- Joined
- May 28, 1999
- Messages
- 2,606
I've always been searching for the "perfect lube" for my folders. After I stumbled onto militec I figured I'd just about found it, lubricating any metal to metal pivot I threw at it better than anything else. Now, the only local place I could find the stuff was a high end performance mustang shop, who sold the large 8 oz bottles. Whilst trying to clean up around the place last week I noticed I still had a crapload of it and really aught to find something else to use it on. I pop over to militec's website for some mixing ratios and whatnot and here I find they now claim it protects against corrosion 3x better than CLP. So here it is, my 3 way lube/protectant shootout, super condensed version.
Ferric Chloride (5 minutes): None of them faired particularly well, although the CLP did hold out the longest. On removal both the militec and Ballistol were about equaly etched, the CLP about half etched-half bright.
Saltwater( many days): I decided to let it soak for a good while with the saltwater, because it acts so slowly compared to the other two liquids. Militec was the first to show signs of corrosion, at the 30 minute mark. After 4 hours the militec was a dark orange brown color, Ballistol was a very light orange, and the CLP was still corrosion free. Fast forward a few days, and all the water in the dish I had the plate soaking in had dried up and left large salt crystals all over. At this point the CLP was still almost completely corrosion free with some light speckling of rust around the edges of the sample area and a very light dark spot where one particularly nasty salt crystal was. The Militec is covered in a dark flat brown surface rust, and doesnt look any different really from the unprotected parts of the plate. Ballistol fares a little better, the metal is still shiny, but it's an orange color with some visible etching in a swirl pattern (that I used to appy the oil with)
Vinegar (30 minutes): Militec was the first to show corrosion, at the 5 minute mark it had started turning grey. 30 minutes later the militec surface had turned brown, the ballistol was still bright, and the clp had become a misty grey color. Washing the plate off showed the the Militec had a light grey surface etch, the CLP a very light yellow tint, and the Ballistol was still bright.
On a side note, the vinegar soak was the only one that made two of the products, breakfree and Militec, to smell really nasty when I took them out. Ballistol didn't have a smell at all, but the Breakfree had a rancid odor to it, the Militec smelled similar, sharper but less pungent.
Overall Breakfree really came out as a far superior general protectant to ballistol and Militec, which was particularly dismal. It should be noted that I ballistol might actually perform a bit better than I indicate here. The stuff is capable of mixing with water for a while after it's dispensed, but after a while whatever allows it to do so (I'm assuming the alcohol content) evaporates. In hindsight I didn't really give it enough time to "settle" as it were, I might try this again giving each protectant an hour to evaporate volatiles so it's more representative of real world use.
*I actually did these 3 tests twice, once with the militec applied to cold metal, and the 2nd series with it applied while the metal was good and hot, as per their recommendations. The results for both runs were pretty much identical*
Ferric Chloride (5 minutes): None of them faired particularly well, although the CLP did hold out the longest. On removal both the militec and Ballistol were about equaly etched, the CLP about half etched-half bright.
Saltwater( many days): I decided to let it soak for a good while with the saltwater, because it acts so slowly compared to the other two liquids. Militec was the first to show signs of corrosion, at the 30 minute mark. After 4 hours the militec was a dark orange brown color, Ballistol was a very light orange, and the CLP was still corrosion free. Fast forward a few days, and all the water in the dish I had the plate soaking in had dried up and left large salt crystals all over. At this point the CLP was still almost completely corrosion free with some light speckling of rust around the edges of the sample area and a very light dark spot where one particularly nasty salt crystal was. The Militec is covered in a dark flat brown surface rust, and doesnt look any different really from the unprotected parts of the plate. Ballistol fares a little better, the metal is still shiny, but it's an orange color with some visible etching in a swirl pattern (that I used to appy the oil with)
Vinegar (30 minutes): Militec was the first to show corrosion, at the 5 minute mark it had started turning grey. 30 minutes later the militec surface had turned brown, the ballistol was still bright, and the clp had become a misty grey color. Washing the plate off showed the the Militec had a light grey surface etch, the CLP a very light yellow tint, and the Ballistol was still bright.
On a side note, the vinegar soak was the only one that made two of the products, breakfree and Militec, to smell really nasty when I took them out. Ballistol didn't have a smell at all, but the Breakfree had a rancid odor to it, the Militec smelled similar, sharper but less pungent.
Overall Breakfree really came out as a far superior general protectant to ballistol and Militec, which was particularly dismal. It should be noted that I ballistol might actually perform a bit better than I indicate here. The stuff is capable of mixing with water for a while after it's dispensed, but after a while whatever allows it to do so (I'm assuming the alcohol content) evaporates. In hindsight I didn't really give it enough time to "settle" as it were, I might try this again giving each protectant an hour to evaporate volatiles so it's more representative of real world use.
*I actually did these 3 tests twice, once with the militec applied to cold metal, and the 2nd series with it applied while the metal was good and hot, as per their recommendations. The results for both runs were pretty much identical*
