Anyone use pur bees wax

Ah, as a chamber seal. I've not used it for that (it's too hard to apply like grease), nor do I know anyone who does.
 
I use beeswax, paraffin and Ballistol to make grease cookies for my cap and ball revolvers.

Beeswax can be found on evil bay in 5 and 10 lb sizes.
 
I was looking for some recipies of lube to go over the ball is that were you put your cookie or under the ball? One of the problems that I have is that for years I have been using Bore Butter over the ball and with the warm weather here ond the heat from firing it gets to be like a heavy oil. I would like something a little stiffer. How do you form your cookies?
 
Pure b'wax is pretty hard, I wouldn't attempt for the c&b. A mixture with a high temp resistant oil does soften it. I mix b'wax with peanut oil for some of my patches on ml rifles. Also have heard of using Sperm whale oil for same but it is very rare stuff these days. However, unless you have beekeeping friends who give to you, beeswax is fairly expensive. I have heard of rolling out (when warm) and cutting into plugs or wads. Should work OK but is still expensive.
Very popular at the serious pistol competitions is water pump grease. Holds together and is just firm enough to stay in cylinders.
Last choice is Crisco. Just plain messy and wuthluss. Too soft and runny in hot weather and too hard to use in cold. Has no redeeming value except low price.
 
Pearl Lube, an invention of Dick Dastardly is a mixture of One part container soy wax, One part toilet bowl ring and 1/2 part of vegetable shortening. Adjust softness by adding or subtracting vegetable shortening. It is used primarily as a bullet lube for black powder applications but also works well as an over ball lube on cap and ball pistols (I don't do that), a wad lube for cap and ball pistols (my method) and as an arbor/base pin lube on cap and ball pistols. (I do that)
 
I keep bees, and I still don't use it much for muzzleloading.
Old crisco is too convenient and cheap.
I don't really even use it for muzzleloading lube. Alox is too convenient for minies,and I find that a more liquid lube works better as a patch lube.
 
I received several PM's about the grease cookies. Here is the original recipe I got from "Smokingun" several years ago.

"What I did was start out with:
Parafin comes in a brick divided to to 4 like a stick a butter, I used a stick.
Then 1/4 of a Bowlwax Toilet Seal Ring(Beeswax)substitute or beeswax to use with the parafin.
Then 8-10 Tablespoons of Olive Oil/soy oil
The Olive oil is the Lube the Waxes just carry it and keep the pill as
you want it.(consistency/hard or soft...climate time of year)
And that made a lot, about 600 pills...about 1/8" thick for the most part.
Place the lube mixture in a small saucepan, place the small saucepan in a larger pan with water
Use a heated pizza pan to pour your mix into...
so mix cools evenly(flat) .Place in fridge when it's set stiff(optional)
And worked good for me...you need to try your best guess and add/subract as you like them
for your use.

Punch out to the caliber of your choice, with a tube. Place lube pill over powder with ball
on top. You'll shoot all day without binding. Keeps cylinder lubed fouling soft and barrel
relatively clean."


You can change the amounts to alter the hardness and melting point of the cookies. I like to use Balistol as the liquid/oil but any of the normal items well work. They make great arbor lube too.
 
Thanks for the recipie, I wonder exactly they used in olden days or at least what was common. I know that it was grease of some sort but I wonder how thick it was since a lot of things melt and get too runny when the weather is hot.
 
I am presently using a batch of NIVEA (please don't laugh) hand cream...
A local shop left a box of those nice tin cans outside in a rainstorm and the rust made them unfit for sale. I got it for free...

K.
 
Yep, I've used beeswax.

We made what's described as the "Best Wad Lubricant" in Gatofeo's sticky So you want a cap and ball revolver. Already had paraffin with the canning supplies. We used to keep bees and still have a carton of wax starter sheets. The rub was getting the sheep tallow -- when I tried Dixie they were out. We had to wait until after the country fair's animal auction -- then the butcher saved us some lamb suet. We rendered the suet into tallow and then cooked up some lube. Gatofeo was correct, the stuff is very nice -- great for wads, but too stiff for an over-ball lube.
 
Model-P said:
I thought the question was about using pure bee's wax.
Click to expand...
The OP asked about "pure bee's wax or tallow or some mixture of the two?"
In #4, mykeal opined that it's too stiff to use as a chamber seal. It seems we all concur and the thread evolved into using other mixtures. Obviously, some folks use concoctions including toilet donut material (substitute "un-pure" beeswax).
 
The OP asked about "pure bee's wax or tallow or some mixture of the two?"
Click to expand...

So true. Thanks for setting me straight.

I, also, used to keep bees. Had enough hives to pollinate a small almond orchard each Spring until someone rustled them. I was ready to take a break anyway, but did end up with a small supply of bee's wax from the venture. Great for bullet lube and to waterproof leather (mixed with Neatsfoot or mineral oil). One of these days I'll try making some lube pills, but it always seemed like a lot of valuable wax going downrange.
 
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