extra virgin olive oil will last a good long while.  Cool closed storage is key

[Mogorilla]

Since I did that from my phone, I will add a follow-up.   Other than olive oil, common cooking oils that are liquids at room temperature are less stable, and I would avoid them for lubrication preparation.   Extra virgin olive oil is cold pressed, it has not been heated, so it has the longer shelf life of olive oils.   Heating will start the process to rancidity.   Problem is, extra virgin olive oil is still one of the most counterfeited food products and depending on where you buy it, it may not be 100% EVOO.   Fats that are solid at room temperature, lard, beef and mutton tallow, palm oil (it is really solid/hard at room temperature.  If you have eaten Beignets at Cafe Du Monde, they fry in palm oil.   You definitely have that mouth feel from the fat in those.  If you need the lube to be soft, using EVOO will work and it is what I use.  I mix it with different proportions of bees wax.    To avoid the process as much as I can, I do not heat the oil, I heat the wax and then add cold oil.  I have not tried coconut oil, but it is really stable as well.

If you are looking to go really 19th century accurate, I believe they utilized the whale oil.    Since that is out, there is a US based oil that is a really close substitute, jojoba oil, it comes from a plant in the south western US.

[Pettifogger]

I bought several thousand bullets lubed with SPG.  After a couple of years the lube turned black and yucky.

[Froogal]

I bought several thousand bullets lubed with SPG.  After a couple of years the lube turned black and yucky.

SPG is what I use. I store them in a box. I've noticed no deterioration or color changes even after two years.

[Tascosa Joe]

I use SPG and I have had the same result as Pettifogger.  Beeswax and Tallow will go rancid. 

[Abilene]

My BP bullet lube has always been beeswax and Crisco.  I add a little bit of bore butter and Khepra foot balm because I like the smell.  I still have some in a baking pan that I used to use years ago for pan-lubing, and I break off a chunk and melt it now when I need to add some to my old lube-sizer.  If it has gone rancid, I have not noticed. 

[Mogorilla]

If it had, the bore butter might mask the smell, but humans can really detect it, so I am guessing still good.   I think we can taste around 40 ppm of peroxides, which is the "rancid".   

[Professor Marvel]

I had several odd packages of both beeswax and SPG scattered stored somewhere in the 1st ring of hell  workshop. Along with several bags of random carefully selected turkey wing feathers destined for traditional plains arrow fletching. Just yesterday I found all three, all of which have been daintily munched upon by our little grey deer mice 😢 .   

So just an FYI, even tho there seems to be no food value, the Little critters will munch on your dog, your beeswax, probably your meticulously formulated bullet lube mix, lubed bullets, feathers, plastic, ....

Time for some new snaptraps and fresh peanut butter 🥵

Prf mumbles

[David Battersby]

....  All oils and fats will go rancid, just at different rates.   Extra virgin olive oil will last a good long while.  Cool closed storage is key

I use DGL
I have no idea what is in the stuff. When a couple of suppliers stopped carrying DGL I Panicked ! So , I found and purchased several tubs of the stuff. The extra tubs are stored in a temperature stable low humidity area. The DGL is in the original tubs then double zip locked bags.  This may be overkill but I sleep better. I am using the last bit of DGL from when I switched from pan lubing to an Ideal/Lyman #45. These swiss cheese like cakes are at least 4 years old and have been remelted several times. This old DGL still looks, feels and smells the same to me.  So hopefully I will be okay.