gun oil of the 19th century?

[Delmonico]

Del,

You would be very much mistaken to assume such a thing.
But I also know your MO.
If you have no answer or reply you start to attack the persons integrity. Same old BS for you!

How about this... I'll put about two ounces of the whale oil I have into a small bottle and send it to you for you to try. (send me your mailing address) it is free for you to use as you see fit.

One last thing... How would posting pictures of this oils use let you or anyone else know just what the oils was being used?

All I ask is why this little detail is so important?   And I assume I'm right, you have never taken your knowledge out in the public and bothered to try and teach the masses.  You are such a sensitive person when someone puts you on the spot and asks you something, perhaps best you don't, you wouldn't survive the camp fire discussions once the tourists are gone.There is a lot of difference between asking a direct question and attacking someone, perhaps you should learn the differance.

[RattlesnakeJack]

Best parent/grandparent yell: "HEY, YOU KIDS .... FIGHT NICE!!"

Now ... having hopefully lowered the volume of the squabbling in the playroom  ... I don't know why I forgot about this since I still have a goodly portion of a bottle I bought from DGW years ago ... synthetic sperm whale oil, which has a horrible fishy stink but does seem to work well - http://www.dixiegunworks.com/product_info.php?products_id=2073



Likely jojoba oil, I suspect, but not badly priced at $4.50 for an 8 ounce bottle (which will last a long time, as I can attest!) 

One thing I discovered by trial and error: if you use it to oil something that has been "cold blued", it seems to eliminate (or at least mask) the tell-tale chemical smell left behind by that process ... 

By the way, I'm now thinking the Moby Green product perhaps isn't jojoba oil (which supposedly has the very strong fishy odor we have noted) ... either that, or the seller has found a way to eliminate its odor, because they stress that it has a pleasant odor ....

[Delmonico]

Activated charcoal filtering is what I've heard over the years, never delved deep in it because I've never had any qualms with the modern gun oils, from what I've read and with people I've talked to the sperm/jojoba is the thing to use on fine watches and such, both actually being a liquid wax, not an oil, of course true sperm oil comes from the head of said creature and what little I've been around many years ago (my Uncles Dad was a watch repairman/jeweler among his many talents) and it had no fishy smell which is validated in what I have read in recent days.   

What is called whale oil had a fishy smell although I've never been around this, this was rendered from the fat/blubber of the body of any species unlucky enough to get harpooned, this was your basic lamp oil and not much else. 

BTW certain natives of the Arctic are still allowed to take limited bowhead whales and I have an Inuit friend who lives in a village on the Arctic Circle and he shared some wonderful pictures last spring of the hunters in his village in their skin boats, and the kill pictures along with butchering of the bowhead hand harpooned.   A lot of the blubber is still rendered into oil and is carried by the seal hunters out on the ice pack and is used for lamp oil as well as it can be used as an emergency ration, something that can't be done with kerosene.   Yes the still build igglos to stay the night when out on the ice pack.