Great information, and thank you for clear and concise reporting on results. This was a true head to head no bull evaluation of products. Exactly what we like to see
Results of gun care product evaluation
- Thread starter diyguy
- Start date
After 62 days the outdoor evaluation has concluded. This past June was one of the rainiest on record. I did not post the failure date of the last three products on the date of the failure so I could lump them together. Here are the final products to show corrosion.
Frog Lube after 54 days
Hornady One Shot after 58 days and
WD 40 Specialist at 62 days.
The indoor evaluation is still on-going.
Frog Lube after 54 days
Hornady One Shot after 58 days and
WD 40 Specialist at 62 days.
The indoor evaluation is still on-going.
Thanks for the update!
I want to bump this thread, and to say that aside from corrosion protection, WD-40 Specialist is my new favorite gun lubrication.
It's easy to put too much oil on, and with this product was impossible to put on the exact amount.
I did a thorough treatment of my new gun with this oil, and while I always put on too much and wipe it off, this is a little thicker and sticks better than gun grease, but not so thick as that.
In fact it's very hard to wipe it off.
I suggest to do what I did: tear the gun down, clean it all, spray every part and let it set up.
It gets thicker. when it does, wipe it all off. You can't, but try, and be very thorough. I went over everything with toothpicks and thin paper napkins to remove the oil.
Then squirt it again and repeat. The second coat leaves a better film, and I was really impressed at what this stuff could do as a lube.
The smoothest guns I own got smoother. They'd just been cleaned and oiled with regular gun oil, but this stuff made a real difference.
When I got done I had all these really clean rags soaked in this oil, so I used them to wipe down all the metal on the motorcycle. When used to polish metal it reminds me of Westley's Silicone Car Polish. I put it on the paint too. The chips won't rust now, but repainting will require serious cleaning LOL
It's easy to put too much oil on, and with this product was impossible to put on the exact amount.
I did a thorough treatment of my new gun with this oil, and while I always put on too much and wipe it off, this is a little thicker and sticks better than gun grease, but not so thick as that.
In fact it's very hard to wipe it off.
I suggest to do what I did: tear the gun down, clean it all, spray every part and let it set up.
It gets thicker. when it does, wipe it all off. You can't, but try, and be very thorough. I went over everything with toothpicks and thin paper napkins to remove the oil.
Then squirt it again and repeat. The second coat leaves a better film, and I was really impressed at what this stuff could do as a lube.
The smoothest guns I own got smoother. They'd just been cleaned and oiled with regular gun oil, but this stuff made a real difference.
When I got done I had all these really clean rags soaked in this oil, so I used them to wipe down all the metal on the motorcycle. When used to polish metal it reminds me of Westley's Silicone Car Polish. I put it on the paint too. The chips won't rust now, but repainting will require serious cleaning LOL
I'll bet a lot of viewers are doing a re-evaluation of their cleaning and lubrication products after viewing this detailed effort. DIYGuy, you have done us all a favour and given us something to think about. Research benefits us all and as new products evolve, evaluations and experiments like this can sure sort the wheat from the chaff. Well done and thanks.
Hey folks, I'm bumping again...
I went shopping for more oil and everyone was out of the WD-40 anti-corrosion oil. Instead I find this 10oz can which also says it protects for up to 1 year.
It seems to spray out foamy, like the original, but the smell is different. I think they figured out how to add cheaper oils and still make it work.
We will find out. I just oiled up some samples and put them on the shed roof.
Oooooooh that's an awful pic....I took it on my Kindle & the camera sux.
I went shopping for more oil and everyone was out of the WD-40 anti-corrosion oil. Instead I find this 10oz can which also says it protects for up to 1 year.
It seems to spray out foamy, like the original, but the smell is different. I think they figured out how to add cheaper oils and still make it work.
We will find out. I just oiled up some samples and put them on the shed roof.
Oooooooh that's an awful pic....I took it on my Kindle & the camera sux.
Ghmann
.270 WIN
I've been a fan of Frog Lube for at least 3 years and it's never caused me any problems. In fact, it seems to be a great lube and a decent cleaner. I use the paste as a lube and protectant, and the liquid for cleaning the bore. But there are so many stories and anecdotes on other gun forums of FL causing malfunctions, especially in cold weather and especially in 1911 firearms, that I'm starting to have second thoughts. Maybe it works for me because I don't have the extreme cold weather, nor do I have a 1911. Or maybe it's because those guys apply it too heavily without wiping off the excess. In fact, many do admit to that.
