Lard .........?

[the Black Spot]

Got 4 lbs. of free lard. Question about ingredients:
Lard
Hydrogenated lard
BHA
propyl gallate
Citric acid

This ok for cap and ball or blackpowder cartridge?

Thanks

 

[treemaker]

It should be ok, i wouldn't use it for cooking.

 

[Doak]

Hey Black Spot ~
For many years I used Crisco & Lard mixed 1/2 & 1/2. The citric acid always worried me about corrosion. So I always "washed" the crisco & lard, separately, in agitated boiling water. This was to disolve the salts & acids out of the oils and into the water. Siphoned off the water, and repeated the process several times.

Lemme back up a bit...crisco, or lard, by itself, never performed satisfactorily for me. But mixed together, they worked well, for patch lube in my flinters.

So, I used the mixture, for bullet lube, in .50 x 2.5'' Sharps cartridges. Some rounds sat around for several months, and, as I was on a learning curve at the time, I pulled the bullets, to reload the shells to different specs.

The lube, in the grease grooves of the bullets, had turned green. That's a bad sign! The lube was corroding the brass.

Quit using that mixture there 'n' then...and embarked on a quest for bullet lube knowledge. Never looked back at either Crisco or Lard.

I didn't know what I didn't know. Turns out, there are far superior lube ingredients to either of those two.

Kindest Regards,
Doak

 

[bubba15301]

lard is full of salt

 

[rodinal220]

Mutton Tallow is what you want.

 

[the Black Spot]

Guess i will use for cooking a pile of donuts, lol

 

[PRM]

You can get the pure unsalted lard. I've been using it for years to grease my pillow ticking for use with patched round balls.

As far as C&B revolvers, I quit putting lube over the balls after I discovered Wonder Wads. That's been at least 25 years ago.

 

[Marlin 45 carbine]

rodinal mutton fat will work but lanolin mixed 2-1 with beeswax in double boiler is my bullet lube and chamber capper for bp revolvers. I lube REAL slugs w/it also.

 

[splattergun]

lard is full of salt

only if you buy lard with salt added.
INgredient list from my lard container: Lard.

 

[Hellgate]

I know this will only apply to a few but if you shoot a fat deer you can render the tallow and it is nice and stiff. I mix it 50/50 with beeswax for my smokeless and BP cartridge bullet lube. I use it straight (unmixed) in my revolver wads as a lube. When my brother shot a big barren doe one year I just couldn't see throwing away that 1 1/2" layer of back fat so I trimmed it off and threw it in the freezer. Later in the winter (when the wife was out of town) I chopped it up boiled some, fried some and rendered out about 5-6 lbs of nice tallow into foil lined muffin pans. Keep it in the foil in a freezer bag and it's good to go for years. I suspect it is very close to mutton tallow. Smells like mutton, or I should say mutton smells like deer. I can't understand how my wife loves lamb shanks or chops but doesn't like venison. Anyway, no point in buying mutton tallow if you can get deer tallow.

 

[robhof]

robhof

Hellgate, you beat me to it, for years I've cut away and discarded deer fat til I read someones comments awhile back, been rendering and freezing it ever since, got a few pounds this year, great stuff.

 

[Jaymo]

Lard makes the best biscuits. Light and fluffy.
I cooked a deer shoulder roast once, and it tasted much like leg of lamb.
I've made my own boolit/patch lube, and have used Bore Butter.

 

[Curator]

The other ingredients in your lard are preservatives so it won't become rancid without refrigeration. If it had salt in it it would be listed among the ingredients. It will work great as a black powder lubricant when mixed with something to keep it from melting. I make a 50/50 bee's wax/lard lube for my cap & ball revolvers, minie-balls, and conical bullets for muzzle loaders. I also use this mix for black-powder cartridge bullets with excellent results. Lard works a tiny bit better at keeping black powder fouling soft than Crisco from my experience.

 

[the Black Spot]

thanks! looks like i have a substitute for the olive oil i was mixing with the beeswax. guess i can go 50/50 lard/beeswax.

 

[mainmech48]

IIRC, the Dixie catalog used to contain at least a couple of different formulae for concocting your own BP patch lube. Haven't gotten a new one in several years, so I can't say if it still does.

One that I do recall was along the lines of the aforementioned mutton tallow and beeswax mix, although the exact proportions escape me at the moment.

I think that Dixie also used to sell premixed containers of this labeled "Old Zip". Probably still do, which is fortunate if you live somewhere like I do where mutton of any sort, much less the tallow, is really tough to come by.

Now if you happen to live someplace close to Owensboro, KY that shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Cosmoline]

Most butchers will sell straight lard. People buy it for dogs all the time. Use that instead of the salted cooking lard.

 

[Fryerpower]

Use the lard to make soap. Makes a nice bar of lye soap.

Jim

 

[Gatofeo]

Years ago I began posting a bullet, patch and wad lubricant based on a 19th century recipe.
I used more precise ingredients than the 19th century version, which simply listed tallow, paraffin and beeswax.
Without changing the ratio, I began mixing:
1 part canning paraffin.
1 part mutton tallow.
1/2 part beeswax.
All measurements are by weight, NOT volume.
The result is an exceptional black powder lubricant that was later named by others, "Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant."

I use canning paraffin because it's pure. Who knows what lurks in old candles, especially if they're scented. Yes, paraffin is a petroleum product. Yes, petroleum greases and oils will creat a hard, tarry fouling when used with black powder. BUT canning paraffin doesn't do this. Long ago, a chemist told me that canning paraffin lacks the offending hydrocarbons.
I don't know about that, but I do know that canning paraffin (used to seal fruit preserves in jars) doesn't create a hard, tarry fouling.

Mutton tallow is needed. I've tried a variety of greases but mutton tallow is clearly superior. I've tried Crisco, and the tallow of beef, chicken, turkey, deer, pig, elk and even bear grease. Not tried moose,though. Or Dodo Bird for that matter ... might be kinda hard to get.
Mutton tallow has long been suggested for black powder lubricant, at least to the mid 1800s.
Canning paraffin is about as pure as you can get. Totally inert too.

Mix together some Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant for yourself. Dixie Gun Works sells mutton tallow at the best price I've found. A little goes a long way.
A hard felt wad soaked in melted Gatofeo No. 1 Lube keeps fouling soft and the bore cleaner than any other lubricant I've tried.
The dry lubricant in commercial wads is the worst, in my experience. Hardly makes a dent in bore fouling.

Make up a batch of Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant for yourself, and see if it doesn't work for you.