Salt Water Corrosion & Ballistol, a Survival Story

[Buzznrose]

I've used Ballistol for several years, primarily the spray but also the non aerosol can. But I don't understand the whole "mix with water" use other than as a leather preservative and conditioner. I read where Willie used mostly water and a couple quarts to keep submerged metal in great condition and I was baffled. Can someone explain this to a simple Joe? Maybe a link?

Thanks much for the discussion! Appreciate the great info and tone here.

 

[armoredman]

Very interesting stuff sir, and sorry you got nailed with a hurricane. Out here our natural disasters are pretty much confined to one tornado every 30 years...and scorpions. Hate those little (censored).
Glad to hear most of your tools are coming back to life - reminds me of the story of the guy rebuilding a Smith Model 10 after being in water for a year from Katrina. A Hi Point was also inundated...and they replaced it for free under warranty. No, I don't remember the guy, but I think he wrote about it on this board.

 

[MartinS]

Buzz, check out Moose Milk:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-596552.html

 

[Willie Sutton]

Buzznrose,

The liquid Ballistol (clear oily stuff ) when mixed with water in any sensible proportion emulsifies with the water to form a white oily water/oil "milk" that never separates into oil floating on top of water. It just stays looking like milk forever. Steel tossed into that milky emulsion doesn't corrode. Simple as that.

Black power fouling is soluble in water, and so the Ballistol/Water mix is what many of use for black powder cleaning. I was familiar with the stuff from that, and had a case of it on hand. I used what I had, and it worked out.


Non de Forum: My tools weren't stored in salt water.. They were rinsed off in a little fresh water but rust had already started and there was no way for me to see to oiling and drying anything in the short time I had to put effort into this one very tiny part of the 1000 things I was worried about. The next best choice was to keep them wet in a corrosion preventative bath until I could spare the time to attend to them. That bath was fresh water and Ballistol. It couldn't have come out any better, as the results were perfect: Zero corrosion on the tools kept in the bath. The key is the emulsion that Ballistol forms with water. I suppose 50 gallons of diesel oil would have worked as well (harder to clean up later though) but what I was able to do was to use the few quarts of Ballistol I had on hand to make up perhaps 50 gallons of protective bath. That's the lesson to be taken. If you need to make up a large protective bath using a small amount of concentrate, this is your stuff. I doubt that anything in any different family of lubricants would work the same way. Try anything mixed perhaps 50:1 with water and see. They key isn't how they perform straight, or how things sprayed with anything do when submerged in water, but how well a they mix with water to form bulk quantities of a emulsion that guns etc can be tossed into and then ignored while other more pressing things are attended to in an emergency. I doubt that any of the other "excellent in their own way" lubes could duplicate this, and certainly none could do any better as the Ballistol worked perfectly in this role.



Willie

.

 

[Buzznrose]

Buzznrose,

The liquid Ballistol (clear oily stuff ) when mixed with water in any sensible proportion emulsifies with the water to form a white oily water/oil "milk" that never separates into oil floating on top of water. It just stays looking like milk forever. Steel tossed into that milky emulsion doesn't corrode. Simple as that.

Black power fouling is soluble in water, and so the Ballistol/Water mix is what many of use for black powder cleaning. I was familiar with the stuff from that, and had a case of it on hand. I used what I had, and it worked out.


Non de Forum: My tools weren't stored in salt water.. They were rinsed off in a little fresh water but rust had already started and there was no way for me to see to oiling and drying anything in the short time I had to put effort into this one very tiny part of the 1000 things I was worried about. The next best choice was to keep them wet in a corrosion preventative bath until I could spare the time to attend to them. That bath was fresh water and Ballistol. It couldn't have come out any better, as the results were perfect: Zero corrosion on the tools kept in the bath. The key is the emulsion that Ballistol forms with water. I suppose 50 gallons of diesel oil would have worked as well (harder to clean up later though) but what I was able to do was to use the few quarts of Ballistol I had on hand to make up perhaps 50 gallons of protective bath. That's the lesson to be taken. If you need to make up a large protective bath using a small amount of concentrate, this is your stuff. I doubt that anything in any different family of lubricants would work the same way. Try anything mixed perhaps 50:1 with water and see. They key isn't how they perform straight, or how things sprayed with anything do when submerged in water, but how well a they mix with water to form bulk quantities of a emulsion that guns etc can be tossed into and then ignored while other more pressing things are attended to in an emergency. I doubt that any of the other "excellent in their own way" lubes could duplicate this, and certainly none could do any better as the Ballistol worked perfectly in this role.



