Hey something else I noticed (as I perused the patch lube threads of the last dozen years here) is that somewhere someone equated sheep tallow with lanolin.
Those are not the same thing, They may shoot the same (I've ne'er tried either) but
lanolin is the oily/waxy secretions that, in part, make wool such a wonderful and useful fabric.
Tallow-as I know it, only comes from rendering out the fat from the carcass of the animals. Tallow comes from dead animals, lanolin is extracted from raw wool-something that wool sheep produce over and over again. I have not found any fatty acids breakdown of either
Consider that in your formulations and experimentations and when deciphering old recipes.
On that note, I have some "lanolin oil" in front of me that's begging to be soaked into a patch or three. It's a liquid lanolin that I thought might be good for my skin, but I don't find it useful there (found it on Ebay a few years back, and it's "pure organic"). I use pure waxy, thick, normal lanolin for that (finding nothing better for my hands and working outdoors every day). And now I have this 4oz of
lanolin oil to dispose of. May as well shoot it.
Could be a "new" recipe forthcoming!
But wait there's more (for those interested in lanolin history and chemistry):
https://lanolin.com/about-lanolin/From there I see that lanolin "lacks the glycerol content found in body fat". Good or bad, there it is.
Tallow is primarily triglycerides. (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tallow)
Knowledgeable chemists might know even more about how these compare and what makes either a preferred substance for shooters.
Or we just shoot and see.