Candle wax for bullet lube ?

[pwl44m]

Can it be used in place of paraffin ? Candle wax is in abundance here after unpacking some more boxes. They were slightly deformed from the heat for 2 years and My gracious Wife said I could have them (probably 20 pounds or more). What say Ye mixed with Vaseline and if so what ratio ?
Yes I am tight but if it works well why buy wax ? Yes wax is cheap (reasonably) but it aint free.
Perry

[Mescalero]

Sounds feasible, I just don't know if it will work.

[Griff]

I would say, "...try it." But... be careful of the scented ones. I don't know if the oils they use are harmful, but the guys'll laugh their rears off at the range!!!

[Ray Newman]

Somewhere in the back of mind and on a now defunct shooting/reloading site, I seem to remember a thread that talked of using candle wax as a smokeless bullet lube. If I recall correctly, responders who tried it said it did not work.

In another life I tried 1# Vaseline + 1# of paraffin + 1 tablespoon RCBS-- melted in a double boiler -- for a smokeless .32-40 Winchester load. Worked, but needed to keep velocity low to prevent leading. If you try it, add a tube of Preparation H to further shrink the groups.

And speaking of leading, the softer the alloy, the easier the lead will be to remove from the bore.

Since leading is no fun, I would suggest just buying some NRA ALOX (or a similar blend) lube, it is designed for smokeless. Sometimes, trying to save a buck costs a good deal more in aggravation, time, unsatisfactory results, and effort when trying to clean up the mess....

[Nath]

It works with olive oil as a blackpowder patch lube!

N.

[JBledsoe]

.

I use a bee's wax Crisco bullet lube, candle wax could most likely be substituted. The mix is a pan lube application. 50% beeswax, 40% Crisco, and 10% Vaseline. By weight. Melt in a double boiler and pour over the bullets......up to the crimp groove and let cool until hard. Then just push the bullets out. The bullets to be lubed must be placed base down in the pan before lube is applied. It's worked great for me.....for years.

[M. M. Wright]

My favorite homemade lube consists of toilet bowl wax and olive oil. About 90/10 by volume. Works great for black powder or smokeless. I melt it in an old electric percolator and pour it into my old Lyman sizer/lubricator. You can sometimes find the waxes for $0.99 but the newer ones have a piece of plastic in them that you have to scrape off.
Candle wax melts at a very low temp so can get hot and run off your bullets in the summer. Worse yet they stick together if stored in bulk.

[Don McDowell]

Yes it will work, will for sure work if those candles are bayberry wax. Bayberry wax was part of the Government lube back in the 1800'.
50-50 perofine wax and petroleum jelly was also a favored lube of many of the old Schuetzen shooters.
Just be sure to make your concoction in a double boiler set up so that none of the ingredients gets to hot.

[mikld]

Yes, but...

There is a pretty common home made lube called Darr Lube. It consists of 1 lb. paraffin, 1 lb/ Vaseline, and 2 tblsp. STP. Now that recipe is for plain canning paraffin and candle wax can be any thing from soy wax to paraffin to beeswax. Mix some of the candles with Vaseline in the above proportions and add bit of STP (or not) and see how well it works. You will prolly have to adjust the proportions to get the consistency/hardness you want, but it will work. I think this is the first home made lube I tried and it worked well on .44 Specials at low to medium Special velocities...

almost everything you need to know about cast bullet lube; http://castboolits.gunloads.com/forumdi ... olit-Lube-!

[Twodot]

What he said ^^^^ about Barry Darr lube.

With proper bullet fit & a gas check you can push it pretty fast (like 2000'/sec in a .357 Max carbine)
..

[Ray Newman]

As Don M. posted, the U.S. Gov't. Armory lube formula called for Bayberry wax.

However, exercise some caution when using or buying Bayberry candles: some Bayberry candles are made from Bayberry wax; others just have the Bayberry scent.

Just for my own edification, I searched for Bayberry wax. From what I found it is more expensive than beeswax and sells for about $18.00 pound. Amazon has it for $16.00 for a 14 oz. tub.

