I posted my recipe for Gatofeo No. 1 Black Powder Lubricant, knowing full well that a slew of folks would follow with, 'Hey ... what if I used (fill in the blank) instead?"
It is a common question with one answer: "Use the specific ingredients listed, in the amounts listed. Substitution results in an inferior product."
The ingredients are very specific, because I haven't found anything else that works as well:
1 part canning paraffin --
Who knows what is in discarded candles? Coloring? Scent? No-drip chemicals? Canning paraffin is the purest paraffin readily available.
1 part Mutton tallow --
As far back as 1855, the British Army specified mutton tallow over beef or pork. Now, this may be due to the Brits occupying lands where the residents were Hindu (who consider cows sacred) or Muslim (pigs are unclean and eating them is an affront to Allah).
Such faithful were forbidden from handling products made from these dead animals, and that included the cartridges that native soliders who served the British Army would require.
I cannot explain the property of mutton tallow that reduces black powder fouling so well. Some have told me it's the lanolin in the tallow, yet others say this can't be because the glands that produce lanolin are not in the fat.
I don't know. All I know is that nothing I've tried since about 1970, when I first began shooting cap and ball revolvers, works as well. I've tried deer, bear, beef, pork, turkey and elk fat.
I've tried Crisco, Fluffo, generic vegetable shortening and the oils of olive, canola, peanut, palm and avocado. None of it worked as well as mutton tallow.
Mutton tallow is sold by Dixie Gun Works. It's the only source I know of, but a little goes a long way.
1/2 part Beeswax --
Real beeswax. Not diluted with paraffin or any other kind of wax. Pure, unadulterated beeswax.
And real beeswax, at that. Not the synthetic stuff so common today. There was a time when you could just buy a toilet seal at the hardware store and you had beeswax.
Not anymore. It's all become synthetic.
I look for beeswax at Renaissance Fairs, gun shows, Mountain Man Rendezvous and hobby shops. Ebay has some on occasion, sometimes at a good price.
This lubricant has the consistency of lard. It softens in hot weather. At the range, I keep my container of wads in my drink cooler. After loading, it takes a while for the wad's lubricant to begin to melt. Long before then, I've fired the rounds.
I've never experienced a problem with lubricated wads affecting my powder. But if it concerns you, simply punch out some waxed paper wads from a milk carton and load them between the powder and lubricated wad. The waxed paper will keep the lubricant from reaching the powder.
I use Gatofeo No. 1 Lubricant for felt wads, patches for my muzzleloading rifle, lead bullets loaded over black powder (in cartridges and in muzzleloaders) and for lubricating .32 Long Colt heeled bullets after they've been seated in a case.
It is particularly good with felt wads loaded over the powder in cap and ball revolvers. I load the wad separately first, for a good reason: if I forget to charge the chamber, it's much easier to remove a felt wad than it is a wad AND lead ball.
Also, I get a better feel for how much pressure I'm applying to the wad, and the black powder under it, if I load the wad separately. After all chambers are loaded with lubricated felt wads, then I begin seating the lead ball.
As to felt wads ...
Real, wool felt is required. A lot of felt sold today is polyester. Read plastic. Finding wool felt can be a problem, but it's easily ordered from Durofelt online.
Go to
http://www.durofelt.com/The woman who sells it, from her home in Little Rock, Arkansas, gets pure wool felt from her family business in India. I visited her a few years ago and she's very nice.
She was totally unaware that shooters had a need for wool felt of various thicknesses, but I think she's learned quite a bit since then. She sells sheets of wool from 1/16th inch thick up to nearly 1-inch thick! For lubricating wads in cartridges and muzzleloaders, buy the 1/8-inch thick sheet.
If you wish to take up space in a chamber or cartridge with a light load, use 1/4-inch thick wool felt.
If you buy .45-caliber Wonder Wads, they'll cost you $7 to $10 per $100.
If you order a piece of 3X3-foot hard, 1/8 inch thick felt from Durofelt, you'll pay $30. Shipping to U.S. addresses is free.
This 3X3-foot piece will provide you with about 5,180 wads of .45 caliber, figuring two wads across and two wads down in each square inch.
A .45-caliber punch will cost you $18 from Buffalo Arms at
http://www.buffaloarms.com/about.htmYou can get by even cheaper by buying a hole punch set from Harbor Freight.
For .36-caliber use the 3/8ths punch, .44-40 (7/16th) or .50-caliber (1/2 inch). These Harbor Freight sets don't quite work for .45 caliber, as the 7/16th punch is too small and the 1/2-inch punch is too large.
And note, .44-caliber cap and ball revolvers are really .45 caliber, so you'll need a .45-caliber punch.
So, for about $50 you can get a lifetime supply of wads and never again face an empty shelf. With so many wads, you won't be hesitant to use them as filler, instead of corn meal, because they don't cost 10 cents apiece.
Of course, you can mutter, "The ol' desert cat's on a grump again; the ol' coot's crazier than a love-starved bedbug! I use (fill in the blank) lubricant and it works just fine for me!"
Ah well, use it then. I'm just relating what's worked for me since I brewed it about 9 years back.
Crisco, bacon grease, beef fat and a host of other natural fats and oils do work. I used them in the past, but not since.
An exception is olive oil. I still use it to coat my revolvers after they've been dried in the oven. It keeps rust away so I use it as a preservative.
Yeah, the ol' grumpy desert cat went on a rant. But I hope it was an educational rant.