I did notice that some of my Frog Lubed firearms have a rancid smell after sitting in storage for a couple of months. They still functioned fine at the range.
I've seen a lot of those Weapons Shield videos where the guy conducts a dynamic friction test comparing many products to Weapons Shield, but the results don't jive with the tests conducted by DIYguy.
In fact they come off more like one of those infomercials as seen on TV. For example, here is Frog Lube vs Weapons Shield. Now, the guy does have a vested interest in WS, as he works for Steel Shield Technologies.
I did notice that some of my Frog Lubed firearms have a rancid smell after sitting in storage for a couple of months. They still functioned fine at the range.
I've seen a lot of those Weapons Shield videos where the guy conducts a dynamic friction test comparing many products to Weapons Shield, but the results don't jive with the tests conducted by DIYguy.
In fact they come off more like one of those infomercials as seen on TV. For example, here is Frog Lube vs Weapons Shield. Now, the guy does have a vested interest in WS, as he works for Steel Shield Technologies.
The thing about testing is you can often make a very dramatic test which appears to be completely fair and impartial, but for some non-obvious, tiny but critical important technical reason is not.
So with that in mind I'm going to do a very unscientific test here.
The WD-40 Face-Off!
So which is better the old one or the new?
(This this photo from my Galaxy smartphone was much nicer .)
This is a piece of painted sheet metal from which I wire brushed the paint, and then sanded. It's not a perfect finish but both pieces came from exactly the same metal.
I sprayed both pieces liberally. The new spray (shown on the right) is brown and very foamy. The old spray foams less and is milky white in appearance.
I stood both pieces of vertically and let any excess simply run off.
I put them on the roof of my shed and we'll see what happens.
So remember that the new formula is on the piece with two holes.
Something else to note was that the new 10-ounce can was at least $3 cheaper then the 6.8 ounce can. Right away this makes me suspect that the stuff is not as good.
Where it is now, it's exposed to full daytime sunlight and probably random bird poop and insect droppings, leaf mold...whatever.
After the stuff has had a couple days to dry (and in this current weather it will dry quickly) I'm probably going to shoot it with a spray bottle full of salt water. Maybe I'll get lucky and the cat will pee on it.
I want this to be a torture test
So with that in mind I'm going to do a very unscientific test here.
The WD-40 Face-Off!
So which is better the old one or the new?
(This this photo from my Galaxy smartphone was much nicer .)This is a piece of painted sheet metal from which I wire brushed the paint, and then sanded. It's not a perfect finish but both pieces came from exactly the same metal.
I sprayed both pieces liberally. The new spray (shown on the right) is brown and very foamy. The old spray foams less and is milky white in appearance.
I stood both pieces of vertically and let any excess simply run off.
I put them on the roof of my shed and we'll see what happens.
So remember that the new formula is on the piece with two holes.
Something else to note was that the new 10-ounce can was at least $3 cheaper then the 6.8 ounce can. Right away this makes me suspect that the stuff is not as good.
Where it is now, it's exposed to full daytime sunlight and probably random bird poop and insect droppings, leaf mold...whatever.
After the stuff has had a couple days to dry (and in this current weather it will dry quickly) I'm probably going to shoot it with a spray bottle full of salt water. Maybe I'll get lucky and the cat will pee on it.
I want this to be a torture test
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ALSO...
It was January a year ago that I put the WD corrosion inhibitor spray on my motorcycle as a corrosion inhibitor. At the time it was clean but it had not been waxed in a long while and had been sitting in my garage under a cloth. Since then, it hasn't really been cleaned since except to maybe dust it off with a rag and I've only ridden it a few times.
As far as I can tell there was been no effect on the factory paint and I haven't noticed any spots of corrosion on the motorcycle.
I mean on the paint chips and chrome stuff. I didn't crawl underneath to check out the bolts on the undercarriage.
It was January a year ago that I put the WD corrosion inhibitor spray on my motorcycle as a corrosion inhibitor. At the time it was clean but it had not been waxed in a long while and had been sitting in my garage under a cloth. Since then, it hasn't really been cleaned since except to maybe dust it off with a rag and I've only ridden it a few times.
As far as I can tell there was been no effect on the factory paint and I haven't noticed any spots of corrosion on the motorcycle.
I mean on the paint chips and chrome stuff. I didn't crawl underneath to check out the bolts on the undercarriage.
Day 7:
I climbed up on the roof of my shed to take pictures of the sheet metal. We had a nice dew every morning a little bit of frost and one minor rain. Mostly the daytime has been warm and dry.
