I recently discovered a cache of sperm oil among items in an estate I purchased. I know the harvesting was terminated by the ESA but what are the current reg's?

For sure, ask Baumgarten.

http://doublegunshop.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=281791&page=1



Kind Regards,

Raimey
rse

Raimey,

I tried the search function but didn't come up with your results (which I do now remember). Looks like it's still selling on Ebay for elevated prices in spite of possibly being illegal?

Thanks,
Ken

Must be a lot of guys oiling their sperm these days.

Sorry. Couldn't pass on that one.

Be Sure your Sperm Oil is genuine oil from the head of the Sperm Whale. Many, many more gallons of oil were rendered from the blubber of the whale than what came from it's head. the head oil came from the whale in liquid form while the other oils had to be rendered from the "Fat". In their day the head oils were reserved for items which need the finest of oil, while the rendered oils were primarily used as Illuminating oils. I bough some sperm oil just prior to the ban on it. It obviously was the rendered type as it gummed up everything to which it was applied, including stopping up the spout of the can I used to apply it. This was a little dome shaped can my Mother gave me, marked Singer, which came with her 1919 Singer sewing machine. She purchased it used in a pawn shop in 1935 & treadled it until 2,000. Over the vast majority of those years she oiled it with "3 in 1". Later a service man convinced her she was going to ruin it so she switched to Singer oil & of course it did not on whit better, just cost her more.

I purchased a wooden ammo box full of gun cleaning solvents, brushes, etc and in the bottom was (5)cans of the Brownell's brand of Sperm Oil.


http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Vintage-Brownells-Natural-Refined-Sperm-Oil-1-2-Pint-Tin-Can-/141728534042

Ken;
Hopefully that is the good stuff. Mine came from Dixie Gunworks.
I still have the remains of the bottle it came in, a thick layer of sludge in the bottom with liquid oil on top, but I fear to use even the liquid portion of it on anything of value. That word "Re-Fined" would be the scary part though to me. As I understand it the choice stuff needed no refining, was used just as it came from the Whale.

We used it in police engines in the 60's at Chrysler. The A134 was failing 100 % in police cars. One pint of sperm oil stopped all failures during the break in period. Great stuff!
bill

I Googled "sperm oil illegal" and found several sources that say it is illegal to sell. One article said a guy who was selling it on Ebay was fined $2000.00 by NOAA. Some sources say it is legal to posess like ivory if you can prove it is pre-ban oil. Who knows how much of a headache that would be? I wish my government worried as much about 20-some million illegal aliens being here or Hillary Clinton destroying evidence on her e-mail server.

The old German gunsmith who taught me to temper springs said it was the very best quench medium for small springs. I have read that it was used as transmission fluid in the earliest automatic transmissions and that new refining techniques had to be developed to make a suitable substitute from petroleum.

If I found 5 bottles, I'd keep my mouth shut and use it for making springs. Turning it in to the government isn't going to bring any dead whales back to life.

Modern replacement is pure Jojoba oil from better stocked cosmetic shops. Whole Foods Market carries it in the skin care cosmetic department. It has same properties as sperm whale oil w/o going rancid after extra long storage.

"Nyoil" is a great modern replacement.

"Nyoil II" is a synthetic version.

Neat history here, with roots in whaling and whale oil

http://www.nyelubricants.com/170-years

Four of the cans are full, three are sealed. The oil in the cans are translucent with a light amber color. No cloudiness, stratification or bad odors. Quite a bit of chemicals in the box also...some with Skulls & Crossbones!!

Cool find. W.W. Greener recommended sperm whale oil for his shotguns. I always wondered where someone could get it.

I can second the use of the stuff by Chrysler. If you had a muscle car with the big Dana 60 rear-end, you needed "whale oil" additive to keep all the clutch packs from whining and popping. The stuff smelled pretty horrendous when you changed the oil in that unit too.

When I was having the differential rebuilt in my current toy from that era, I went to a Dodge garage to get some. They had a good laugh when I asked for some "whale oil". Thankfully, they had a bottle of the modern replacement on hand.

If any of us ever want to wear lipstick or shave our legs, Jagermeister is the go-to guy for transgender advice.

LLoyd3,

I also had to place the whale oil additive in the Dana 60 in my 67 Charger (original 4 speed Hemi car). My brother was a parts manager for GM at the time and they sold the additive. Man I wish I still had that car!!!!!!!!!

Ken

That whale oil was crucial to locking differentials of the time. 4wd was a rarity when started hunting, that locking rear had to work!

a lot of high quality late 60s/70s vintage audio recording tapes had whale oil in their recipe also.....

I think you have him confused with Mikael from Tex'azz

Mr. Nelson: My current "whale oil" recipient. It would seem that we have similar tastes in cars.

LOL. Lloyd, here is my 68 R/T back in the day...it didn't make it past 1984.....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/18968405@N03/21175745021/in/dateposted-public/

[img]https://www.flickr.com/photos/18968405@N03/21175745021/in/dateposted-public/[/img]

GregSY:

I should have long-ago outgrown this old artifact. I've had it for nearly 20-years now. It was all there, but it wasn't in great shape when I got it, and it really wasn't very expensive to fix it up and keep it. It is more art to me now than anything (God knows the new stuff is much faster and safer).

Well...the new stuff lacks the soul of the old stuff, for sure.

Plus, don't let your wife hear you express that sentiment! LOL.

Been off dove hunting all weekend. Can't believe you guys are still posting on this thread; I suspect it might be some kind of fixation...Geo

Naw, it got hi-jacked into automotive stuff. We're all done.