Anyone used FWFL lube for BP cartridge loads? How did it work out?

Ian

i have never heard of this lube.. is it an abreviation? or a brand name.. ?? dave

FWFL Felix's World Famous Lube, Felix, a member here, made up a huge batch of his home brew lube and sold it here to fund a cast bullet site last year or the year before, I forget.

Ian

12FLVSS, I've used Felix Lube with BP (and Pyrodex) loads in my .45-70. While it works OK, it is not nearly as good as Emmert's (home brewed), SPG or some other proprietary mix. The best I could do with it, even with a blow tube, was 4-5 accurate shots. With Emmert's or SPG, I was able to get 15 accurate shots before cleaning.

To FFFg, you can find the recipe for Felix Lube on the following site: http://www.castpics.net/ under "Research." If either of you wants the recipe for Emmert's, let me know. ...Maven

50% bees wax
40% Crisco or lard
10% canola oil

this is the Emmert's as is listed at the BPCR site. Is this the same that you are using?

thanks,
Ian

12FLVSS, My Emmert's is essentially as you listed it (Got the formula from Ralph Schneider of the Cast Bullet Assoc.) with one exception: I substituted toilet seal wax for beeswax as I had an abundance of the former. Btw, Schneider emphasizes that the Crisco must be white & unsalted. He also gives a formula by weight. ...Maven

I made the Emmerts above today, except instead of Canola oil I used Olive oil (the expensive imported extra virgin stuff, don't tell my wife I raided her stash ) I did it by weight, but your comment above leads me to believe I should have done it by volume... did I screw up?

thanks,
Ian

P.S. Crap.. went back and looked again, the proportions are indeed by volume... well, back to the drawing board. What's the by weight formula? Mebbe I can adjust what I have already made up.

Haywire, Ralph Schneider also lists these formulae by weight: (1) 8 oz. beeswax, 7 oz. white Crisco, 1.5 oz. Wesson Oil. (2) 12 oz. beeswax,9 0z. white Crisco, 2.25 oz. Wesson Oil. In any of them,, including the volumetric recipe, do not overheat the mixture as it ruins it. Also, as there are other recipes for Emmert's Lube, I wouldn't worry if you added a bit too much (or too little) of an ingredient. Just use the batch you made and label it and then cook up another (by weight) and compare the two. I suspect the difference in performance will be slight to non-existent. Btw, I used toilet rings/ersatz beeswax in my batch instead of genuine beeswax and have had no problems with it to speak of. ...Maven

Hmm... translate that to percentages and you get approx:

48.4% Wax
42.4% Crisco
9.2% Oil

Not a lot different, but it might produce a little softer lube that what I ended up with. Less wax, less oil but more Crisco. The oil and Crisco might be a tradeoff for hardness. I'm buying SPG lubed bullets at this point (Lyman 535 Postells) so I made the lube just for kicks. I won't be using it for a bit. In any case, I had the stove at the lowest setting, melted the Crisco and oil together then shaved the wax into it. Took about 30 minutes to get it lump free. I ended up with about a pound of lube. I went to Wally world and ace hardware looking for double boilers but no luck. The lady at Wally World told me she hadn't seen any of those in a while.

thanks for the help,
Ian

I have used SPG with success. I have been using DGL from Shiloh with very good success and plan on trying Black Magic lube this summer.

Anyone else use DGL or Black Magic?