Real Sperm Whale Oil?

[Kansas Kid]

Say you had a six ounce bottle. What would you do with it?

 

[appalichian hunter]

GUARD IT VERY WELL.

 

[waksupi]

Not much. I tried it years ago as a patch lube, not very satisfactory. Dexron III synthetic automatic transmission fluid was developed to duplicate it. The transmissions had used whale oil previously.

 

[Rifleman1776]

I had two 16 oz. cans on the shelf for about 40 years. The cans started to rust from the outside. So, to use it, I mixed into a soft cake with beeswax for use as a patch lube. Not the best results. Wouldn't know what to do with it if I had it back. Reportedly, jojobo oil is virtually identical to whale. But, I dunno, just read that here at one time.

 

[hanshi]

Put it in a safety deposit box at your bank!

 

[ohio ramrod]

I still have about 1/2 pint left from the early sixties. Back then it was considered the ultimate patch lube,and lock lube I now use the synthetic that dixie sells made from the jobobo bean oil. What ever you do don't try to sell it!. About ten years or so a guy bought an old ware house that had been owned by a clock company and found a five gallon container of it and he put it in pint bottles and advertised it on line. Since he could not document that it was pre 1968 he ended up with a ten thousand dollar fine!. The bean oil is so close to the real stuff that it even smells the same. The true sperm oil is used to lubricate the Hubble telescope out in space!

 

[B P Arn]

I'd try to trade it for Breakfree or Ballisol.

I don't want ivory either.

 

[TDM]

My son gave me a small bottle of the Jobobo oil a couple of years ago. I wanted to use it on the tumblers and such, but I always forget I have it.

 

[Kansas Kid]

I do have several old mechanical clocks It’s in a sealed hot sauce size bottle with a crafty whale label. Suppose I’ll just put it on the collectible shelf to look at. It is labeled not for sale.

 

[Dan Druff]

Say you had a six ounce bottle. What would you do with it?

Did you happen to aquire said bottle at a rendezvous this past weekend?

 

[Kansas Kid]

Yes Dan. I think we shot together.

 

[Dan Druff]

Yes Dan. I think we shot together.

Nice! I had a great time shooting with you. Sorry I was busy helping clean up and didn't get a chance to say goodbye. Hope our trails cross again in the future sir.

 

[Brent]

I have a can. Made some bullet lube and shot a moose with it. Works great.

 

[earlwb]

They used it in the past for lamps, as a lubricant for delicate and precision instruments such as watches and cameras, making soap and cleansers, margarine, prior to WW2 it was key to making nitroglycerin, the first automatic car transmissions used it before automatic transmission oil was invented, etc.

It has a strong film strength, doesn’t go rancid and it resists freezing thus it was a popular lubricant for precision instruments. They may have used it prior to 1972 in some satellites in space in the cameras.

But petroleum and synthetic oils replaced it. Also in 1972 it became illegal to hunt whales or import whale products into the USA and most all of the other countries as well.

 

[mushka]

I understand the jojoba is a good lubricant but does anybody know if it would be a decent preservative in a gun barrel?

 

[B P Arn]

I can't imagine that it, or sperm oil, would be anywhere near as good as a modern synthetic rust preventative.

 

[springfield art]

A number of years back, Dixie's catalog listed this as the highest quality oil, without using the actual term, "whale oil"; you sort of had to know what they were meaning. That was a very long time ago, I think back before the save-the-earth movement started. Nowadays, I wouldn't touch anything related to whales or elephant.

 

[longcruise]

I think whale oil may have acquired it's mystical properties after it became uncommon. In days of old it was readily available and so commonly used to the point that we now think it was obviously the best possible choice.

Not dissing it, just my perspective on it.

 

[Snydly]

35+ years ago I bought a 10 oz bottle of the real stuff from White's Buffalo sporting goods. Still have about 1 third of the bottle left. I stack my patches up and saturate them. then I put an ash tray below the jaws of my vise. Then I put the patches in the vise and squeeze them as tight as I can get it. I will get about 98-99% of the oil back,,,in the ash tray. Patches are Extremely slick.... stay like this for months at a time with almost negligible change. Work fantastic for my patches. Only use it for special occasions now that it is impossible to get. Switched over to Mink oil, but am now trying lambs tallow and bees wax mix.

 

[david w]

My only memory of whale oil is from when my great grandmother use it in her lamps.