Willie

.

Willie,

Thanks much for the education! This was great to learn just in time for my next order of Ballistol, which I've been debating on switching to exclusively spray, but now will likely to maintain primarily the liquid and start learning to use the "moose milk" as a cleaner as well.

 

[Buzznrose]

Buzz, check out Moose Milk:

http://www.thehighroad.org/archive/index.php/t-596552.html

Martin, thanks much...great link!

 

[Nom de Forum]

Non de Forum: My tools weren't stored in salt water.. They were rinsed off in a little fresh water but rust had already started and there was no way for me to see to oiling and drying anything in the short time I had to put effort into this one very tiny part of the 1000 things I was worried about. The next best choice was to keep them wet in a corrosion preventative bath until I could spare the time to attend to them. That bath was fresh water and Ballistol. It couldn't have come out any better, as the results were perfect: Zero corrosion on the tools kept in the bath. The key is the emulsion that Ballistol forms with water. I suppose 50 gallons of diesel oil would have worked as well (harder to clean up later though) but what I was able to do was to use the few quarts of Ballistol I had on hand to make up perhaps 50 gallons of protective bath. That's the lesson to be taken. If you need to make up a large protective bath using a small amount of concentrate, this is your stuff. I doubt that anything in any different family of lubricants would work the same way. Try anything mixed perhaps 50:1 with water and see. They key isn't how they perform straight, or how things sprayed with anything do when submerged in water, but how well a they mix with water to form bulk quantities of a emulsion that guns etc can be tossed into and then ignored while other more pressing things are attended to in an emergency. I doubt that any of the other "excellent in their own way" lubes could duplicate this, and certainly none could do any better as the Ballistol worked perfectly in this role.

Willie.

Willie,

Under the constraints of time and materials available as described by you, mixing Ballistol and fresh water to create Moose Milk was your only viable option. You lost a tub of tools due to a freeze fracture. Perhaps spraying down the tools with another product not subject to freezing would have been a better option if availability and time permitted. I think testing by using salt water tubs for recreation of sea water submersion before a comparison of submergence in Moose Milk versus coating with Frog Lube, WD-40 Specialist or Hornady One Shot would be illuminating.

 

[Willie Sutton]

^

Great idea. Let us know in about 18 months how it works out for you.

Willie

.

 

[Nom de Forum]

^

Great idea. Let us know in about 18 months how it works out for you.

Willie

.

Willie do you think the following would be a fair test procedure for recreating what occurred to your tools?

A recreation on a much smaller scale than using $15,000 worth of tools and so many quarts of Ballistol.
Use of one or two identical small tools (drill bits or/and box wrenches) for testing of each product.
Simulation of 24 hours of sea water immersion using a bath of 3.5% saline solution.
Removal of tools from the saline bath.
Fresh water rinse and Moose Milk submersion in a sealed container for a control group.
Fresh water rinse and coating with Frog Lube, WD-40 Specialist, Hornady One Shot followed by placement in a sealed container.
No fresh water rinse, but coating with Frog Lube, WD-40 Specialist, Hornady One Shot, followed by placement in a sealed container. During a disaster it could be many days before fresh water is available in sufficient quantities for use as a tool rinse or Moose Milk.
I am thinking of using clear glass jars as containers. That would permit observation during the 18 month test.

 

[Willie Sutton]

They are probably all fair tests. I think the key is that if you don't have the ability to really dry things off, the second best bet is to keep them wet "in something". My guess is that anything less than an immersed bath in a liquid will give variable results based on viscosity (think run-off leaving dry spots) but there are many other variables as well. I'm sure there are many good ways to do it. I can say that the Ballistol didn't do the few wood items immersed any favors, it penetrated deeply into unsealed wood (think hammer handles), so for rifles I would separate stocks from metal using the technique I used for my tools. I'd be interested in the results.


Willie

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