How hard should my lube be?

[Maillemaker]

So when I joined up a couple of years ago my team commanders tarted me off with a tub of "Len's Lube". It's very mushy stuff, almost the consistency of petroleum jelly.

When I made my first batch of lube from Crisco/Beeswax, I added vegetable oil until I ended up with something a little harder but still soft. This has lasted me until now.

Tonight I made my second batch of lube.

I took a 1 pound can of Crisco and melted it. It rendered 2-1/3 cups of Crisco by liquid volume. I poured it back into the can it came from, and it was about 1/8" from the top full. I poured in some olive oil until it was full to the top.

Then I melted down the beeswax until I had 2-1/3 cups of beeswax by liquid volume.

I mixed the Crisco/oil and beeswax thoroughly together, and then poured into a tupperwear dish to solidify.

It is quite hard at room temperature. When you pick up the finished "brick" of lube and tap it on the counter, it sounds like wax.

It seems slightly harder than the period-correct recipe I made up of 1:8 tallow/beeswax.

How hard should my lube be?

Steve

[Rich Foster]

You should be able to cut some off with a knife on the soft issue. I think you need to try 60% of what ever type of grease you plan to use and 40% beeswax. Some beeswax is harder than other so you might have to go to 70% grease/30% wax. If you get to a point were you are cutting it with a knife and it slightly cracks maybe add a little( A LITTLE like tablespoon) olive or peanut oil. You can use volume or weight when measuring there is not a great difference in the two when making lube. One more thing write down what and how much you use as you go so when you hit the sweet spot you know how to make it again. There are plenty of people that will give you a recipe and it might work for you or you might have to tweak it a little. If somebody gives you a lube recipe from maine then it probably be too soft if you live in Texas where it is a little bit warmer than Maine. Lens lube is on the soft side and on hot day it can melt off the bullet in your gun box but good cold weather lube. I am sure with the word lube will get this Thread going.Rich

[jonk]

I don't have a particular rule of thumb here, but if you wipe your finger across it it should feel a little greasy to the touch; I know if I'm good if it flows through my lube sizer with no resistance to speak of.

I usually start out with equal parts beeswax and crisco by volume and add olive oil until it hits the hardness I want- usually another 10-15%.