Tina848 ...
"Hi...hubby is a big gun guy, I am a chemist who did analytical testing at a lubricant company. ALL vegetable based oils will look the same with an FTIR and NMR analysis. The only way to differentiate is to use a Mass Spec. I would have run either LCMS or GCMS to separate out all the oil from the additive package. It is the additive package is what makes the difference among products - it will always be 98% vegetable oil based or mineral oil based. This is not just true of the firearms industry, but of all industrial lubricants and pharma grade lubricants. All the same stuff - we just dyed them different colors. This technology has been around since WWII when the synthetic vegetable based lubricants were produced due to a petroleum shortage. It is usually Canola (Rapeseed) oil reacted with an acid to form a grease like compound, but other veggie oils can be used."
John Keene ...
"Also Ian from Forgotten Weapons used it as cooking oil for frying an egg and didn't have any bad reactions too it."
Tina848 ...
"That is because there is only a small amount of additives in the product. Much like 1% cortisone you buy for a bug bite. The other 99% is either petrolatum (vaseline) or veggie based lubricant. (technical term is Aliphatic Hydrocarbon) A small amount ingested wouldn't hurt you. Mineral oil is used as a laxative and is sold in a drug store, it is also a lubricant for metal. All the same stuff."
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Don't cook with it. While it is a grease, it is not a food grade grease. That means no one filters it for dirt, bugs, or other nasties. There is no treatment for bacteria like E.Coli or Listeria. You could get sick. Plus, if you burn off all the grease, you are left with the additive chemicals, which CAN and WILL make you ill if you ingest too much. Anti-fungals and Biocides are added to most vegetable based lubricants - not for human consumption. They will not be tolerated well in a high concentrated dose
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When Hubby explained the issue, I was surprised the people who did the analysis did such a shoddy job. They should have known better or at least explained the results better. All this hand-wringing and legal issues could have been prevented. A tiny bit of research into industrial lubricants would have also explained everything. This is nothing new, it is used in so many forms. I started work as a food chemist and went to work for a lubricant company....you know why? It is the same processes. Same as cosmetics too. The only different is the cleanliness and purity of the raw materials and what you add to the medium. You can add color, flavors, chemicals, or anything else.