[Chuck 100 yd]

Most commercial candles are made from Paraffin wax. Not as good for bullet lube as Bees wax but used by some. I use my wife`s discarded candles to flux with and that seems to work. Bees wax ,locally, brings a pretty high price. Good thing I don`t have to use a whole lot of it a year.

[Machado]

My mix includes beeswax, a pinch of carnaúba wax, beef tallow, a dab of grease, a sprinkle of finely powdered graphite boiled together. My Lyman Lubesizer machine will not work without a hotplace, so hard this thing becomes because of the carnaúba wax.
I shoot RCBS 240 grain SWC plain base bullets in .44 mag loads flying at 1,700+ fps out of my M-92 24" Rossi rifle with no perceptible leading, ditto for Lyman's #358429 hardcasts loaded very hot in my 10" .357 mag Contender. I did try candle wax (paraffin) once and found it lacking. I reserve paraffin for fluxing my molten lead.
Antonio

[pwl44m]

I melted some together tonite. Pretty close to 50-50 candle/Vaseline with a little toilet ring to even them out and a splash of gas treatment(haven't figured out what that is for), I have seen some formulas calling for some stp oil treatment and I can see that. It is setting up now in a muffin pan. I'll see how it looks in the morning. Then of course the proof will be in the pudding, how well does it shoot and protect from leading.
Perry

[Ray Newman]

Caveat from personal experience with home-made bullet lube: the lube that works well in the cooler/cold winter months may not work well in warmer or hot weather.

[pwl44m]

Warning heeded and taken into consideration. True on temperature sensitivity but even commercial lubes share those characteristics.
I just pulled them out of the fridge a little while ago and popped them out of the molds. Will see what they look and feel like in the morning. I'm listening and so far see it as a Go.
Perry

[Charles]

I an not a fan of paraffin in bullet lubes, although some is not the kiss of death. Candle wax usually contains several different waxes of different types with some additives thrown in. Some of it works as a bullet lube base and some does not. I have used some 70% beeswax alter candles with good result, but these days most churches use candles with refillable oil cartridges inside.

The standard starting point for bullet lubricant is beeswax. This is not very expensive and is available either from a local bee keeper or online from a number of sources. I used to buy it from a saddle shop where they used it to wax the linen thread. I have a large supply here in my shop now.

As to Vaseline to soften the wax. A very old recipe for bullet lube, is beeswax with enough
Vaseline as a softener to it can be used in a lube size machine. This is what I have been using for 50 plus years. It works in all handgun and rifle loads. I have fired a million or more cast bullet with this lube and have never had any problems with it.

I have never measured the proportions, but I would guess they are about 65-35 % wax to Vaseline. These days I just go by color of the cooled mix and my finger pressed into the top of the cool mix. The proportions are not critical to it's effectives and you can always add a little more wax or Vaseline to make it the right consistency. Get it too hard and you will play hob getting it to work through the machine, to soft and it won't stay put in the bullet. between those two extremes, it is all good.

When I need more lube in the machine, I melt some and pour it in, replace the friction collar and let it cool. I never saw the purpose of making hollow sticks, but some folks like to do that with their homemade lubes.

I have never used a lube hard enough to require a heater and in fact don't have and have never used a heater. IMHO way to much us made over and about cast bullet lubricants with folks seeking some sort of holy grail of lube and folks making money selling this or that kind of goop. There are only two kinds of bullet lubricant, those that work and those that don't work. The stuff I use works.

[mikld]

Couple of thoughts; Toilet bowl wax was at one time, many years ago, made of beeswax. But now they are made of the "dregs", lowest quality stuff left over from refining petroleum. Also, yoi want to use STP oil treatment, not gasoline treatment in Darr lube, I think it's for slipperier stickier consistency...

[Chuck 100 yd]

I agree with Charles and have found that lube mix to work well. That said, I don`t like the mess and have for years just bought commercial NRA formula Alox bullet lube. It works well and is inexpensive. Several thousand bullets can be lubed with $10 worth of it.
I do use SPG lube for some bullets shot in rifles like the .38-55 and my .50-95 when duplicating BP loadings or for pan lubed soft cast for target shooting.