Homemade patch Lube

Patch lube, by volume:
4 parts beeswax
3 parts canola oil (or jojoba)
3 parts lanolin
Melt stuff in pans floating in boiling H20. Combine ingredients while they're in liquid state.

Grease cookies, by volume: for BP cartridges.
1 part beeswax
2 parts jojoba

Pure linen makes best patch material. It's tuff w/simple 90' weave. Very repeatable weave/ball/bore orientation. Groups will shrink.
Start ball w/excess strip of patch material. Gather material above muzzle. Trim material off flush w/face of muzzle, using very sharp patch knife. Centers ball in patch every time. Wipe the bore, w/used patch, right after loading, before firing.This gives repeatable bore surface, shot to shot. All this opens a fresh can of accuracy "woopass".

Saturate a length of 2" wide linen strip w/lube. An artist's spatula works well. Roll the lubed strip up, to be unrolled, as needed, for loading.

Kindest Regards,
Doak

I’ve used a 50/50 mix of beeswax and Crisco for a number of years now. I melt it in the microwave in a quart mason jar. Simple and it works for me. I have an inexpensive hot plate in my work shop. A square cake pan sitting on the hot plate keeps the mixture warm while I dip and soak the squares of wool felt, picking each up by the corner with needle nose pliers while the excess drains back into the pan. I stack the squares between layers of paper towels until cool. When finished any remaining mixture is poured back into the jar, capped and stored until next it’s needed. For patches I use old 100% cotton T shirts cut into strips.

Wads and patches will turn rancid after an extended period of time but it takes months of warm weather and even then I don’t think the guns mind it at all.

I used to use the 50/50 mix of beeswax and Crisco which worked okay but nowadays I just use Hoppe's 9 Plus for a patch lube which does a better job in my case. I use the beeswax in the Gatofeo formula for felt wads I use in my C&B revolvers and black powder cartridges. Making my own lubed felt wads saves a lot over the cost of commercial versions and works better.
Jeff

One of the joys and frustrations of using blackpowder is choosing from a large number of lube options, all of which work well.

I use PAM in aerosol spray cans to lube patches for my Hawken rifle. I use beeswax/Crisco 50-50 to lube bullets in blackpowder cartridges. Playing around with different lubes to see which one your gun prefers is part of the fun!

Mr.J-bar you are very correct about trying and making different lubes being part of the fun.

I also cut lube pills by floating a 1/8 layer of lube onto the surface of a pan of hot water, allowing it to cool and then dusting the sheet with corn starch and cutting pills from the sheet of lube with the shop made device pictured. If memory serves, haven’t done this in a couple of years, I found the 50/50 mix too brittle and used 40% crisco and 10% olive oil with the bees wax, which is the same formula I’ve used for pan lubing bullets.
As observed in post by J Bar experimentation is part of the fun.

I use a mix of olive oil and parrifin from candles the wife uses to destink the bathroom. For my rifles I use Pinesol.

There are so many successful recipes that I would feel safe with a Frankenstein version of just about any of them.

No wax is needed for patch lubrication. For the range use a spit patch. For hunting use mink oil, olive oil or something similar. Wax in lubes is for conical bullet lube in ML and Ctg. guns to help it stay on the bullet.

32-20 said:

No wax is needed for patch lubrication. For the range use a spit patch. For hunting use mink oil, olive oil or something similar. Wax in lubes is for conical bullet lube in ML and Ctg. guns to help it stay on the bullet.

Click to expand...

That makes sense.
I pack the internals of the Colts with Mobile 1 synthetic grease. This process ostensibly came down from some competitive shooters on the ML Circuit. Wonder if it too would make a good wad lube

I've been using 50/50 beeswax and deer fat with great results, had to try it after getting a large doe that was heavily layered with fat and not wanting to let it go to waste.

Our ancestors had to of used what ever animal fat was on hand, pig, beef, lamb, bear or deer. Whale oil in populated regions perhaps. Can’t help but wonder what the average woodsman huntsman or solider smelled like on a warm summer day. A greasy spoon diners kitchen perhaps.

Mine is 1 part beeswax and 2 parts fat or oil. So that can be lard, or cheap olive oil or etc. I don't like using bacon grease due to the salt...and I figure walking around smelling like bacon might get me an encounter with a bear.
For very cold temps in Winter I use beeswax to olive oil 1:4. In very hot temps I use it 50:50.
The 50:50 mixture is pretty "stiff" so it works for lube on conicals for the folks that like to use those.
The 50:50 also works as leather dressing, chapstick or skin protection in a dry wind.
In a pinch you can fashion a wick and make a light OR a small candle to help start a fire.
One buddy of mine uses an unfinished, circular, wooden "pill box" he found in the "wood" section of his craft store. He bought me one too, and it works well for holding lube. In his, he puts a wick inside in the center, then pours in his mixture. He says he does this "just in case". He has yet to use it for light or emergency fire starting, but he also thinks that when one is prepared one wards-off such needs.

