A few thoughts on lubricants for firearms.
First, hinge pin lubrication requires a high pressure lubricant for best performance. These lubricants are typically high viscosity fluids such as bearing greases with special additives to prevent metal to metal contact - in a bearing during rotation or in a double during firing. Oils will not provide effective protection during firing over a long period of time. If you look at the specs for Mobil One bearing grease, it indicates that it has additives to “impart extreme pressure properties” which is what you are looking for in a bearing or hinge pin grease.
PTFE is a solid as stated earlier in this thread and is actually a micro sphere of PTFE (Teflon) suspended in a carrier. In an aerosol can, it is typically a volatile carrier, in liquids it is the “oil” component. These work by providing a large number of these micro spheres to the pressure surfaces where they are deposited as a film of sorts. This only happens with pressure so if you spray the material on and wipe it off, it is likely you have taken most of the PTFE off in your cloth. It does not bond to the surface without extremely high temperatures or some pressure to cause the polymer to conform to the metal surface.
Precision surfaces with relatively low to no impact force, such as sears, ejectors, etc can be lubricated with a light oil to provide appropriate separation of the metal surfaces. Grease will also work but not as effectively as a lower viscosity oil for this application.
In all of these gun lubrication scenarios, if you leave the grease/oil on the gun to accumulate grit, you have made a wonderful polishing compound. Over time, this will slowly erode the precision fitted surfaces and make them out of tolerance. The way to resolve this is to clean the surfaces each time you use the gun and replace the layer with a clean layer. Certainly modern lubricants can absorb some level of contamination and still function but, at least for my guns, a cheap “clean and replace” of the lubricant is the best approach.
For those curious, I use STOS for all high pressure bearing surfaces and Break Free for all sliding surfaces with low pressure and I replace the lubricant each time I use the gun.
Thanks
Z
