Almost Off Topic

[subdjoe]

At a re-enactment a few weeks ago I was standing at the gun talking with people and someone asked about the bucket, "Is that a grease bucket?"  "Nope, a water bucket."  And followed with why the water bucket.   Then a person asked "What kind of grease would have been used as axle grease?"  To which I replied, "Uuuhhhh....good question, I'll have to do some research. Thank you."

So far I haven't been able to find anything that pins it down.  So, ladies and gentlemen, what the heck DID get used for axle grease on guns, limbers, and caissons during the Civil War?  Tallow?  Lard?  Some sort of petroleum product?

[rampa room artillery]

due to the time period i am going with whale. greese.

[Max Caliber]

The Ordnance Manual of 1863 calls for hog lard or tallow. Probably the same stuff that was use to lubricate the very first wheel.

[seacoastartillery]

     Just as Max wrote, animal lard or tallow was for this purpose.  Although hog or beef tallow was used extensively for lubricating field artillery wheels, it had to be renewed quite frequently, so sometime later the name of the bucket changed to TAR BUCKET.  A substance called 'Pine Tar' was used even though it was sticky and stained anything it touched.  It's admirable quality was endurance.  It lasted a long time and caused frequent halts for re-greasing to be largely a thing of the past.

     If you have ever made your own charcoal from a resinous wood such as pine, you probably have noticed that black sticky stuff called "Pine Tar' was produced in addition to the charcoal.  You even get a little from the carbonization of cottonwood an excellent wood for gunpowder charcoal.  The old-time industrial process added a 'carbonization under pressure' factor, greatly increasing the yield of  tar VS charcoal.

Tracy

[dan610324]

if you go a little longer back in time they used snails as grease

[subdjoe]

Thank you all.  I'll have to find that 1863 manual. 

ADDED:

Found it:

http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24341346M/The_ordnance_manual_for_the_use_of_the_officers_of_the_Confederate_States_Army

[gulfcoastblackpowder]

You can find the 1863 Confederate manual and the 1862 Union manual online, which you can download in PDF form. 

Duke University archives is one source:
1862:
http://www.archive.org/details/ordnancemanualfo00unitrich

1863:
http://www.archive.org/details/ordnancemanualfo00conf

[seacoastartillery]

if you go a little longer back in time they used snails as grease   

     Your description of ‘snail grease’ brings up some mental images, Dan, none of them are pleasant.  In fact only one word comes to mind when thinking about snail grease and that is the word that my grandson, now 4, uses when ever grandma or grandpa tries to get him to eat a new vegetable.  He says, with lips curled,  “That’s Disgusting!”  Dan, my question for you is this:  How do you herd the snails so that they form parallel lines all around the axle ends just before the wheel hubs are slammed back on? 

     There is only one GBO member that I can think of who could possibly be capable of herding snails.  His moniker is Cat Whisperer.  I know it’s dangerous to assume anything, but listen, who among us has a better chance?  If you can herd cats, why not snails as well?

Tracy

P.S.  The Paulson Bros. Ordnance Corp. have been offering two styles of field artillery buckets since the 70s via ads in the Artilleryman Magazine which are 'Sponge Buckets' and 'Tar Buckets'.  They are widely known for the Artillery and implements they sell which are exclusively from the Civil War era, not the Revolutionary War, War of 1812, Spanish-American War, WWI or WWII. 

[Cat Whisperer]

I'm not sure about snails.

However, it is my theory that when the pyramids were built, since it was rainforrest at the time, that they used slug slime to lubricate the massive stones.  NOTHING is stickier nor slicker that deep forrest slug slime.

[subdjoe]

if you go a little longer back in time they used snails as grease

That is actually false.  What was used was actually the leftover clarified butter and garlic in which the snails were cooked.   

[keith44]

if you go a little longer back in time they used snails as grease

That is actually false.  What was used was actually the leftover clarified butter and garlic in which the snails were cooked.   

Ok you're fixin to see yeaterdays lunch

[dan610324]

butter and garlic was just used by the frog eaters ;-)

the snails is true
in the hubs there was a hole where they put the snails
then they used a small wooden dowel to press them down so they came in between the wooden axle and the hole in the hub
if you ever crushed a snail sometime you know how slippery that mess is

[Cannoneer]

butter and garlic was just used by the frog eaters ;-)

Man oh man, Dan! I knew that some regarded you 'Northeners' as barbaric at that time in history, but I didn't realize that your ancestors were actually canabalizing Frenchmen.

[keith44]

all that escargo gone to axle grease, those poor frenchies must have nearly starved during that time period.   

[dan610324]

no they didnt starve , we didnt take their frogs