well, looking at the ed's red and how less expensive chemicals like the wd-40 and other rust inhibitors and what not work.. i'm actually considering buying some of the basic chemicals used for lubricating, cleaning, and protecting metals and maybe develop my own cocktail that works and also try out ed's red too and see how tweaking different quantities of different chemicals changes its properties relative to ed's red
i think a light weight motor oil like 0w-20 or 5w-20 mixed with a corrosion inhibiting additive would work well for a general purpose lubricant/protector while chemicals like acetone, mineral spirits, or kerosene make good solvents for cleaning.. i may work up a general purpose solvent cocktail for cleaning lead, carbon, copper, and plastic fowling while using the light weight oil mixed with STP or other corrosion inhibitors as a corrosion preventing lubricating oil and when i have each component fine tuned where i like them, maybe even mix my new solvent/lubricants for my own CLP
what this means now is i'll be doing some of my own unbiased tests on how each chemical performs on various cleaning or lubricating tasks, take up a crash course in chemistry circulating solvents and lubricants and see what i can come up with.. i like experimenting with just about anything, this could be an entertaining endeavor.. i will focus on common, inexpensive, easy to find chemicals to keep the costs low and the recipe simple
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until then ill probably just use hoppes #9 solvent for cleaning and oil for lubricating and protecting, or try out the birchwood casey product i posted above, i've used their bluing products and stock finishing supplies in the past and found them to make a quality product..
my concerns with wd-40 specialist is how well does it lubricate after its dried?
another question i have.. is hoppes #9 boresnake gun oil a CLP/3-in-1 kind of cleaner/lubricator or is it just oil requiring a separate cleaner likes hoppes other products?.. i have a two sided metal can that came when i bought my mosin nagant to store a separate cleaner and solvent in each side