I thought I'd try Ballistol as a lubricant on my home made felt wads. I've used my beeswax/Crisco lube in the past. Soaking felt wads in Ballistol will most likely leave you with wads oozing the stuff. A better process would be to dilute the Ballistol with water, soak the wads, then set them out to dry to let the water evaporate. Hopefully, this would leave you with "dry" wads or something approximating Wonder Wads. This leads me to my question. For those of you who do this what is the best Ballistol-to-water ratio you've come up with? What's your process?
Home made felt wads and Ballistol solution
- Thread starter ClemBert
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I can not see that that would be a good method.
There is no reason to use Felt to begin with, and no reason to use Petroleum products which will certainly 'wick' and bleed into the Powder as well as possibly making or some adhering and nasty combustion by-products when used with BP.
One layer of regular Paper Towel, dipped into an 90/10 or 95/5 ratio of molten Bees Wax and Olive Oil mix, Wafers cut out with a Gasket Punch over end grain Wood, the Lube Wafer being then about .040 thick, will hold all the Lube needed, displaces next to no Powder, vaporizes perfectly, prevents Fouling as well as Leading, and will not wick or bleed.
There is no reason to use Felt to begin with, and no reason to use Petroleum products which will certainly 'wick' and bleed into the Powder as well as possibly making or some adhering and nasty combustion by-products when used with BP.
One layer of regular Paper Towel, dipped into an 90/10 or 95/5 ratio of molten Bees Wax and Olive Oil mix, Wafers cut out with a Gasket Punch over end grain Wood, the Lube Wafer being then about .040 thick, will hold all the Lube needed, displaces next to no Powder, vaporizes perfectly, prevents Fouling as well as Leading, and will not wick or bleed.
Prairie Dawg
Member
Oyeboten--That's a good idea.
Think I'm gonna give it a try.
Thanks.
--Dawg
Think I'm gonna give it a try.
Thanks.
--Dawg
Oyeboten said:
There certainly ARE reasons to use felt. Ballistol is NOT a petro-chemical so I guess we don't have to worry about that.
Anyhow, the thread wasn't meant to become a discussion of the pro's or con's of felt, different methods or recipes to make lube cookies. Although I do appreciate your feedback but would like to stay on theme.
p.s. your lube cookies look like a good thing to try out as appropriate.
Hi ClemBert,
Oooops, I goofed, thanks for the correction, I forgot - 'Ballistol' comes from Coal...and or is a Coal Oil, rather than a Petroleum based product...to which some additional things are added. And or is a kind of so called Mineral Oil.
Great product for the uses it was intended, definitely...and said to be compatible with Black Powder Arms, so...I stand corrected on that.
None the less, it would be expected, as a Lubricant, as a Coal Oil, to 'wick' and seep as it is supposed to do.
Make one of the Wafers or Wads you describe, and, set it onto a sheet of Typing Paper, somewhere out of the way, and check on it now and then over a month.
My guess, is you will soon see a widening translucent area surrounding it, where the Balistrol is wicking into the Paper.
One can do this with a stale forgotten Potato Chip or French Fry, one which seems dry-as-a-Bone, and get a two inch diamter circle of wicking out Oils in only a few days.
Oooops, I goofed, thanks for the correction, I forgot - 'Ballistol' comes from Coal...and or is a Coal Oil, rather than a Petroleum based product...to which some additional things are added. And or is a kind of so called Mineral Oil.
Great product for the uses it was intended, definitely...and said to be compatible with Black Powder Arms, so...I stand corrected on that.
None the less, it would be expected, as a Lubricant, as a Coal Oil, to 'wick' and seep as it is supposed to do.
Make one of the Wafers or Wads you describe, and, set it onto a sheet of Typing Paper, somewhere out of the way, and check on it now and then over a month.
My guess, is you will soon see a widening translucent area surrounding it, where the Balistrol is wicking into the Paper.
One can do this with a stale forgotten Potato Chip or French Fry, one which seems dry-as-a-Bone, and get a two inch diamter circle of wicking out Oils in only a few days.
nalioth
Member
If you do this, why not use straight Ballistol and let what will evaporate do so?
I've not used Ballistol with felt wads, but I regularly use it as a patch lube with pillow ticking in my rifle. I use a 7:1 by volume ratio of water to Ballistol, soak the patch material then let it dry thoroughly. I've never had a problem with the lube wicking into and contaminating the powder. This is the method advised by Dutch Schoultz in his Black Powder Rifle Accuracy System.
I'm not so sure about using Ballistol on a wad. I'm pretty sure that you'd find out that it would foul the powder if you left the gun loaded.
Loren Miller from Dash Caliber told me that he uses of all things "Mink Oil". The conversation came up when I mentioned that I sometimes use Crisco as a top lube. I've got a sneaking suspicion that part of his 1860 Army formula for lube that he uses on his BP bullets contains mink oil.
I've never heard that one before, but it would have been something that was available in the 19th century and it's not petroleum based.
Any thoughts?
Loren Miller from Dash Caliber told me that he uses of all things "Mink Oil". The conversation came up when I mentioned that I sometimes use Crisco as a top lube. I've got a sneaking suspicion that part of his 1860 Army formula for lube that he uses on his BP bullets contains mink oil.
I've never heard that one before, but it would have been something that was available in the 19th century and it's not petroleum based.
Any thoughts?
BCRider
Member
Regardless of origin the last thing you want to use for a lube wad that sits in contact with the powder is any form of liquid lubrication. Even a felt wad that is only lightly lubed with a liquid lube is going to see the liquid migrate into the powder. Sure, you can oil the felt wads in a dry manner but once it is compressed during the loading the liquid will sqeeze out and migrate into the powder. How much powder neutralized due to the lube will likely vary with the duration of the exposure but certainly some damage will be done right away and the rest follow over the next few seconds or minutes based on how "dry" the wads were.
The beauty of beeswax and Crisco or other stiff lubes is that the wax holds the lube in a matrix that is slow to release the more liquid components. And that allows you the time needed to finish loading and shooting over the short term or up to a few days without any degradation in the powder due to soaking up lube.
The beauty of beeswax and Crisco or other stiff lubes is that the wax holds the lube in a matrix that is slow to release the more liquid components. And that allows you the time needed to finish loading and shooting over the short term or up to a few days without any degradation in the powder due to soaking up lube.
mykeal said:
I think I'm going to give it a shot, so to speak next time I go out. I did order some of Dash Calibers bullets in .454 and .429 which are lubed with his formula which he states is derived from an 1860's Army formula. I figure I've got mink oil sitting in the cupboard that has aged sufficiently, so why not use some up. It can't make a bigger mess than Crisco.
The plan is, if these bullets work out the way I think they will, I'm going to switch over from RB to bullet, especially since the bullets are cheaper. I know I'm gonna get posts and PMs telling me to cast my own, but I don't have the time nor the room. Besides, I worked around photo chemicals for 20 years, I've exposed myself to enough stuff that will kill me without sniffing lead vapors.
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