What about this patch lube?

[Jay123]

Being new to Black Powder shooting and looking around I find so many types of lubricant for patches.  They range from zero lube to just spit on it to so many commercial products some with bees wax, various types of oil or grease like products it gets confusing.  My question is this,  Is there any reason not to use plain Crisco that my wife uses in the kitchen at times?  Seems to me back in the day animal fat was most likely the lube of choice.
Regards, Jay123

[Dave Marsh]

Personally for me I use spit patches for target practice and Track of the Wolf's mink oil for hunting.   

Dave

[Fred Hembree]

Hi Jay123,
I'm aware that several on this board have used Crisco for patch lube at some time or another. I'm not aware of a reason not to use it. I will say however that many on here use pure Neats Foot Oil, Mink Oil, or mutton tallow. Others on here prefer commercially available products. You will find many opinions on this subject. Best wishes...

[smylee grouch]

It was about 40 years ago that I tried Crisco straight out of the can but had some fouling problems. The fouling might have been brought on by other load combo factors at the time but I changed lube and what ever I changed to worked so much better that I just never used Crisco again. I have never had any luck with bees wax combos for my round ball guns.

[Jerry P.]

I use straight Crisco oil as recommended by Paul Alison. He's been building flintlock rifles for about 35 years and has probably been using oil for that long. I find that the fouling stays soft and it cleans easily with it. You could give it a try.   

[longcruise]

I used crisco for about the first ten years of shooting.  I've been pretty consistently in the top ten percent of the pack from year one with occasional decents to the bottom or accents to the top.  fwiw, choice of lube has never had any noticeable effect on my shooting.  They each have a favored regimen that,  when Followed, give good results. 

[GANGGREEN]

I used to use it and stopped using it simply because I ran out of patches, not because I saw anything wrong with it.  I took cut patches, melted Crisco, dipped the patches into the liquid grease and let them dry on paper towels before stowing them in ziplock bags.  It worked fine.

[Hungry Horse]

 You guys that use Crisco must live in those itty bitty Eastern states where it rains every week or two. Out on the left coast where summers are screaming hot, and rain can be measured with an eye dropper, Crisco has way too low of a flash point. I have seen Crisco patches on fire before they hit the ground. Mutton tallow, or venison tallow, is much better.

    Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

It will work just fine if your load (ball and patch combination) is tight enough.
I use water based lube for target and trails, normally, and an oil like Neetsfoot Oil or Track's Mink Oil for hunting.
One thing about the crisco, is that if you, like too many people use too thin a patch and ignite the patch due to blowby of the flame and gasses, they smell nice(r) when burning.

edited- HA!- hungryhorse- lol-

[hanshi]

I used Crisco and spit patch for decades and have no special complaints concerning either.  Crisco, IMHO, is about on par with the Bore Butter family of greases and leaves the same gummy fouling requiring wiping at least every 2-3 shots.  Spit patch is dramatically better in this regard but dries out quickly.

[longcruise]

Dang, I'm in Colorado where the shooting is often done at 10 to 30% humidaddy and never had a patch light up with crisco.  I  never tried to get as many shots as possible without wiping.  Always got best results wiping after every shot.

[JLBSparks]

Anyone ever use Gojo? Seems like it should clean the fouling with the next reload. I have not used it enough to form an opinion.

   -Joe

[WadePatton]

Anyone ever use Gojo? Seems like it should clean the fouling with the next reload. I have not used it enough to form an opinion.

   -Joe

There is no-thing that hasn't been tried.  I'm sure I've seen gojo or similar, straight or in a "recipe" in discussion before.  No thing that hasn't been tried.

Spit or NFO or tallow still get me through the day.