Experiment Murphy's Oil Soap

Reading elsewhere about suitable black powder lube, I learned that adding a small amount of Murphy's Oil Soap will tend to make a 50-40-10 lube (beeswax/crisco/olive oil) more temperature stable, I tried it on what's left of a batch of lube I made up awhile ago.

When one adds the soap to the melted lube, you gotta go slow, as the mixture is subject to a chemical reaction which causes it to expand rapidly, and foam over if you add the soap all at once.

After all cooled, I noticed that the consistency of the resulting lube was a little soft, so I added a little beeswax a little at a time, and checked the lube after cooling to ascertain the consistency.

So I thought I would share my results with you fellas. Do add the soap slowly a little at a time. The addition of soap to an already mixed batch of lube has an effect similar to having added a bit too much crisco or olive oil, and one may find himself adding a little bit more beeswax to arrive at the desired consistency.

I'll add it to the lube sizer as needs dictate. So, I haven't actually tried it yet.

Perhaps my report is a bit premature, and I haven't determined whether the temperature stability is as elsewhere reported.

I hope you're able to keep us posted. I'm thinking this might help solve a consistency issue I had a while back.

Paul Matthews has a recipe that calls for murphys oil soap in it also. I have added a small amount to my emmerts improved lube I make with good results.

The "chemical reaction" is the water in the Murphy's Oil 'soap boiling off.

Jerry Liles

Oh. That makes sense, 13Echo.

have been adding murphy's to my lube for a long time it does help and when compared to some that was stored long term that did not have it against some that did the murphy's did not dry out as bad
i shoot a lot of bp cart and my opinion is that the recipe with a little murphy's helps with less fouling and softer fouling for clean up
mule