This is a question for the actual chemists out there. I have been collecting "formulas" for cleaning solutions and patch lube for the last couple of months. There are several formulas that share common ingredients. My questions are:
1. What makes Murphy' Oil Soap so popular, and what does it do that dish washing detergent won't do? (both in cleaning and as a patch lube.)
2. The Hydrogen Peroxide that I find on the shelf of the drug stores is 3% solution. In the various "formulas" I've seen, the highest concentration works out to 1% (that formulas being 1 part each Murphy's, rubbing alcohol, and Hydrogen Peroxide). Does this small amount actually do anything including promote rusting?
3. One formula used Wichhazel in it. What would Wichhazel do for cleaning a BP muzzleloader?
Thanks for the info
R.E. Klaus
I am not the chemist you asked for, but here is my say anyhow.
Years ago, the original moosemilk was formulated by mixing water soluble oil with water to make a lubricant/cleaner for muzzle loading rifles. The mixture was dubbed moosemilk because of the milky look of the mixture. As little as 25-30 years water soluble oil, which was used as a coolant/lube for machining steel and cast iron, became hard to find because new and better synthetic coolant/lubricants came on the market and made water soluble oil hard to find. Every machine shop did not change over to the synthetics, but little by little the old water soluble oil was replaced by the synthetics. One of the big problems of using water soluble oil for a lubricant/cutting oil in machine was that it got dirty very fast and smell like a dead cow that had laid in a field for a couple of weeks. On machines with an coolant tank, the synthetic coolants could be recycled, added to, and maintain the lubricity with not much of any smell to it and it worked better than water soluble oil.
About this time I was trying moosmilk and was looking for a replacement for the water soluble oil and I started using Murphy's oil soap in its stead. I shared this with everyone I knew who used moosemilk. I am not claiming that I was the only one to start using Murphy's, but several years later some guys who had been to Friendship came back with a formula for Friendship Moosemilk made with Murphy's. Murphy's is probably better because the base for Murphy's is vegetable oil and not a petroleum product.
Since then, and probably always, guys have tried to formulate a better moosemilk by adding stuff to the original moosemilk formula.
Here is the skinny on lubricants and cleaners. All of the residue left from burnt black powder is soluble in water and nothing more is needed when cleaning your rifle. The kicker here is that when you start adding other ingredients to any formula they are what leaves a residue that won't budge with just plain old cold water. If you spit patch like I do 99% of the time you don't need anything but cold water for cleanup. Now if you add a petroleum based product to your lube then you have to find something that will dissolve the residue left by that product. Hence all the various additives that guys use in their formula.
Hydrogen peroxide is an additive that many shooters used to use, but it wasn't really needed if you spit patch and did not do much for removal of burnt petroleum products. I believe there was also a safety warning about using hydrogen peroxide issued by the NMLRA. If I remember correctly, lubes with hydrogen peroxide tend to explode if left in the sun, like on an uncovered shooting bench.
I have never used Witch Hazel, but it is used as an astringent to clean the face, treat bruises, hemorrhoids, sprains, skin problems, internal injuries and bleeding. It doesn't seem to me that any of my rifles have any of these problems so why would myself, or anyone else, want to put it into a lube??
Coinciding with the use of petroleum based lubes was the use of breech plug scrapers. I have shoot muzzle loaders for way over 40 years and have
NEVER had any residue form on my breech plug face that didn't come out with ordinary cold water. but then, like I said, I normally spit patch. I have had the occasion to pull the breech plug on several of my rifles and they are always as clean as when I installed them.
I don't suppose any of this has helped you? What you need to do is formulate a cleaner that will dissolve the particular type of lube that is leaving the residue in your barrel. All lube/cleaners are not created equal.
Randy Hedden
