Ed Harris
posted this
25 February 2009
Followup on Grant's Lubricants 101 article:
http://www.grantcunningham.com/blog_files/category-gunsmithing.html>http://www.grantcunningham.com/blogfiles/category-gunsmithing.html
"A grease which is readily available in less than 35 gallon drums is USDA H1 rated “food machinery grease."
This is clear, colorless, odorless, tasteless and nontoxic. Its purpose is for lubricating food processing machinery used in which “incidental contact with food is possible.” It is manufactured from pure USP mineral oil with a calcium hydroxy stearate thickener. Amoco FG was the particular brand I bought 20 years ago and which am still using, because a pound lasts a long time.
Any food service supply house or the W.W. Grainger catalog can locate USDA H1 rated grease in pound cartridges used for charging grease guns. They cost only a few bucks.
This stuff provides good corrosion protection, because it is intended to resist hot water wash-out, steam and salt spray. It shows four-ball wear scar results comparable to good lithium wheel bearing grease and is suitable for use on ferrous or nonferrous parts, brass, aluminum, plastics, stainless steel, even wooden rollers!
I was introduced to “food grease” by the late Harry J. Archer, a clandestine services officer. Para-milittaries in remote regions need lubricants which keep their equipment working in hot-wet, jungle environments, which have no tell-tale odor which gives their presence away to an enemy only a few feet away. Long range patrols may have to operate for weeks in hostile environments where potable water is scarce and troops will not be able to bathe frequently. Harry got this tip from Col. John George, (USA, Ret.) author of Shots Fired In Anger, and CBI veteran who served with Merrill in Burma. In RVN the MACV had to re-learn much lost field and tradecraft from these old WWII farts.#
73 de KE4SKY In Home Mix We Trust From the Home of Ed's Red in "Almost Heaven" West Virginia