I didn't expect any rust, and there wasn't any rust. The light brown tinge that you see is just the oil which has dried on the surface because it never all ran off.
I did see evidence of leaf bits, ordinary dust, and cat fur. I knew that the cat goes up there, but I detected no odor of urine so no luck with the cat pee test.
I did not touch the samples with my hands but they gave every appearance of wet looking oil.
I climbed up on the roof of my shed to take pictures of the sheet metal. We had a nice dew every morning a little bit of frost and one minor rain. Mostly the daytime has been warm and dry.
I didn't expect any rust, and there wasn't any rust. The light brown tinge that you see is just the oil which has dried on the surface because it never all ran off.
I did see evidence of leaf bits, ordinary dust, and cat fur. I knew that the cat goes up there, but I detected no odor of urine so no luck with the cat pee test.
I did not touch the samples with my hands but they gave every appearance of wet looking oil.
Well we're still safe from crows
Day 24 and my samples look pretty much the same except covered with dirt and leaves. I did not rub them but I blew off the loose leaves and tapped the corners, to dislodge any loose detritus.
It has rained several times here in the past 3 weeks, plus we've had some warm sunny days, so these babies have been wet and dry repeatedly.
Well there is rust forming on the undersides which were not oiled, but so far there is no rust on the top of either part.
There is a little brown looking oil still showing on the part with two holes which is the new oil formula. The other one still appears to have some milky oil. Whatever accumulation of oil there was has run to the bottom lip of each part.
Day 24 and my samples look pretty much the same except covered with dirt and leaves. I did not rub them but I blew off the loose leaves and tapped the corners, to dislodge any loose detritus.
It has rained several times here in the past 3 weeks, plus we've had some warm sunny days, so these babies have been wet and dry repeatedly.
Well there is rust forming on the undersides which were not oiled, but so far there is no rust on the top of either part.
There is a little brown looking oil still showing on the part with two holes which is the new oil formula. The other one still appears to have some milky oil. Whatever accumulation of oil there was has run to the bottom lip of each part.
Day 45:
Well so far the crows have not stolen my metal from the shed roof. Perhaps they don't like the smell of the anti-corrosion oils.
It has rained several times plus we've had quite of bit of wind blowing around dirt and leaves. In between the days have been quite conducive to rust as is evidenced by the rust on my brand new BBQ which sat outside for one week before I noticed rust where I had chipped the paint.
There was so much detritus on my samples that I decided to clean half of each sample off so I could see what was rust and what was dirt.
I used dry cotton rags and considerable finger pressure. I wiped the metal completely bare on half of each, and I did not cross-contaminate the samples. It was difficult to remove the stuff down to bare metal.
What I saw was no rust whatsoever. Neither formula seem to have an advantage in this. Unprotected areas on the backsides showed clear evidence of fresh rust There was still a goodly film of dried oil (plus dirt) on the top of each sample but the new formula was not as dry as the old to the touch when I wiped them nor after wiping, when I touched the cleaned surfaces with my bare fingers. I fully expect those areas to rust quickly.
So I stuck them back on the roof, and the test continues.
I never did the salt water spray test by the way.
Well so far the crows have not stolen my metal from the shed roof. Perhaps they don't like the smell of the anti-corrosion oils.
It has rained several times plus we've had quite of bit of wind blowing around dirt and leaves. In between the days have been quite conducive to rust as is evidenced by the rust on my brand new BBQ which sat outside for one week before I noticed rust where I had chipped the paint.
There was so much detritus on my samples that I decided to clean half of each sample off so I could see what was rust and what was dirt.
I used dry cotton rags and considerable finger pressure. I wiped the metal completely bare on half of each, and I did not cross-contaminate the samples. It was difficult to remove the stuff down to bare metal.
What I saw was no rust whatsoever. Neither formula seem to have an advantage in this. Unprotected areas on the backsides showed clear evidence of fresh rust There was still a goodly film of dried oil (plus dirt) on the top of each sample but the new formula was not as dry as the old to the touch when I wiped them nor after wiping, when I touched the cleaned surfaces with my bare fingers. I fully expect those areas to rust quickly.
So I stuck them back on the roof, and the test continues.
I never did the salt water spray test by the way.
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Cadd, when I service my cycle chain, I use WD-40 [old stuff] to clean it first then spray one of those lubes on it that is sort of waxy. I don't like liquid oils because they fling more. What do you think of that WD-40 Spray & Stay Gel Lube you have for MC service?
