bear oil and bees wax?

[ddoyle]

Every inch of my kitchen is a slick greasy mess and the jars are filling with renedered/filtered food stuff oil and I am wondering (before everything cools) what the deal with bees wax and bear oil is?

I have maybe a 1/4 pound of bees wax is there something beneficial to my future shooting that I can do with the wax and the oil?  The straight oil I am familiar with as a panacea for everything but I am curious about the wax/oil.

Thanks.

P.S something I think I learned is that anyone with any foresight or brains (not me obviously) would have a bale of thier favorite patch material in the kitchen and use it for general cleaning and coarse filtering so that at the end of this process the litre of drips and spills would be put to better use.

[elk killer]

I have used both as patch lube,
I found bear oil, and or grease, to
work just as good by its self, the
beeswax didn't improve it much,
some swear by the bear and beeswax mix

[ddoyle]

perfect, I'll save the wax for the fret saw. more versatile that way. Fry your eggs, treat you ills and lube you ticking all from the same jar. Thanks any excuse to call the project complete is appreciated.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

You don't need to blend wax and oil for a patch lube...the oil is wonderful alone.  If you want to make BULLET lube, then yes - a solution of the wax and oil in the correct consistency, would also work.

Don't oil up more patches at one time than you need for the day.  Over time, the patch material is compromised (rots) and the oil goes rancid.  Kept in clean jars, your bear oil will last for years.

[ddoyle]

Thanks Taylor,  I filtered it 3 times and canned it hot so I am hoping it lasts well.

[Hungry Horse]

If you need to stiffen the mixture, so it doesn't leak out of the tin, to patchbox, add venison tallow, or mutton tallow, not bee's wax. Bee's wax can plug up the flash channel in a patent breech, and has a low flash point compared to tallow making it more dangerous in hot weather.

    Hungry Horse

[ddoyle]

Hungry, thanks. Should be a deer or two passing thru here so I'll make some tallow and try that.

[Dphariss]

Leave the oil as oil its great patch lube as is.

I like well rendered tallow a lot too.

Dan