Thursday, August 9, 2012

Trying out FrogLube

It seems that I am late to the FrogLube party as I am not one to get sucked into the hype and jump on the band wagon. What made me decide to try it was when I recently had some 20th century rust from my Colt 1901 spread to my 21st century 1911 (built circa 2010) and it was the sudden spread of rust on the 1911 that made me want to try the FrogLube paste in hopes of better preserving the pistols in storage.

There are mountains of articles and videos on how to apply the stuff that extol the benefits and virtues of FrogLube and what piqued my interest was when I was reading up on how the paste is dynamic in a sense that it exists in various states depending up on the climate. I typically oil and coat my guns with G96 which I love and really haven't found a better performing lubricant. G96 is stable across various temperatures and climates that we experience in the Northeast and what I wanted in addition is something that did not evaporate off of the gun as quickly. FrogLube's instructions state that the gun should be heated up before applying and the idea is to allow the lubricant to penetrate the metal deeply for a lasting protection against things like corrosion and this is the part that made me finally order the stuff.

I bought it off of Amazon (if you haven't gotten a prime membership yet, invest; it's worth it) and arrived in one day. I tear into the package to find application instructions, the paste and the liquid, cloth and applicator brush. Up on opening the paste jar I take a wiff of it to smell the mint smell that everyone speaks of it and here is what it smells like: Pepto-bismol.


I heat my 1911 frame and slide up with my heat gun until it's a bit more than warmer to touch and brushed on the FrogLube. It brushed on easier than I expected being a paste and as it hit the warmed metal, it appeared to melt right away and I continue to apply heat via the heat gun to let the stuff penetrate the metal.

My 1911 field stripped prior to heating and application

Ye olde trusty heat gun

The entire process took maybe twenty minutes to coat the frame, slide, barrel, as well as small parts from the field strip. When I put it back together, the slide felt a little rough to rack so I added some of the liquid FrogLube to the slide rails with a toothpick and it was slick as goose shit in no time. I placed the now coated 1911 back near my 1901 to see if the rust will spread again and if it does, if it is at a reduced rate, area, etc.

My 1911 reassembled

Perhaps I should try coating my AR BCG with FrogLube...

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