What your favorite for knives, firearms, leather, reloading dies ..etc that are put away in the safe? Or for use in harsh environments? Application? I recently drug olé trusty dusty, ‘65 Model 70 .30-06, out of the safe and loaded up a box for it and headed to the range. Still kicks as I remember and still groups very well. I got back home and commenced to clean it up. I soaked the barrel and walked away to do something else. I came back after a bit and ran a patch on a jag down the barrel. The batch was a beautiful blue, which left me confused. I only put 20 down the pipe. Every patch after that, was blue. For some odd reason, I was pulling a lot of copper out. I held the the bore up to the light and my heart sank. I had some minor pitting. For the life of me I can’t figure out how. I always left oil in the barrels of my guns that sit for a stretch. My dad gave me this gun when I was 12 and I’ve used it to harvest many deer, so I felt sick over this. It’s not bad enough to replace as it still groups very well, more than minute of deer. I have since amassed quite the collection of stuff and feel I have a solid combo. Just curious of what everyone else does.
knives & trucks here..... Use pretty much anything on my knives......chapstick, Sno-Seal, wd40, penetrating oil, fluid film, diesel, etc. Clean them well before food use. on my trucks I thrice (3) times annually, heavily fog the entire engine bay, undercarriage, everything etc with Fluid Film, used synthetic ATF and liquid spray car wax (mixed and sprayed with HPHV sprayer) 1990 mazda Bseries.....pushing 400,000 on it. JUST starting to get a few bubbles on the rocker panel and a few other areas my BushTracker gets the odd creek crossing or pond crossing.......same thing I use HPHV sprayer and flood the entire thing with wd40 (to diplace water, then follow with another treatment of Fluid Film, liquid car wax and used synthetic ATF.
Man this made my heart hurt reading it. For guns I've been using CLP and ballistol for years now. Some generic gun grease on the less used weapons. I also keep a rechargeable desiccant pack in the safe and everything comes out a few times a year for disassembly, inspection, and fresh lube if needed. Keep in mind that light oils can have a tendency to settle over time. Especially prone in vertically stored long guns.
I had break-free collectors in the bore of that rifle. What’s strange is that it’s not the only one that I used it on. But it was the only one that developed pitting. The pitting is very minute, no deformation to the lands and grooves. In a 6mm borescope with a near focus tip, they just reflected the light of the scope, small but there. I never shot anything corrosive out of it, but I did live in Tacoma for 7 years—humidity. I’ve talked to several smiths and was told to leave it alone if it’s grouping good. Still upsetting nonetheless. I’ve started using a Ballistol, mil-comm TW25 grease and slip 2000. Ballistol has an interesting history, it stinks and is somewhat pricy. But man, It works. The trigger on my Super Redhawk was meh out of the box. I ripped it apart and doused the trigger group and everything else with Ballistol and let it sit to embed into the metal. Wiped excess off and you can feel the metal feels “slick”, added a smidge of mil-comm grease to the sear, it was bone dry and little dabs of slip-2000 on other friction surfaces. What a difference! Hickok 45 swears by it. I’m sold, but that strong black licorice smell. I’m really going to have to try that renaissance wax. I have a few that just don’t get shot as much and some that I’ve passed down to my son whose in the Army, can’t take them with him. Need to snag a tube or two of this B-Fat, sounds very handy.
I'm thinking that pitting happened over the decades... possibly the powders weren't so non-corrosive back in the 60-70s.
I have heard it said, but would not hang my hat on it, some pitting can develop under copper fouling if it has managed to trap a little moisture, but the inside of a bore is like any other steel, if moisture can find a bare patch it can oxidise. The sad reality is most of us cause more bore wear cleaning than than shooting. Most rifles just need patching out and leaving oiled to be fine (many target shooters do just that). I can't tell you just what it is I am using at the moment (I would need to go down to my cave and check), but I changed about 5yrs ago and have been very happy with both their lubricant and cleaning products. I think CLP (Breakfree etc sucks a big hairy pole - but many like it). If I have BAD copper fouling I will use Sweets (and wear a respirator) but that is rare and the bottle I am using I sold myself when I was in the trade (and that is now 30yrs ago). G96 made/makes excellent preservative oils. WD40 is hit and miss (more miss than anything) If you store an autoloader with it as the preservative, just remember it will harden to a lacquer like consistency overtime and the firearm will need to be detailed stripped and cleaned to remove it so it will function correctly. Saw a couple of long stored SLRs here that were frozen up solid having been WD40'ed and put in an armoury for around a decade. For my knives, I used nothing but "Butcher Block Oil" I got a couple of litres of it at Ikea of all places and a little goes a long way, I also bought a new (cheap) shaving brush that I leave in a plastic zip bag impregnated with that oil. It does a fine job of putting a nice even coat of oil on blades. I also have a good deal of Ballistol that I have used over many years with no issue it seems more use on leather than guns now, but it is an excellent old product with a proven record.
