What did the Old Time Pirates of the 1400,1500,1600,1700 Centuries use for Firearms Lube & Cleaning?

[Cam1988]

I Love history but i just cannot find any info anywhere in books or online (how is that possible) on what Pirates of the 1400,1500,1600,1700 Centuries used to Clean and Lubricate their Firearms? Now for them being at Sea for a while they obviously needed to keep a supply of whatever they used for the Firearm Lube? I am guessing they used water and had to boil it for Cleaning? Not sure what other Cleaning agents/Chemicals or what they used for Cleaning? Not sure what they had available during those Centuries???

Being at sea i imagine those Firearms they had were really susceptible to corrosion.

I know they had Flintlock Pistols,Rilfes and Cannons I wonder how and what they used to clean those Cannons? Cannons probably did not get any kind of Lube right?

Me I use CLP and Ballistol (No i am not being paid to say that LOL).

 

[herrwalther]

I am not a historian by any stretch. But I would imagine they used animal based fats and lard.

 

[sbwaters]

I’d guess, because tolerances were not an issue, they would be more concerned with rust and would use what they had available -- vegetable oils and oils from the kill they used as food. Nothing went to waste.

 

[Ramone]

Probably the same stuff my grandfather claimed was the best-

Whale Oil.

This makes a brief mention of it being used as a firearm lubricant and preservative:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_oil

 

[Jim Watson]

Whale oil on the good stuff.
Slush - the lard and tallow cooked out of sea rations of salt pork and beef - on the ordinary guns and gear.

 

[sbwaters]

For the early firearms, sperm oil was too expensive. A luxury good. Certainly it was used as whaling developed.

 

[Geordie]

A friend of mine researched a gun grease made of bees wax, olive oil,lead salts, and naphtha. I just use wax and oil.

 

[Sunray]

Fifteenth(1400's) to about the early 17th Century(1600's) firearms were mostly bronze. Iron guns came later(late 1600's) and were made by bell makers. Cleaned with fresh water that wasn't necessarily fit to drink, but that's what was available. Long gun and hand gun patches were lubed with animal fat.
Firearms in the 1400's were very crude things. Matchlocks only for the military well into the 1600's. First ones appeared around 1475. Ottoman Empire(Turkey) had 'em in the 1440's though. No flinters at all until the early 1600's. And only if you had money.

 

[entropy]

Urine would counteract corrosives in BP. It was used for many things before the Industral Age, including washing clothes and tanning hides and leather. Villages had barrels that tanners left out for men to pee in, the tanners would collect them when full.

If they bothered to boil water, it was either used in food or drank. Cannon were not lubed, just cleaned out with water and dried as best as possible. They were not loaded until needed. The longer a BP gun is kept loaded, the more likely it will misfire; this is highly weather dependent. At sea, the Marines would discharge their muskets and clean and reload at regular intervals. The best source for such info for the times would be historical accounts of sea battles of the time (Spanish Armada, Trafalgar, early US Naval history.)

 

[luger fan]

Interesting read here. Lots of varied knowledge on this site.

 

[Jim Watson]

a

Urine would counteract corrosives in BP.

Urine is water. It will wash out the soluble salts left by black powder and, in the percussion era, chlorate primers. That is all the "counteracting" needed.
As late as 1948, John Taylor said that you don't need a lot of water to clean a gun, half a cup per barrel will do. If in a dry camp, you probably have a little coffee left in the pot; and, come down to it, you always have with you something that is mostly water.

 

[CapnMac]

Windage was a thing. The "Brown Bess" was a bit of a marvel (for about 200 years) for having a circa 0.75" bore for circa 0.73" ball.

Cannon were not much different, other than in scale. A 24 pounder was bored about 4.3" for a 4.05" ball. (Pirates rarely had much larger than 4 pounders; nor needed much larger--a bit over 1".) Iron cannon were painted with a black lacquer-like paint to prevent corrosion. Naval lore holds that pirates largely shot rust out of their bores--but, that's likely biased reporting

Naval practice of the day would double-wad the guns (wads were wood, or compressed wood fibers, greased in tallow) to keep the rounds from rolling out as the ship heeled back and forth. Small arms, particularly swivel guns, and muskets in the mast-tops, were wrapped in wadding (later cartridge paper) to keep the ball in as the barrels were tipped down.

From contemporary accounts, pirates used "tip, rap, bang" (tip barrel up, add powder and ball; give a smack to seat; then fire) to keep up speed in firing. Not much need for lube in such a case.

It's also good to remember that pirates were a criminal class, if their weapons seized up, they could just steal more, or die trying.

 

[RPZ]

Whale oil and lard/tallow.