LD

I actually really enjoy gato feo #1 lube buuuuut i makw it stiffer by adding more beeswax so its an equal part of beeswax/paraffin/mutton tallow, and i also am starting to use a stiff recipe similar to the old civil war recipe..1 part mutton tallow to 5 or 6 parts beeswax, i then put one sheet of napkin on the bottom of a bread pan and pour the hot mix onto the napkin to obsorb. It then cools making a thin sheet of wax lube that i then punch out with a 3/8ths inch punch for my .36 cal cap and ball revolvers. This thin cookie can be placed over the powder under the ball/bullet. I even put them in paper cartridges without issue of contamination but thats also due to using a layer of wax paper between lube and powder. You dont need very much wax lube at all to lube such a short barrel. The wax lube "cookie" is so thin that it disintegrates immediately lubing the arbor and barrel and keeps the fouling soft. Heres a pic of the thin lube "cookies"

As an experiment I loaded 50 rounds of 45 Colt with 3F under a wax card, cut from a milk carton. It was s reduced load so grits as a filler over the card followed by a lubed pill I described making. An unlubed 200 grain bullet seated and crimped. They sat in a Florida garage for almost 7 months. When I returned in January all fired from the ROA at the 1st range visit of the winter season.
I like the paper base Idea that may be easier then floating the wax on water. I assume one would need to have the pan heated to insure an even coat of lube.
I keep lube pills in the range kit for those times I run out of wads. I find they are messier than wads.

Mr.whughett, yes i keep the pan warm...i actually store my lube already mixed and hard and all i do is measure 20 grams of it and place it in the pan on top of a single sheet of napkin...one napkin fits almost perfectly at the bottom of a bread loaf pan (i have to cut to fit some brands of napkins)...then i place the pan on top of the stove top coil and turn the dial to 1...which isnt hot but warm enough to melt the lube. Once the lube is evenly spread and absorbed into the napkin i take the pan off the stove and let it cool. Once cooled i pop out the wax-lubed napkin and punch out my thin lube discs. The 1:5 or 1:6 by weight tallow to wax ratio is a stiff lube...even seems as if its too stiff compared to other wax and lube ratios but it works perfectly. You should try it in your cartridges...you wont be disappointed.

TheOutlawKid said:

...so its an equal part of beeswax/paraffin/mutton tallow....

Click to expand...

Yes I shy away from parafin, or other non-organic ingredients in my lube. Parafin will melt in a wooden candle lantern sitting in the sun on a hot day, while beeswax will get soft, but not go liquid. So I figure the parafin doesn't help much of anything. It isn't as stiff as beeswax, nor as soft as lard, so why not simply adjust the ratio of the two to get what you want? Also I don't like petroleum products in the barrel, and then trying to clean the black powder residue. I do my best to wipe the bore dry before firing, to remove the modern rust preventative.

LD

TheOutlawKid said:

Mr.whughett, yes i keep the pan warm...i actually store my lube already mixed and hard and all i do is measure 20 grams of it and place it in the pan on top of a single sheet of napkin...one napkin fits almost perfectly at the bottom of a bread loaf pan (i have to cut to fit some brands of napkins)...then i place the pan on top of the stove top coil and turn the dial to 1...which isnt hot but warm enough to melt the lube. Once the lube is evenly spread and absorbed into the napkin i take the pan off the stove and let it cool. Once cooled i pop out the wax-lubed napkin and punch out my thin lube discs. The 1:5 or 1:6 by weight tallow to wax ratio is a stiff lube...even seems as if its too stiff compared to other wax and lube ratios but it works perfectly. You should try it in your cartridges...you wont be disappointed.

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That is definitely on the to do list.

I was going to post a new thread but perhaps I get a quick reply.
Charging order for revolver cylinder.
Powder, wad, filler, ball .....
Powder, filler, wad, ball ...... or does it matter.

I always use powder and then lube cookie then bullet/ball...never use filler. But thats just me. And i make paper carts that are powder/wax paper/lube pill/card. I seal these up to make the paper cartridge...its like like using one of them compressed pyrodex/triple 7 pellets only it has lube and a card and the card helps seal any gas cutting from happening...and since the bullet isnt attached i get to choose ball or one of my custom conicals. As far as parrafin goes...there are tons of threads about how it doesnt act like a petroleum product with black powder..has no adverse affects...although ive stepped away from it myself and am using thin cookies made from 1:5 tallow to beeswax. Many people use gato feo #1 lube that contains pure parrafin wax and lots will claim gato feo #1 lube is the best they've ever used. When i used it i never had binding or any hard lube issues...truth be known im only using the 1:5 tallow to beeswax ratio because gato feo #1 lube is just to soft to be used in the extreme heat of south texas. The lube ratio i use now doesnt bleed lube into my paper cartridges and they withstand high heat without issue. Ill post a pic of my cartridges in a bit.

Pics have been posted on the other thread mr.whughett started...for those interested.

whughett said:

I was going to post a new thread but perhaps I get a quick reply.
Charging order for revolver cylinder.
Powder, wad, filler, ball .....
Powder, filler, wad, ball ...... or does it matter.

Click to expand...

Well what actually "matters" is you have no air gap in the cylinder, you don't get a chain fire, and you get reliable ignition with accuracy. So...,
I like powder, wad, filler if needed, and ball. I don't grease over the opening to the chamber as my wad is lubed, and I've never had a chain fire by this method.
I only do this as this was how I was taught. The fellow teaching me was worried that when using something like grits or corn meal, in dry conditions (when I was learning) the grits or corn meal would smolder longer than bits of black powder, and thus you could have a problem. Less chance, he thought, of kindling the filler into a fire source if the wad was lubed and between the powder and filler.

When it comes to covering the cylinders with a wax, I use something like 3 or 4 parts beeswax, one part lard. I want that very stiff, make round balls of the stuff, which I ram into place, to form blanks protected from chain fires. I'm also careful to aim right or left of anybody when shooting such a blank at a living history event.

LD