Bill, Is there any thing related to Parkers you don't know?????? David

I have no idea of the composition of Three -in-One oil in those old days but in the present day clock trade it is considered to be too short lived to be of any use. By short lived I mean that it dried out quickly. Whale based oils were the best! Their quality was based on the way they were prepared. Porpoise Head oil was the finest. Used in all fine lathes such as Watchmakers I have some left. David

I've got a bottle of whale oil I bought at a gun show in Northern Illinois about 10 years ago. If memory serves, it was out of a vintage barrel that had been found in Alaska with the original paperwork making it legal. The guy actually included a photocopy of the paperwork with each bottle. I've used a bit of it on occasion, just for the sake of nostalgia.

It's got a different odor than regular gun oil. Ever wonder what that strange smell a lot of the old trunk style gun cases seem to have is? You've got one guess......


Destry

Well, for what it is worth, Whale oil was one of the primary ingredients in the cleaning agents the military used. It was also the base for the first automatic transmission lubricants. the stuff was pretty amazing.

The main reason for this was that back in the 19th century, the refining methods used to make lubricants were not precise enough to extract the
right sized molecules that were ideal for lubrication. So what you had was a mixture of the very short chain molecules (the volatile compounds like naptha that evaporated) and the extra long chain molecules (the ones that turned to sludge) left. So after the volatile compounds evaporated, you were left with an unholy goo that dried out and crystalized

This is why synthetic lubricants don't burn off as easy. all of the molecules are the same size so they don't turn to sludge or burn off as easily.

Jim, I'm not a chemist and have wondered about synthetics and how they are manufactured. If truly synthetic, it seems to me the equivalent of oil can be created somehow. If so, shouldn't that impact "dependence on foreign oil" Just wondering and suppose slightly hijacking the discussion.

Hi Jack,

I did study Chemistry in school (which probably explains alot) but anyways During the latter part of WW II the Germans has started up several synthetic fuel depots, so it is possible to make synthetic gasoline and diesel. the only problem is cost. Think 3-4x times the cost of refined petroleum based fuels.

Synthetic motor oil is made from the same base stock as all other motor oils. They just manipulate it somehow to make the hydrocarbon chains longer and evenly saturated with hydrogen. Oil degrades by 'shearing' which is knocking the hydrogens off and by shortening the chains, whereupon it loses lubricity. Synthetic oils do not have any higher a lubricity rating then normal oils, they just keep their original rating for longer because of the longer chains so will take abuse for longer before degrading. The last gasp in refining petroleum, after everything of real use is taken off, is mineral oil. It consists of alkanes and paraffins. And I'm pretty sure that's what Ballistol is based on.