The owner of the local rifle range where I'm from in NC invented this patch lube called Bee-Line. Has anyone ever ran across it back in the day? He has since passed and the recipe lost. Trying to gather info from others in the region who might have met him or used this lube.
Anyone ever seen or used this Patch Lube?
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It could simply be beeswax and Crisco in something like a 60-40 blend.
I don’t know what this is, bees wax and some sort of oil. Without ever having shot it I’d lay money it will work great.
As every commercial and home made lube does.
I buy mink oil because of the snob factor. Used lots of spit lard and even( Mia culpa ) bore butter, can’t say I ever saw a difference
As every commercial and home made lube does.
I buy mink oil because of the snob factor. Used lots of spit lard and even( Mia culpa ) bore butter, can’t say I ever saw a difference
Looks like young country arms lube. What's it smell like?
The maker was a one man shop who has since passed away. It smells like soap.
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Based off the name id say it has Beeswax in it, and an oil of some kind.
I can say I've never bought bullet lube. I used crisco at first, way to messy for a 15yo. I went to spit patch and never looked back. I have used axle grease, crisco, etc for REALs and Mini Balls.
If I'm loading at the beginning of the season I'll rub some kind of kitchen oil in a patch and load it. I've left it made 3 weeks, my friend 5 weeks. Nary a complaint when we dropped the hammer.
What's that lube that smells SO GOOD? A guy at the range let me use his and I haven't smelled that good in a while! Lol.
I can say I've never bought bullet lube. I used crisco at first, way to messy for a 15yo. I went to spit patch and never looked back. I have used axle grease, crisco, etc for REALs and Mini Balls.
If I'm loading at the beginning of the season I'll rub some kind of kitchen oil in a patch and load it. I've left it made 3 weeks, my friend 5 weeks. Nary a complaint when we dropped the hammer.
What's that lube that smells SO GOOD? A guy at the range let me use his and I haven't smelled that good in a while! Lol.
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Obviously a beeswax mix. I have two types I made up myself. One is beeswax and genuine whale oil. The other is beeswax and peanut oil. Many lubes that work just fine. To save money and be able to brag ye did it yerself buy some beeswax from a local beekeeper mix up yer own concoction. To do it again, I would use jojoba oil or canola oil.
So far Ive been able to find out its got beeswax, mineral oil, and lye soap in the mix
So far Ive been able to find out its got beeswax, mineral oil, and lye soap in the mix
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Lye soap... surely not. Wood lye, ie potash, used in lye soap, will eat the bottom out of a 5 gallon metal bucket of ashes if left in the rain. I grew up with a wood stove for heat, I can testify to lye strength.
I'd sooner use it for bathing or Fire stsrter than patch lube if that's the case.
Its obviously not straight lye in the lube...its lye soap, so its not full strength by any means. This stuff was made in the 90s-early 2000s. I can atest its by far better than anything Ive ever used after going through the whole jar. At the range I loaded 20 shots back to back.i After about 5 alcohol patches there was minimal fouling left.
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Butch wax if you can find it.
Is Spit Patch an actual product or just slang for whatever?
Its when you use spit as lube for the patch
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There used to be a product called Spit Patch, but a quick Google search shows nothing. I guess they done Gone Under
Thanks, I had a vague memory of such. I think I saw it in an old soft cover book on BP. I will look.
No, I’ve never heard of it before. It sounds like good stuff, and it is unfortunate that the recipe was lost. The label on the jar is torn and partially obliterated, but it looks as if the manufacturer recommends not melting it. This is a little unusual… some manufacturers actually recommend melting the lube for saturating patches and wads, or pan lubing bullets. This one is different in that respect.
Lye is indeed corrosive as well as caustic, but I believe it is an essential ingredient in soap. If the soap-making process didn’t neutralize that causticity to some extent, we wouldn’t be able to bathe with it. Soap is legendarily slippery, and a lot of us use a little soap or detergent of some sort with water for bore cleaning. I’ve heard of using a slurry of Ivory soap for bullet lube, but I’ve never tried it. In any event, I thought that adding soap to the mix for this lube was interesting.
Freezing is not really an issue where I live in Florida, but it is in a lot of places where people hunt with muzzleloaders and we wonder how your Bee-Line lube would work in below-freezing temperatures, if it stays soft or gets too hard. Conversely, we don’t want a lube that gets runny in hot weather, either. I would like to know how Bee-Line handles realistic temperature extremes.
Thanks for posting! We are always ready to discuss lubes, around here.
Notchy Bob
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