schnips
NES Member
I read something a couple months ago where someone was speculating that FrogLube was nothing more than scented coconut oil, based solely on the fact that ants had infested his Beretta M92 that he had lubed with FrogLube. Well, as it happens, my brother is working on his Chemistry PHD at UConn and has access to all manner of analytical equipment, so when I asked him about testing it, using the Vuurwapen Blog Fireclean analysis as an example, he said, "Oh yeah, that'd be easy."
Well, he couldn't get the IR Spectrometer running for a while. He needed the drivers for the machine and the company took forever to get back to him. In the mean time, Andrew Tuohy at Vurrwapen Blog released another analysis focusing on the similarities between Froglube, Tracklube, and Seal 1. I ended up showing my brother this as well. Today he told me that the IR Spectrometer was up and running and asked for a link to the more recent analysis. A few minutes later he sent me, "Wow, this is a real thorough analysis! There is really not much else I can add to it. This already has all the data for the FrogLube, so I won't worry about. I will run a couple of tests on the coconut oil, and get back to you."
Earlier this evening, he sent me this:
A few more tid bits he added after I told him this put a shit-eating grin on my face:
So the good news is that if you ever get stranded on Gilligan's Island or in the produce department at Market Basket you can still find a way to lube your gun. The bad news is that it is a product of the same hyped up marketing and markup that is all too common in the gun industry.
It does smell nice though.
Well, he couldn't get the IR Spectrometer running for a while. He needed the drivers for the machine and the company took forever to get back to him. In the mean time, Andrew Tuohy at Vurrwapen Blog released another analysis focusing on the similarities between Froglube, Tracklube, and Seal 1. I ended up showing my brother this as well. Today he told me that the IR Spectrometer was up and running and asked for a link to the more recent analysis. A few minutes later he sent me, "Wow, this is a real thorough analysis! There is really not much else I can add to it. This already has all the data for the FrogLube, so I won't worry about. I will run a couple of tests on the coconut oil, and get back to you."
Earlier this evening, he sent me this:
"Hi Cameron,
Alright, so I have an IR and an NMR spectrum for both the FrogLube and the coconut oil. As you can probably surmise, the two are almost completely identical in both methods. The only real difference can be seen in the NMR, where the FrogLube (top) has evidence of small amount of additive in what we call the "aromatic region" of the spectrum ( >6.5 on the x-axis). This matches the analysis discussed in the Vuurwapen Blog article. You can check there for more details, but basically, that may be responsible for either the green color or the smell. Regardless, the amount of additive is miniscule, and your FrogLube is overwhelmingly just coconut oil.
The good news is, when SHTF, it's probably safe to eat."
A few more tid bits he added after I told him this put a shit-eating grin on my face:
"Also, there is an additional peak at around 2.0. It is present in both samples, but much more pronounced in the FrogLube. It is a fairly substantial addition, all things considered, but it is still a small part of the whole.
My point still stands. Your gun oil is edible."
"Also, I should add that my NMR solvent was deuterated chloroform (CDCl3), the same used in the other more extensive analysis."
"There are one or two other small extra peaks in the FrogLube NMR that I forgot to mention. Feel free to point them out in your post. It won't change your final conclusion."
So the good news is that if you ever get stranded on Gilligan's Island or in the produce department at Market Basket you can still find a way to lube your gun. The bad news is that it is a product of the same hyped up marketing and markup that is all too common in the gun industry.
It does smell nice though.