Spermwhale oil

[yooper2]

A friend at work recently gave me a can of real spermwhale oil from the turn of the previous century. I figure I have about 6oz of the stuff. I plan on keeping the can with with my pile of old powder cans and cartridge boxes but thought I may as well experiment with the oil.

I recall reading that it was a key ingredient in a number of old black powder era bullet lube recipes and think it would be fun to mix up small amounts of a few to try against modern lubes like SPG or Darr lube. Does anyone know of a source for any of these old bullet lube recipes? The test rifles would be my Shiloh Sharps in 45-100 with my normal BPCR match load and a Winchester 1892 in 38-40 with a proven load, only changing the lube. It may not prove much about accuracy but it would be cool to see how the old lubes did controlling fouling.


Eric

[AJMD429]

.
It makes sense to use it. It's not exactly like you can go find a whale and give it back.

[Ray]

A little difficult to read due to being an actual scanned library book but quite interesting nonetheless. Much more followable to me than melville's "moby".....

https://archive.org/details/whaleandhis ... 2/mode/2up

Why is it applicable here other than in relation to the o.p.'s query ? Whaling is hunting (and sort of fishing) and most of us are interested in that pastime(s).

[gamekeeper]

I found this recipe on Americanlongrifles.org.
You can mix Sperm Whale oil with Beeswax and the old Sharps formula for bullet lube was 1 part oil to 2 parts beeswax by WEIGHT. Make SURE there is no remaining honey in the wax its makes it almost a non-lube. So it needs to be PURE Beeswax.

[765x53]

From what I have read, it's lubricating properties would make it too valuable to mix with other substances. It is clamed that it can still be found in the mechanisms of antique arms and clocks still performing its function.

[Griff]

A LOT of my family history is tied up in the hunting of, killing, and sale of whales in the waters between the North & South Islands of New Zealand.

Tom & Jim Norton & Tom Jackson-seated.jpg

One of my Grandmother's Uncles (seated)

foreground-Swiftsure, James Norton steersman & James Jackson headsman and Maori Girl, Riwai Keenan steersamn & Pumipi Love headsman.jpg

(foreground)
Posing for pictures.

[piller]

Sort of funny how so many natural items are as good or better than synthetic stuff. OK, not all are, but many are.

[Ray]

Azorean whaling documentary.circa 1968.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=K5yF13lPh ... luZw%3D%3D

Mind, other than orson welles narration, the dialogue is in portuguese. Perhaps ambracol can translate.

Scroll forward to 39:34 to see processing. Blubber is boiled to render trade/lamp oil. A little over a minute later, you see the finer grade spermaceti being drained from the head. This only needs filtering from solids and no other processing and that is probably what the o.p. has. This finer oil being recovered in dry conditions ashore is ideal. imagine trying to stand on the slippery head (in nail knobbed boots) floating alongside the whaling ship as buckets are lowered on ropes to dip this oil. In these conditions, the otherwise valuable natural/unprocessed oil would invariably be tainted with sea water.

Mining the floating carcass' pluck/viscera in high swells for rare and costly ambergris whilsts scores of sharks are nibbling was said to be more dangerous that the initial harpooning/lancing.

[Sixgun]

It’s still old technology, one of the best in its time…….ain’t nothing that can come close to today’s synthetics like Eezox or Frog Lube…..

I’d just hold on to it as a cool thing ….you can tell your buddies that you boiled down some of your own and if you look real hard you can still see some of those little babies swimming around.——006

[Ji in Hawaii]

From what I gather the first automatic transmissions used whale oil as transmission fluid. The chemist who developed ATF probably help save the whales.

[piller]

Not a bad legacy at all.

[Pat C]

Sperm whale oil was mixed with bone charcoal in the gas furnaces used by Winchester early 1900's .The smoke created and heat from the retort furnace was how receivers and certain parts were machine blued.
I always wondered if the oil smoke contributed to some of the flaking blue they experienced during that time.

[Oldncrusty]

An old watch maker/repairman I knew said that the gold standard for watch oil was porpoise oil. They have a small pocket of oil inside their jawbone for lubricating their mandibular joint.

[wolfdog]

Sperm whale oil was used in atf and limited slip differentials
as a friction modifier until it was no longer available. And no synthetic has ever been made that works as well in these applications.

[Catshooter]

It's interesting stuff.

Never hardens. Never. It's sound transmission qualities are unmatched. Fair to middling lubrication characteristics, modern synthetics are better in that regard.

Legal to own, use, give away. Quite illegal in the US to sell any quantity at all. Felony.

I like it for precision tools with their tiny little screws since it never hardens.