Olive Oil in your Bore?

[Zonie]

Several folks use olive oil in their patch lubes expecting it to provide rust protection.
From what I can figure out, Bore Butter and some of the similar patch lubes also use olive oil.
I have also seen peoples Posts which talk about seeing rust in the bores after "protecting the bores" with the Bore Butter and other olive oil type lubes.

This brings me to my story:

I have several Woks I use for Chinese cooking. These are made from low carbon steel and rust easily if my wife does her usual through job of washing them.

To prevent rust, I have coated the washed surfaces with regular vegetable oil and with Olive oil.
While these seem to stop the rust when I am running my houses refregeration unit (which keeps the humidity below 10%), when I use my evaporative cooler (humidity inside about 80%) the surface of the woks rust under the oil!

This indicates to me that olive oil by itself, or in a mixture like Bore Butter is not effective for stopping rust.

I know Stumpkillers testing indicated that Castor Oil does an excellent job of preventing rust, but I fear that using it on my woks might have unintended consequences. We only have 2 bathrooms in the house.

Thoughts??? ::

 

[Musketeer]

I've tried olive oil as a patch lube and it works fine, but when I'm done shooting, I always (after cleaning) run a patch soaked with #9 downbore. Who knows, maybe being an organic agent, olive oil itself may create rust? I don't know.... :thumbsup:

 

[roundball]

Used nothing but Natural Lube 1000 in several rifles for going on 15 years...never had a rust problem yet.

IMO, if metal is 100% completely cleaned, 100% absolutely bone dried, then 100% coated with some sort of lube which keeps air / humidity from touching the metal, it cannot rust.

 

[Ravenx]

Up here in Flagstaff, the air is so dry, it'll suck water out of fire. If you don't keep lotion on your hands here, they'll dry up and crack so deep you leave blood all over everything. I use olive oil on cast-iron skillets and none of them have rusted yet. Here, you can store a barrel dry inside or with a very light coat of mutton tallow and it'll never rust. So will Hoppe's 9. One thing about olive oils is that they are not all created equal. You want extra virgin first press. Don't get the "gentle palate" crap. That crap is like sixth press or something like that. Good olive oil is a deep emerald color. Don't buy olive oil in green bottles. They're selling you crap. You need a clear bottle to be able to check the color. Unless you get the best olive oil you can, you don't know what else might be in it that could cause rust. Go to Safeway and get a brand called "Lucini". That one is pure. You can also find some good olive oil at Trader Joe's when they have it.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I know Stumpkillers testing indicated that Castor Oil does an excellent job of preventing rust, but I fear that using it on my woks might have unintended consequences. We only have 2 bathrooms in the house.

In that case it would be "Don't wok, run!"

We use oilve oil on the cast iron. Don't have a wok. There must be a wok forum on the Internet where you can lurk. ::

 

[Chickenfax]

I see what you are saying.
When using your HRU, the humidity stays low and you have no problem. When you use that there swamp cooler, you have problems.

Simple solution, stop using that swamp cooler!!!
I used the swamp cooler the first two summers I had my house. The third summer I went exclusively with the HRU. Got tired of all the curling papers, books and stuck doors!!!
Even so, I've never had so much rust on all my tools and whatnot since I've been living in this humid hell they call the midwest.

"Yeah but it's a moist heat -- good for the pores"

 

[Musketeer]

Raven, I use Bertolli Extra Virgin First Press. It works like a charm as a patch lube. Man, I'm suddenly in the mood for some Italian food......... :thumbsup:

 

Well, I tried olive oil (extra virgin they claimed)in my bore and all I got was RUST! Went back to cleaning with Lehigh Valley patch lube and coat my bore with mink grease after cleaning....

 

[Musketeer]

I think it's all a matter of HUMIDITY. Out here, where there's basically NO humidity, you'd be amazed at how long metal will last. In other places, you just TOUCH a gun and three days later it's rusted out! As Zonie said, when he just runs his AC and NOT the swamp cooler, no problem. I ONLY use olive oil as a patch lube. As I said above, after cleaning, all my barrels get a patch soaked with #9. :thumbsup:

 

[tg]

"(extra virgin they claimed)"...... man how many times did I hear that 35 years ago.....

 

[weasel]

::I have used Olive Oil as a patch lube on a fifty four flinter I had a.950 100 yd four shot group that would make ya Popeyed using 100 grains 2f goex the recoil was kinda Brutus then again I am kinda Wimpy
weasel :crackup:

 

No one's using Ballistol? 100 years old, usable for BP-guns, Leather, Wood, Sores, Maggots...

...at least their web-site say so!

 

[TexasMLer]

Hi Zonie,

I use olive oil as a patch lube and have found it to work better than anything else in my rifle. I've tried just about everything including Bore Butter as a patch lube, but when I stray from olive oil, my groups open up. I can't explain it but it is true in my rifle. I really wish that I could use something like bore butter because I believe that even a very lightly olive-oiled patch will contaminate the powder after several hours. I don't believe that it will contaminate the entire powder charge, but I do think that it will turn a 90gr charge effectively into a 65-75gr charge after a while which will decrease accuracy and velocity. Just a guesstimation - I've done no real testing.

I agree that olive oil does not make a good rust preventative...I'll even say that it might even cause rust if used to protect the bore, especially in my humid environment. I now use BC Sheath after cleaning to displace water and as a rust preventative. Sheath isn't PC and it is petroleum based, but it really does a good job. I have even started using room temperature water to clean my bore to prevent the flash rust that boiling water creates. The combination of Sheath and cool water is the combination that I will use forever.

But wouldn't it be nice if olive oil made a good patch lube and a good rust preventative? One stop shopping...

 

[Ravenx]

Well, if you think about it, olive oil is what they had to have been using in Italy as a patch lube back in the day. And they made fine rifles even then.

 

[Keith]

" I really wish that I could use something like bore butter because I believe that even a very lightly olive-oiled patch will contaminate the powder after several hours. "

Has anyone tried applying an olive oil based patch lube and letting it dry? Kinda of a wet dry lube.

 

[RussB]

"(extra virgin they claimed)"...... man how many times did I hear that 35 years ago.....

Here's the key....."Extra Virgin", comes from very, very, very, ugly olives.
"Virgin" Olive Oil is from just plain ugly olives.

I have used Olive Oil in a homemade lube mix for Minies, for years. I also "think" most commercial Black Powder lubes contains at least some Olive Oil, for no other reason than economics...and lack of petroleum properties.

I have found little difference in the high end vs low end Olive Oil off the shelf for lube purpose, albeit some folks insist the better, more expensive oil is also better for lube purposes...they may well be right when used "straight".

Sperm oil was the oil of choice in the days when it was available. Many people, who make their own lube, for different applications have used ATF (Automatic Transmission Fluid) as a replacement for Sperm Oil. I have also used it in several Lube receipes, and just straight out the can, and it works fine....as far as I can tell. The one draw back when using it straight is it's contact to wood will sometimes "raise" the finish, especially when you have a "Tru-Oil" finish....I am told that ATF also lacks Petroleum properties.... I do know it does not create the "tar" from BP residue that...say motor oil, or Petroleum Jelly does.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has "duplicated" Natural 1000 lube in a homemade process....Many have come close, myself included, but it is still lacking in rust preventive qualities. Also, as a point of interest, I am further told that "Bore Butter", and "Natural 1000" is not the same. I can make a very close facsmilie of Bore Butter, and make it any color you like.
Just my thoughts on Olive Oil and homemade lube. :results:

Russ