FireClean lubricant fight

[The Annoyed Man]

I can't speak to the composition, but I have been using Fireclean for over a year now, and I swear by it. I like Hoppe's - particularly a little dab behind each ear - but it is not as good as Fireclean at both getting carbon off of the internal parts of an AR15, and then preventing it from burning onto the parts again. I found that it works even better than Froglube, which I also like. And while Hoppe's makes a perfectly serviceable cologne for men in small amounts, it WILL stink up a room. Fireclean is odorless. I remain married.

[Keith B]

I like Froglube http://froglube.com/ for general lubrication and Gibbs Brand http://www.gibbsbrand.net for a good penetrating oil

[puma guy]

There has got to be a tremendous profit margin on these products.

I could buy a quart of Mobile One and put 3 ozs of the stuff in a small jar and sell it for for than it cost me for the quart.

Very interesting information. Specialty lubricant base stock is usually made to specs for the purchaser and proprietary ingredients are added by the end manufacturer, We used paraffinic crude feed for some lubes and naphthenic for others. There were several processes involved to get to the lubricant stage; for instance dewaxing, deep hydro-treating and for others we used phenol and later NMP to remove unwanted constituents. Not related to guns, but we also made the base stock oil for Hawaiian Tropic tanning products. I guess you could slather some on before shooting in the sun.
We made and marketed our own lubricants, motor oils and grease with our own added proprietary ingredients. One in particular seemed like a good idea to someone in the Atlantic Richfield product development group, but turned into a marketing disaster. Anyone who used ARCO Graphite motor oil knows what I mean. We also made high purity food grade oil for food processing equipment and several grades of oil used as dust suppressants in grain elevators. There was no shelf life on these products that I recall (the feedstock was millions of years old ). While oxygen eventually has effects on hydrocarbons it would not be unusable within a year like vegetable based oils. I wouldn't want a rancid gun.

[WildBill]

The vice-president of High Standard Firearms told me that he recommends Marvel Mystery Oil for cleaning and lubricating magazines.
I still have most of the quart container that I bought several years ago.

It may smell the same, but years ago Hoppe's changed the formulation of #9. It used to contain nitrobenzene.
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has determined that nitrobenzene is possibly carcinogenic to humans.
Animal studies have reported effects on the blood and liver from exposure to nitrobenzene.
A single dose of nitrobenzene fed to male rats resulted in damage to the testicles and decreased levels of sperm.
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=531&tid=95

Dabbing behind the ears is not recommended.

[PBR]

The vice-president of High Standard Firearms told me that he recommends Marvel Mystery Oil for cleaning and lubricating magazines.

several people i know swear by mystery oil

[WildBill]

Anyone who used ARCO Graphite motor oil knows what I mean.

I remember that fiasco.

[The Annoyed Man]

A single dose of nitrobenzene fed to male rats resulted in damage to the testicles and decreased levels of sperm.
http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxfaqs/tf.asp?id=531&tid=95

Dabbing behind the ears is not recommended.

[xb12s]

I have no opinion of the stuff. I do enjoy using an odorless system myself presently. Super Lube. I stumbled on it after researching about Frog Lube a couple years back.

I saw that Larry Vickers came to the defense of Fire Clean this morning. I think he has a dog in the fight - sponsor/promoter or something. But he did bring up a few good points. 1) It's been vetted by some portions of the military already. 2) They have an organic chemist on their side too saying that the other Ph D chemist did an overly simplified analysis that proved nothing. 3) this one may be the most important - they have patents concerning their formula - which you would think they could not get if it was the same as Crisco.

I'd post/link his reponse, but it was on FB and I don't have access to that from here.

[E.Marquez]

Several points.

Interesting in that "lube" is as controversial and opinions based on "feel" more than anything else in general viewer opinion, same as in the Powersport world, auto world and likely porn industry

Through necessity I have used many different "lubes " on Auto light, medium and heavy cal weapons, Semi auto rifles, revolvers, pistols and shot guns.... From vegetable oil to just about every high priced weapon lube on the market 1985 to 2014 and plain old Break Free CLP, WD40, 30wt engine oil and many others. What I found is,,,, they all work to lube......some clean up easier, some are less water resistant, some smell, some don't....some protect better, some attract dirt and sand more.. many need a wet film, some just a barely present almost "dry" layer...and most all lubed about the same. None were miracle fixes for a weapon that had issues...If it had feeding, extracting, other cycling issues it was mostly mechanical (design, wear, damage) and high priced lube or 30wt oil made no difference.

