Tradditional lube or more modern?

[Joel/Calgary]

... This "anti-petroleum" movement is way off the mark. I have always preserved my guns with a good gun oil and I've never experienced any downside from petroleum. ... I've never seen the "black tar" I hear folks speak of and relate to petroleum. And by the way, Ballistol is a petroleum product.

Petroleum oil is a only problem when it gets mixed with the combustion gases of black powder. that's when it can form carbon deposits. ... Ballistol is primary mineral oil, a refined petroleum by-product.

I can't find the citation right now, but I remember the Mad Monk writing in some detail on the different types/classes/groups of hydrocarbon molecules and how only some of them react with the sulphur to polymerize into something like asphalt. The non-reactive classes are perfectly fine to use with real gunpowder. The problem is knowing what types of hydrocarbons are in any given product. And for at least some of us, remembering which classes are OK to use.

It is unfortunate the Mad Monk (posting here under Dutch Bill, IIRC) is apparently no longer on this forum.

Regards,
Joel

 

[token tory]

I've heard something similar. :yakyak:
Supposedly it has to do with the different temperatures at which crude is "cracked" boiling off the offending parts at one point in the process. The way I heard it everything above this point is fine, everything below this point is problematic.
Based on this we should probably say "some petroleum products are unsuited for BP use." Vaselene was one of the cited examples of a petroleum that was good, I don't remember the others :hmm: