Olive oil, not just for salad anymore.

[Adirondack Jack]

The recent thread about replacements for sperm whale oil contained a comment that olive oil is a NON-DRYING oil.  Those who have used some of the modern super oils will note that some tend to disappear after a while, leaving metal vulnerable.  Further, if used as a soaking agent, eventually will dry up and add to the surface gunk instead of loosening it.

I have a little project I've been working on lately, trying to GENTLY debride century old crud from a Rolling block.  Such parts as barrel bands are really funky, yet because they are pretty soft iron, I don't want to get aggressive with them.  The barrel has a nice patina, but I'd like to GENTLY loosen some of the crud leaving a lesser, but still attractive patina behind.  Understand this gun is a shooter, but is also a complete original example, lacking only the original bayonet, so I didn't wanna go nuts on it.

Enter the bottle of olive oil the wife uses to cook with.

I wet down the barrel bands as an experiment, and left them to soak for a couple of days.  Much of the hard crud on the insides had softened, and some actually came off with just a paper towel.  Encouraged, I brushed the pieces with a nylon brush in a dremel, and got a controllable reduction, leaving as much or as little "patina" behind as desired.  On the outside of the barrel, I wet it with olive oil, and simply rubbed it down with a dry paper towel once a day, then reapplied the olive oil.  I can literally take away an even "layer" of crud, yet leave the patina of a lovely antique behind, and have no fear of rust when shooting it.

So, with this info, I was talking with a fellow with a new inline muzzle loader the other day.  He's got one of those $199  specials with the plastic stock and rough exterior with cheezy bluing.  I told him I think I'd yank it out of the stock and give it a good slobber of olive oil, wipe it off with a paper towel, and restock it.  he's fixing to hunt with it, so let's see how it works out. 

[Hemlock Mike]

PLEASE DON'T WASTE GOOD EV OLIVE OIL FOR THIS !!!!!
Use the cheap stuff !! 

Mike

[Adirondack Jack]

Oh yeah, I just used cooking grade

If I was gonna soak parts by immersion, I'd get the stuff ya can buy by the 5 gallon can, sludge grade

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[Delmonico]

Never tried it on guns, but I do know that olive oil is the best thing by far to both season cast iron cookware with and to maintain the seasoning with.   As for the expensive stuff, I never buy it, it has no flavor.