Ghost im thinken that whale oil which is renderd from whale blubber most closely relative would be sumthin like bear oil.Now whales are mamels,they give milk to their youngens.Perhaps there fat would be different than the fat from a fish,which aint a mamel.I know that sounds silley but there fats could have different propertys.I aint never seen bear or whale oil but they both come from fat.
I bought a bottle of the jojoba oil,4 ounces for $8 a couple years ago.I have half a bottle left.It shot fine but it was just another lube i played with.Your thread made me get the bottle out,jojoba that is and put a dab on my finger,on the other hand i put some of my rendered beef tallow on my finger,rolled em around a little.The jojoba aint much different than olive oil,maybe a hair thicker.
I then ran water over my fingers to see how well it would repell water,did the same with the tallow.after rubbing the jojoba between my thumb and finger under the water for 5 seconds the jojoba was gone,the tallow on the other hand was still greasy.What this tells me is that jojoba oil would be a poor sub for whale oil.It may shoot closely the same but it would not protect the bore the way the whale oil would im thinken.
Now them old timmers back then most likely kept there guns loaded and had plenty of black powder fouling in the bore.They would have needed a lube that when mixed with the fouling it would keep the fouling from drawing moisture.If the fouling caint draw moisture it cant rust.
Aint no bears around here but i have heard that renered coon fat is much like bear,there in the same family tree,and if you have ever skinned a coon you know how greasy they are.The greasyer the animal the better the lube and bore protection for its properetys of repealing moisture im thinken.Maybe i think too much :youcrazy:
I ran an experement for at least a month with tallow and my old junkar 45 caplock pistol.Cleaned all the oil out with ruben alkey till it was squeeky clean,dryed er out and lubed it with tallow.No rust after a couple of days.I loaded it up and shot a ball with tallow on the patch.Didnt clean it just ran one grease patch of tallow in the bore and left it in there with the ramrod.Would have just reloaded it but i didnt want to leave it loaded around the house.Pulled the ramrod and patch the next day,just black greasy fouling.Loaded it and shot it one more time and didnt clean.I kept this up for around a month.it was shot at least once about 3 times a week on average.it was never cleaned during the expereyment and it never showed any signs of rust at all.I gave it a good soap and water bath here a while back cause i wanted to see what was going on.No rust in the bore.Not even in the snail which kinda surprised me.
ff: :sorry:
