- Joined
- May 18, 1999
- Messages
- 1,708
Last year I tested some knife/gun lubes for their rust-prevention properties and had some requests for others. After scouring the interwebs for those others and buying some, here is that test. Similar to the first test, I am using welding steel since it seems to rust pretty easily. I used a sheet of steel instead of the hot rolled bars, as the sheet of steel was more affordable for the 13 lubricant combinations I'm testing.
The lineup:
Prolix/BlueLube CLP
Prolix/BlueLube Lubricant
Prolix/BlueLube CLP + Lubricant (the recommended way to treat knives)
Tuff-Glide/Cloth (Tuff-Glide applied and then rubbed in with the Tuff-Cloth)
Marine Tuff-Cloth
3-in-1 oil (I've had more than a couple people on different forums mention they use this as a rust preventative)
Breakfree CLP (the gold standard)
Nano-Oil
Weaponshield
Eezox (shown in other tests to be as good or better than Breakfree CLP)
Froglube (thanks to nja4k for the sample tube!)
WD-40
Mineral Oil (lots of folks use it on kitchen knives as a food safe product. Plus, it's the main ingredient of Ballistol, which I've had lots of folks ask about)
I was going to include the Disotec XFR, but ran out of steel sample pieces. It performed miserably with tap water in the first test, and I was going to use it as a reference since I ended up throwing out my Militec-1 after it's horrendous performance with tap water. The XFR is also headed for the trash can. I changed how I did this test, however, so it's inclusion was pointless. For this test, I cut 2" X 4" pieces of welding steel from a sheet, sanded them with 80grit sandpaper with my palm sander to remove any scale, then cleaned them with Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner and steel wool to remove any possible surface corrosion/rust and leave it chemically clean. Then each plate was wiped down with denatured alcohol to remove any remaining residue.
I coated one plate with one product, using enough to leave a visibly wet finish, but not saturated. For the Tuff-Glide/Cloth, I applied drops of the Tuff-Glide and then rubbed it in with the Tuff-Cloth. I don't have any Marine Tuff-Glide, so I rubbed the Marine Tuff-Cloth over the plate, but didn't get all that much on the plate (I think I need to recharge my cloth). I was cautious to not snag my cloth on the slightly rough edges, so application may not have been the best. The WD-40 was sprayed on and excess allowed to drip off. The Prolix/BlueLube Cleanser (CLP) is almost like water, so I saturated two plates and allowed the excess to run off. One one of those I then applied the Prolix/BlueLube Lubricant, which is much thicker. The Lubricant-only plate was covered in the same manner as plates for the other products. The Froglube was applied to a hot plate, as the instructions recommend using heat to apply the paste.
After coating each plate, I stuck them in slots in a 2X4, and sprayed them with a saline solution consisting of 1tsp of iodized sea salt in 8oz of water. This is about twice the concentration of isotonic saline, or blood. It more closely imitates sweat on a hot summer day in Kansas (at least my sweat is that way). Subsequent applications of water were straight tap water (because I forgot to mix up the salt water). After spraying everything, I left the contraption to sit overnight. Within 12 hours there was noticeable change, and the first photo was taken approximately 18hrs after initial spraying. Just like the first test, the photo shows the best side of the plate to assume a better application of the lubricants.
The results for Day 1:
The rectangle at the bottom is where the wood rubbed on the plate and likely removed the lubricant and kept the salty water in more prolonged contact with the steel. This is the only explanation I can think of why there is such a similar spot on all of the plates.
By Day 2, every plate but one had rust on it to some degree, not counting the spot where it sits in the wood. I'll let y'all guess which one that is. I was going to post a Day 3 photo but the weather didn't permit it due to the storm.
Day 4... we interrupt this regularly scheduled rust test due to the April ice storm that deposited a nice thick coating of ice on the experiment with 27º temperatures instead of the typical 65º weather.
