Track's mink oil

[pacanis]

I heated mine to melt it and put in a smaller tin for my shooting bag

That is a great idea.
Today's project.

 

[Iron Jim Rackham]

You're asking people who regularly shoot blackpowder how to improve an offensive smell???? Blackpowder itself smells like a Taco Bell bathroom. The folks that shoot it enjoy re-enacting the past before the invention of indoor plumbing. If cleanliness is next to godliness, the denizens of hell must closely resemble re-enactors, skirmishers and blackpowder shooters at rendezvous. If these reprobates and imps had ANY olfactory sensitivity they would devote their time to another pastime.

 

[Thingamajiggy]

I agree with French Colonial, I'm on my 4th tin and It barely has as odor.

 

[Thingamajiggy]

That is a great idea.
Today's project.

I find #11 cap tins work great for this.

 

[smokepolehall]

My minky-stinky does not smell bad. Sorry yours has a bad aroma

 

[pacanis]

I find #11 cap tins work great for this.

I'm going to use some altoid style tins I have.
I have a method I use where I take the strip of ticking, lay it on the mink oil, and use two fingers to apply pressure as I pull it through.
Then I'll either lay the ticking on the bench or push it through a ring on a shooting bag.

 

[Billy Boy]

I got a tin of this stuff and not being accustomed to dealing with rodent glands as some of you may, the "aroma" coming from the can when I opened it almost made me retch. Continued exposure would definitely make me retch. This is the rankest stuff I think I've ever encountered and that includes rendering rancid grizzly bear fat. So, any recommendations on perfuming it with something to alter the smell? Or do I just go take a Midol and wash it down with some Bud Lite?

I’ve not noticed any significant oder from my mink oil. I usually put a dab behind each ear when I go to town…

 

[Eric Krewson]

I have been using Tracks Mink Oil for at least 20 years, never had a stinky can, mine smells a little like popcorn.

 

[Snydly]

I got a tin of this stuff and not being accustomed to dealing with rodent glands as some of you may, the "aroma" coming from the can when I opened it almost made me retch. Continued exposure would definitely make me retch. This is the rankest stuff I think I've ever encountered and that includes rendering rancid grizzly bear fat. So, any recommendations on perfuming it with something to alter the smell? Or do I just go take a Midol and wash it down with some Bud Lite?

Been using it for years and never noticed it smelling bad. If you have a home smoker, try smoking it for about a 1/2 hour. It will melt ,, but will re solidify in a short short.

 

[SgtMaj65]

I had to take out my tin of TOTW mink oil and smell it. Very, very minor odor, even when I shoved my nose up to it. Has a bit of a smell like old Crisco. My greasy hand-wiping rag I use when shooting at the range in 90-degree heat smells like a mixture of mink oil, moose milk and BP. I was a serious CW reenactor for 25 years so I guess I don’t mind smells. Loved the smell of black powder burning up and down the company front when the air is filled with thousands of rifles and cannon firing and belching smoke into the air.
Here’s my wiper rag. At some point, it was white. You be the judge of how it smells …

 

[brushblind]

I ordered some SPG lube in a tin from track last wk. and it has very slight odor, hardly noticeable. You might want to try that next time!

 

[RMH]

I find #11 cap tins work great for this.

I just gobbed mink oil from the big container to small Altoid tin and heated it with a heat gun to level it out. I drag the pillow ticking strips through the tin with finger pressure.

 

[BackDraft]

…a jar of Vick's Vapor Rub being passed around...

Back when I was an FTO for an ambulance service, I always handed out one of those travel-size jars to the newbies. Told them nothing destroyed the family’s confidence than to start wretching while dealing with a foul-smelling patient.

 

[BackDraft]

I just gobbed mink oil from the big container to small Altoid tin and heated it with a heat gun to level it out.

That’s what I was thinking of doing to carry a small amount in my pistol pouch.

 

[Des52]

That’s what I was thinking of doing to carry a small amount in my pistol pouch.

I use empty cap tins for TOTW mink oil in my pouch's and bags. Been using TOWT mink oil for decades, never had one that smelled bad. The OP should get ahold of Track and see if they will make good for the bad can. I keep two cans in my gun room and when I use one up I'll order another.

 

[Yewbender]

I have been using Tracks Mink Oil for at least 20 years, never had a stinky can, mine smells a little like popcorn.

Eric, i get the same smell out of mine but i will say it doesn’t taste like popcorn!

 

[DCAN]

Mine STINKS, and I tolerate bad smells pretty well from having done things like changed the walking beams under a garbage truck with maggots and household garbage sqeezings dripping on my face. Didn't like that much but didn't get queasy doing it, either. Granted, it's been 105 in the shade all week and mine spent the day inside a black metal drop box in full sun so a little grease leaked out of the can and wet the inside of the plastic zip bag it shipped in, but after spending 30 hours in a 68 degree shop it still smells very, very bad, like a cross between rotten guts and the back end of a ripe billy goat. Don't ask about the billy goat, you either know or you don't and you only have to get within 20 feet of one to know.

My mink oil doesnt smell. Wonder if something isn't quite right with yours. (No offense intended.)
I can relate to your trash truck experience. I was pressure washing the underside of one and learned a hard lesson about keeping my mouth closed. Yummy.

 

[DCAN]

Mine definitely has an odor but isn't that overpowering, and I really don't like any strong odors,,,, including ones most people find pleasant.
I'm thinking something is up with the can you have, but I'm sure it will work fine. If you are only using it for patch/wad lube and other gun purposes I would add some sent to it,,, if using it on leather I would get another can.

Adding scent.....
Do you have a Hobby Lobby near you?
You can get essential oil scent oils in their candle making section.
I use these two quite a bit,
View attachment 237726
They have others such as peppermint, orange, lavender, and bergamot.
Please keep in mind, a very little goes a long way. We are talking drops, like from an eye dropper, and I don't always trust the top that comes on these bottles. Hobby Lobby also carries these,
View attachment 237727
They are very helpful.
Gently melt your mink oil, double boiler or tiny electric crock-pot, at worst an electric hot plate on low. Once it is melted remove from the heat, add a few drops of oil, and stir. (I use one of those wooden coffee stirrers when I add scent oil to coconut oil or Shea butter, the cedar seems to help keep mosquitoes from biting)
The more you stir it while it resolidifies the better,,, but it will take quite a while to become solid again.
If it wasn't enough, remelt and add more, but remember if you add too much you could thin the consistency of the product.

Check out "Bulk Apothecary.com" . Been using their oils for years to make cover scents.

 

[azmntman]

Mine is not pleasant to smell but can't smell it unless I try.

 

[NorthFork]

I got a tin of this stuff and not being accustomed to dealing with rodent glands as some of you may, the "aroma" coming from the can when I opened it almost made me retch. Continued exposure would definitely make me retch. This is the rankest stuff I think I've ever encountered and that includes rendering rancid grizzly bear fat. So, any recommendations on perfuming it with something to alter the smell? Or do I just go take a Midol and wash it down with some Bud Lite?

Take a Midol, drink a Bud Lite and quit muzzleloading! TOTW's Mink 'Oil' (really a tallow) has little to no odor and is an excellent hunting lube. Do you even HUNT?!?! Or trap? Mother Nature's 'scents' are normal. Sorry you are a city guy. My own wife right now says after smelling 3 new cans of TOTW Mink Oil, that there is NO smell other than maybe "wax or oil" end quote.