WANTED! Your Black Powder lube resipe

[Driftwood Johnson]

Hey Grapeshot, got a weird question for ya. Does your lube recipe with the oil soap "weep" at higher temperatures? I'm looking for something I can use over powder in paper cartridges as an ultra hard lube cookie. Specifically a recipe I could cook up, pour into a tube to harden and then cut to thickness to put in papers.

If it works I'm gonna hire some of the neighborhood junkies to roll cartridges for me. Might as well let 'em use their talents for good.

Run down to your local craftstore. They sell beeswax sheets that are used for rolling up into candles. The sheets have an embossed pattern on them, but that does not matter. Use an appropriate sized cartridge to punch out beeswax discs with the case mouth. It helps if you remove the primer, and drill out the flash hole so you can poke out the disks with the head of a finish nail. Put 2 or 3 disks into each cartridge, depending on how much lube you think you need. Beeswax is hard enough that it will not 'weep' or melt at elevated temperatures.

[hellgate]

Driftwood beat me to it: beeswax sheets from a craft shot or you can get them real cheap from beekeepers supply sites as "medium brood core". About a buck a sheet but you hafta get 10-12 per box.

[rickk]

Looks like Dixie Gun Works is out of Tallow... there is now a world tallow shortage it seems. 

[The Elderly Kid]

I find that using tahini paste gives your smoke a nice sesame scent. Marzipan will give it the tang of almonds.

Now, If you really want to go hard-core, the best lube is bull semen. It gives your bullets an extra 900 fps velocity and the best thing is, you don't need a wad. No! No! Stop me before I pun again!

[rickk]

My next door neighbor has a 1500# bull. I can talk to him if anyone wants to go out there and get some. 

[Delmonico]

http://www.cascity.com/forumhall/index.php/topic,4841.0.html

This thread and a trip to your friendly butcher for some scrap fat (suet) will get you tallow.  If your grocery store don't have a friendly butcher, find another store.

[rickk]

Here's the scoop on Mutton Tallow from DGW...

Rick:
We are out of stock at the present time on the mutton tallow but will have
again.  Due to our computer system not allowing back orders for items under
a certain dollar amount it cancels these item for you to reorder at a later
date.  Please check back with us in 6 to 8 weeks.
Thank you,
DGW

[rickk]

Dixie once again has mutton tallow in stock
http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=3686

ebay looks to still be the best deal for beeswax.
I found some 5# deals for about $25 including shipping. Here is one example. They have 38 5# batches to sell as of this instant.
http://item.express.ebay.com/Crafts___5lbs-Pure-Natural-Beeswax-Block-Bee-Wax-in-1lb-blocks_W0QQitemZ220119682435QQihZ012QQddnZCraftsQQptdiZ1525QQcmdZExpressItem 

[Dick Dastardly]

If'n yer wantin' a good substitute for beeswax, give container blend Soy Wax flakes a look.  I buy 50 pounds for around $40.  If money matters, that's a savings of around 85%.  Soy wax is one of the ingredients in Pearl Lube II.

http://secure.candlesupply.com/catalog_page_detail_keyword.cfm?queries_index=index5

http://secure.candlesupply.com/

Hope those links work for you.

DD-DLoS

[Springfield Slim]

I like to keep it simple. 7 parts/ounces of beeswax with 3 parts/ounces of Crisco. Add in a tablespoon of Lanolin for some extra stickiness. Wallaby, maybe where you are Lanolin is cheap but here it is 10.00 a lb. I tried Soy wax but didn't like the consistency. Gave the last 9 pounds of it away to Prairie Dawg for the shipping.

[hellgate]

silverbowhoney.com  has 1 lb bricks of beeswax for less than $4/lb  (or a 16# block for $40)

[Dick Dastardly]

Ooo ho, Slim,

By it's self, Soy Wax ain't worth a hoot.  There's other stuff in my recipe.  Used alone or with just some common modifiers the stuff is too stiff and grainy.  Used with the proper modifiers it is superb.

Original Pearl Lube, now known as Classic Pearl Lube uses equal parts by WEIGHT of cheep vegie shortnin', wax toilet bowl rings and container blend soy wax flakes.  When melted into the resulting wax alloy over low heat (I use a double boiler) the stuff works fine.  Only problem I had with it was long term storage.  The stuff would start to weep moisture (oil, not water) and get gooey on the surface.  Didn't hurt anything but I wanted a product that would not do that.  Thus PLII.  I won't give out the recipe for PLII.  It's too hard to alloy and some of the stuff in it is available from industrial sources only on a large quantity basis.

DD-DLoS

P.S. The idea of using those toilet bowl rings came from Sargent Smokepole.  Thanks Sarge.

[rickk]

Toilet bowl rings used to be beeswax. Like everything else, it has recently become synthetic. That being the case, what used to work well may not work any more.