And now, a word from our sponsor, Punxsutawney Phil:
Day 5 photo will be posted Thursday evening when things have thawed out and I get back in town.
The lineup:
Prolix/BlueLube CLP
Prolix/BlueLube Lubricant
Prolix/BlueLube CLP + Lubricant (the recommended way to treat knives)
Tuff-Glide/Cloth (Tuff-Glide applied and then rubbed in with the Tuff-Cloth)
Marine Tuff-Cloth
3-in-1 oil (I've had more than a couple people on different forums mention they use this as a rust preventative)
Breakfree CLP (the gold standard)
Nano-Oil
Weaponshield
Eezox (shown in other tests to be as good or better than Breakfree CLP)
Froglube (thanks to nja4k for the sample tube!)
WD-40
Mineral Oil (lots of folks use it on kitchen knives as a food safe product. Plus, it's the main ingredient of Ballistol, which I've had lots of folks ask about)
I was going to include the Disotec XFR, but ran out of steel sample pieces. It performed miserably with tap water in the first test, and I was going to use it as a reference since I ended up throwing out my Militec-1 after it's horrendous performance with tap water. The XFR is also headed for the trash can. I changed how I did this test, however, so it's inclusion was pointless. For this test, I cut 2" X 4" pieces of welding steel from a sheet, sanded them with 80grit sandpaper with my palm sander to remove any scale, then cleaned them with Blue Wonder Gun Cleaner and steel wool to remove any possible surface corrosion/rust and leave it chemically clean. Then each plate was wiped down with denatured alcohol to remove any remaining residue.
I coated one plate with one product, using enough to leave a visibly wet finish, but not saturated. For the Tuff-Glide/Cloth, I applied drops of the Tuff-Glide and then rubbed it in with the Tuff-Cloth. I don't have any Marine Tuff-Glide, so I rubbed the Marine Tuff-Cloth over the plate, but didn't get all that much on the plate (I think I need to recharge my cloth). I was cautious to not snag my cloth on the slightly rough edges, so application may not have been the best. The WD-40 was sprayed on and excess allowed to drip off. The Prolix/BlueLube Cleanser (CLP) is almost like water, so I saturated two plates and allowed the excess to run off. One one of those I then applied the Prolix/BlueLube Lubricant, which is much thicker. The Lubricant-only plate was covered in the same manner as plates for the other products. The Froglube was applied to a hot plate, as the instructions recommend using heat to apply the paste.
After coating each plate, I stuck them in slots in a 2X4, and sprayed them with a saline solution consisting of 1tsp of iodized sea salt in 8oz of water. This is about twice the concentration of isotonic saline, or blood. It more closely imitates sweat on a hot summer day in Kansas (at least my sweat is that way). Subsequent applications of water were straight tap water (because I forgot to mix up the salt water). After spraying everything, I left the contraption to sit overnight. Within 12 hours there was noticeable change, and the first photo was taken approximately 18hrs after initial spraying. Just like the first test, the photo shows the best side of the plate to assume a better application of the lubricants.
The results for Day 1:
The rectangle at the bottom is where the wood rubbed on the plate and likely removed the lubricant and kept the salty water in more prolonged contact with the steel. This is the only explanation I can think of why there is such a similar spot on all of the plates.
By Day 2, every plate but one had rust on it to some degree, not counting the spot where it sits in the wood. I'll let y'all guess which one that is. I was going to post a Day 3 photo but the weather didn't permit it due to the storm.
Day 4... we interrupt this regularly scheduled rust test due to the April ice storm that deposited a nice thick coating of ice on the experiment with 27º temperatures instead of the typical 65º weather.
And now, a word from our sponsor, Punxsutawney Phil:
Day 5 photo will be posted Thursday evening when things have thawed out and I get back in town.
I don't have my shop anymore so I won't be making anything, I'll try to remember to grab it the next time I'm over there. Could do some limited testing anyway.