Polishing barrel

@ThomasT --=--
"Burlite". What exactly is Burlite for us rookies that have never heard of this product please?
Google turns up Burlington, Burlite Medical, etc.
Might it be this stuff from Blackhawk Industrial....https://www.bhid.com/product/bhid-spc-638464
Thank you!

mike
Hello @Revoman

Burlite is a "penetrating" / "home & shop" / Non Acid light oil and may be hard to find. Look up Burlite Industries in Bryan, Texas. I use to own Burlite and sold to an organization located in Bryan, Texas and is the last address that I have for them.

I still have a stock of pint cans and save it for my guns and special projects because it is Non Acid.

ThomasT
Burlite.1.jpg
 
Just as a point of clarification: "Firelapping" is firing projectiles embedded with lapping compound down the bore. It is *not* the process shown in the linked video, which is simply "lapping". I consider "lapping" worthwhile (particularly in airguns) and consider "firelapping" a last-ditch resort to trying to make a powder-burner with a lousy barrel shoot acceptably.

GsT
Well, I'd disagree with that. My brand new replacement 357 texan for the one I bought which was 100% non-functional out of the box, was the most pitted, garbage barrel I have seen in my life going back to the 1970's. I took out nearly 2/1000 firelapping coarse grit to get the barrel somewhat near smooth, finished with medium and finally fine compound firelapping. If not for firelapping it would have taken ages to take out all the metal that needed to come out.
I tried to get my money back before messing with it, not possible. Needless to say, I hate airforce with a passion.
 
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I did run across a forum called , doublegunshop. https://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=271527&page=all
A member named "docbill" claimed to have bought the rights to Burlite and sold it for 20 years. The post was from 2003. He offered to ship some to forum members if they asked for it. Not sure if anyone did, the thread is 3 pages long and when I tried to forward the page, it runs the same page 1 over again....
I then found it in a 2012 thread (same forum) that included "docbill" as a Mr. W.E. Boyd. There was no participation by Mr. Boyd in that thread however.
The actual topic was about Oil of Wintergreen, another product that is supposed to work well, along with ZEP 95 and Mouse Milk?
Gonna look up ZEP95 and Mouse Milk now....stay tuned!

mike
 
Hi Thomas, can you elaborate on that?

I generally use Hoppe’s #9 but I know a few guys who have used WD-40 for long enough to have noticed many times over if it has any potential to cause corrosion. I spent a few minutes searching and so far haven’t found even a claim that WD-40 is acidic, let alone any credible evidence of it.

I ran across this article by Wired Magazine where they had a lab run gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy analysis on it, but I’m not sufficiently familiar with the named components to know if any are regarded as acidic:

https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/
 
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Hi Thomas, can you elaborate on that?

I generally use Hoppe’s #9 but I know a few guys who have used WD-40 for long enough to have noticed many times over if it has any potential to cause corrosion. I spent a few minutes searching and so far haven’t found even a claim that WD-40 is acidic, let alone any credible evidence of it.

I ran across this article by Wired Magazine where they had a lab run gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy analysis on it, but I’m not sufficiently familiar with the named components to know if any are regarded as acidic:

https://www.wired.com/2009/04/st-whatsinside-6/
Hello again @nervoustrig

I have not seen a chemical analysis of WD-40 so I cannot denote any specific ingredient. However I was told by a gun smith many years ago that he had done some machining on a barrel and had used WD-40 as the cooling agent. He left the barrel in the lathe that evening and the next morning he noticed a very fine film of rust where he had machined.

As you have already stated, I also have not seen any "published" article addressing any issues with WD-40 being or having any acidic properties.

With that stated, I took all of my guns ( high end PB's ) to this smith for tuning and simply used other accepted "gun oils" form then on.

ThomasT
 

@ThomasT --=--​

The Blackhawk site doesn't show a picture of the product and is called "Cleaner Solvent Burlite per pint". Doesn't seem like the right product to me.
I used their search with "Burlite Home and Shop Oil" no dice.
I'll keep searching and letcha know if I find it.
Thanks again for the help!

mike
Caster Oil is a low acid oil
 
Is WD-40 actually corrosive or is it just not very effective at inhibiting rust?

Based on the 46-product test linked here, it offers at least some modest short-term protection.

My guess is the anecdotal evidence about wiping down with WD-40 not preventing rust has more to do with it being unable to sufficiently neutralize the acid or encapsulate the salts transferred from human hands to the steel surfaces we touch.

I’ve never done any rigorous tests but my casual observations are consistent with WD-40 not being very good at preventing rust on external (touch) surfaces. Kroil seemed to be even worse. But I’ve used them both off and on for bore cleaning for a decade and not once have I encountered any hint of orange or brown flash rust on patches. So based on the corrosion test above and my own observations, I’m not inclined to think WD-40 can be regarded as corrosive. Or if it is, it is less corrosive than the atmosphere around us…which from my perspective means it is non-corrosive.

FWIW, all of my problems with rust on touch surfaces went away when I started using Frog Lube. I don’t even bother doing the heating they recommend…I just use a scrap of T-shirt with some worked into it and rub it on. Seems to work so well that I’ve gotten pretty lax about reapplying it. I’m sure it will reach out and bite me at some point.