Why so many ingredients?

[Lost Dog]

Sorta curious. Reviewing many of the lube formulas I'm amazed by the number of ingredients in them. Not many are simple 2 to 4 ingredients. When I was learning to load my father's uncle used a mixture of beeswax and beef or mutton tallow. He loaded for his .45 Colt SAA and his brother's Winchester in .45-70 with black powder. Course this was 1960 and many things have changed since then. But are thing that complicated that we need 8 or more things mixed up to build a lube? Like I said, just curious.

 

[Josh]

Lamar has a wonderful lube, it uses beeswax, stp, vasoline, and 2 stroke oil. So far I have ran it from 800 fps to 2000 fps and it just works.

 

[RBHarter]

Darrs lube is just paraffin, vasoline and STP I've run it to 2400 fps . Olive bee or pig bee for BP,just olive oil or animal fat and bees wax ,in ML or C&B .
I've run the Darrs lube light on Vaseline heavy on paraffin and STP in 222 to 45 Colts the only reason I haven't pushed it harder is that I was at a point good to go for POI, group size and function.

 

[KHornet]

Used beeswax, Vasoline (sp), Crisco and graphite for a number of years. Shot well, but smoked a bit and was dirty.

 

[Lost Dog]

Yeah, myself I use either a commercial form of the old NRA 50/50 or my own über simple concoction of 40/60 pastewax and beeswax. Guess I must be stuck on two ingredient lube! Ha!

Lately I've seen many multi ingredient lubes and wondered why all the different fancy waxes, automotive fluids and oils, and such. Sorta reminds me a little of alchemy. But then again, I'm from a different age and background than most. Just a simple guy that prefers things simple and uncomplicated. I confuse easily!

 

[Rick]

Several of these guys have been on a lube quest for the last few years looking for cold weather, hot weather all purpose lubes. Should they come up with the better mouse trap I'll look into it but in the mean time I have a few years worth of LBT & my recipes to use up. Different fun for different folks & I guess they have been having fun. I did a bunch of lube testing myself several years ago, learned some things but mostly I got burned out on messing with it.

 

[JonB]

If you seen the posts about SL68B or the other variations of SL68 and this is what prompted your question, "
Why so many ingredients?"

SL68 was one of the results of the Lube quest. Yes, a bit complicated to make, but it solves many problems of other lubes. See post #10 in this thread:
http://www.artfulbullet.com/index.php?threads/log-for-posting-versions-of-sl-68-and-sl-68b.511/

 

[Lost Dog]

Too much for this simple country boy. I'd best stick with real simple and uncomplicated stuff. But I can see where some folks can get real involved in development of their own lube.

 

[Ian]

Too much for this simple country boy. I'd best stick with real simple and uncomplicated stuff. But I can see where some folks can get real involved in development of their own lube.

I'm really not sure what to tell you. A lot of bullet lube recipes you see posted are just semi-randomly made up, one-time concoctions made by people who really don't have much of an idea about what they're doing and just post it on the internet...and you never hear about it again or about any testing other than "my .38 loves it, shoots 4" groups at 25 yards at 75°F", a situation in which common earwax will suffice. Generally, a good recipe will have five or fewer ingredients, anything else is adding one thing to compensate for another or just guessing. I say "generally" because there is the opposite end of that spectrum where people have taken a very involved, scientific approach to solving some very specific and enumerated shortcomings of most of what is available to make or buy, and it may take a host of very carefully selected ingredients in exact, calculated proportions to provide the desired characteristics of the finished lube....each and every one of those of those ingredients having been selected through specific and exhaustive testing to determine their individual effect.

Beeswax and Vaseline, 50/50 or slightly weighted one direction or the other to suit the fancy of the user (the guns won't care, up to the point where the lube will fail anyway), will take care of 90% of the cast bullet lubrication needs anyone will ever have for smokeless powder loads. For that other ten percent, well, it necessarily becomes a little more complicated.

 

[JSH]

If you can cook you can make lube. I have been stuck on fwfl for a long time.
I have a batch of bens red done and ready to try

 

[Lost Dog]

I do have a certain curiosity as to what effect the outcome of a blend of beeswax and neatsfoot oil would produce. In keeping with the animal byproduct for black powder loads and possibly suitable for smokeless as well. Just a thought. Likely it would turn out a disaster, but I may try a small mixture for dipping and sizing in my ancient 310 sizing chambers.

 

[Missionary]

Greetings
As far as BP Beeswax (55%) and Olive oil (45%) . Never fails and tastes good also. Plus the cook has never run me out of the kitchen.
Have used it on leather, skin, wood and toast. And all my BP shooting.
Mike in Peru

 

[Brad]

I got into the lube stuff because I wasn't smart enough to ignore Ian and fiver. Turns out I made a couple of friends and learned a bunch.
Tinkering with stuff is a common thread amongst many casters. Just something we do.
So many ingredients? Sometimes it is because each one brings something to the dance. Leave one out and the whole batch flops.

 

[yodogsandman]

Bens Liquid Lube, tumble lube only has two ingredients. 60% Liquid Alox and 40% Johnsons One Step No Buff Liquid Floor Wax. Works in everything I've tried it with.

 

[KHornet]

For those lubes that use a quantity of ingredients I say who cares, as long as they work. What works for one may not satisfy the next guy. Kind of reminds me of what most artists think of themselves and their art: Just a work in progress! Right now I am starting to work on Ben's red, am sold on BLL and am using it on all my lubed bullets as an over coats, and 2-3 coats only on multi groove projectiles, and think I will probably be sold on Red. Think Ben is the sort of a guy who works on something until he gets it just exactly right. I am sort of like the Far Side cartoon of the two buzzards on a limb with the caption "Patients my a$$, lets kill something". But then I am considered a ceramic artist, and I guess I am sort of a work in progress myself.

 

[Lost Dog]

Well in keeping with my self-imposed "2 ingredient lube" edict, and taking Ian's advice, I picked up a small jar of Vaseline to blend with my beloved beeswax. Now here's the good part.... The Vaseline is cocoa butter style. I'll bet a nickel to a doughnut that it'll smell purty with the beeswax! But again, this is Texas we're talking about. Land of 10,000 bugs! My luck I'll pop off a few rounds and be covered in bugs!!

 

[KHornet]

Take a can of Cutters to the range with you. Way up north, we used to call it Alaska perfume.

 

[Lost Dog]

Yup, Deep Wood's Off is known here in the Lone Star State as "Armadillo Aftershave", so I sure can relate! We grow skeeters the size of hubcaps here, but I heard in Alaska they're the size of a B-52!

 

[KHornet]

No, they are more like the size of Hummingbirds in Alaska, just bite like a bomb load from a B52.

 

[35 shooter]

How many ingredients in a lube doesn't matter to me at all...performance does though. Since all i shoot and hunt with anymore is cast, i have to have a lube that puts that first shot "in" from a cold clean, or cold fouled bbl. plus all subsequent shots.
It has to do that whether it's -20 or 105* with a 115* heat index.

If i can get that with 2 ingredients...great. If not...then 3,5, or more ingredients till i find what works.
That's just me though lol.