None of that is to say some were not better then another, and after some light research, I just purchased some weapon shield to try on various pistols and a rifle or two.. But the safe queens.. they are lubed and protected with BreakFree CLP.. because I know without a doubt it works. And on a weapon I don't see very often that is my biggest need. KNOW it is protected.

[WildBill]

I have no opinion of the stuff. I do enjoy using an odorless system myself presently. Super Lube. I stumbled on it after researching about Frog Lube a couple years back.

I saw that Larry Vickers came to the defense of Fire Clean this morning. I think he has a dog in the fight - sponsor/promoter or something. But he did bring up a few good points. 1) It's been vetted by some portions of the military already. 2) They have an organic chemist on their side too saying that the other Ph D chemist did an overly simplified analysis that proved nothing. 3) this one may be the most important - they have patents concerning their formula - which you would think they could not get if it was the same as Crisco.

I'd post/link his response, but it was on FB and I don't have access to that from here.

I have no opinion of the stuff either and I don't plan on buying or using it.
The patent application states that the lube is a mixture of at least three vegetable oils with smoke points higher than 200F.
From what I can gather, the invention is supposed to reduce carbon fouling on a mechanical item.

I have not read the Facebook pages so I can't comment on them. If I read them I probably still won't comment on them.
I do have a couple comments from the information that xb12s posted.
First about their opposing chemists - go to any trial having expert witnesses and you will see experts on both sides with different opinions.
Just because you have applied for or have been issued a patent doesn't mean your product is any good or better than another product.
This patent application is for a material to prevent carbon fouling on a mechanical item.
I don't think Crisco was patented for such a purpose.

[LSUTiger]

I love the smell of Hoppe's No. 9 in the morning, it smells like victory!

I have also purchased some Militec-1 and some Slip 2000 products which I have never used because I'm still trying to kill off the Hoppe's No. 9 products that I have. Which by the way have always worked just fine in pistols/rifles/shotguns. My father used Hoppe's No. 9 and I grew up smelling that stuff. It brings back memories.

For pistols and rifles I also plan on using some high temp bearing grease as recommended by various self appointed internet gun experts.

[Charles L. Cotton]

"Ed's Red."

Chas.

[puma guy]

I have no opinion of the stuff. I do enjoy using an odorless system myself presently. Super Lube. I stumbled on it after researching about Frog Lube a couple years back.

I saw that Larry Vickers came to the defense of Fire Clean this morning. I think he has a dog in the fight - sponsor/promoter or something. But he did bring up a few good points. 1) It's been vetted by some portions of the military already. 2) They have an organic chemist on their side too saying that the other Ph D chemist did an overly simplified analysis that proved nothing. 3) this one may be the most important - they have patents concerning their formula - which you would think they could not get if it was the same as Crisco.

I'd post/link his response, but it was on FB and I don't have access to that from here.

I have no opinion of the stuff either and I don't plan on buying or using it.
The patent application states that the lube is a mixture of at least three vegetable oils with smoke points higher than 200F.
From what I can gather, the invention is supposed to reduce carbon fouling on a mechanical item.

I have not read the Facebook pages so I can't comment on them. If I read them I probably still won't comment on them.
I do have a couple comments from the information that xb12s posted.
First about their opposing chemists - go to any trial having expert witnesses and you will see experts on both sides with different opinions.
Just because you have applied for or have been issued a patent doesn't mean your product is any good or better than another product.
This patent application is for a material to prevent carbon fouling on a mechanical item.
I don't think Crisco was patented for such a purpose.

Seems everyone has a favorite lubricant. I will avoid getting tangled in this discourse by not identifying what I use for internal lube, but for protection of my stored weapons I use an old standard called Rusteprufe Chamois kit. I then place them inside silicon gun socks which also prevents damage should I bump another gun putting it in the safe. We used Rusteprufe to wipe down our display firearms in the 60's and 70's when I was selling sporting goods. We had hundreds of people handling the guns and it was the best we found to prevent rust and corrosion. I think they make a solvent also. We tried WD-40, but it would build up too much. Someone mentioned a patent on FireClean, interestingly WD-40 was not patented to prevent anyone from discovering the proprietary formula for the new product "water displacement - 40th formula".

[puma guy]

"Ed's Red."

Chas.

What vintage?

[WildBill]

Someone mentioned a patent on FireClean, interestingly WD-40 was not patented to prevent anyone from discovering the proprietary formula for the new product "water displacement - 40th formula".

I think I read somewhere that the proprietary ingredient was Crisco.