Good, low-odor, non-toxic oils for tools

[nuclearcat]

Maybe i will sound weird, but, vaseline lotion without parfums seems almost pure petroleum jelly. Never tried to use to lubricate tools, but saw such advices over internet.
Any professional opinion on it?

[tautech]

Where do you buy that in NZ Tautech?

Maybe Repco or Supercheap.
Many gunshops have it in the small sizes......but most everywhere. 
One of the good products the Aussies make.

The Inox MX3 supplier search for 20km radius of Auckland:
https://www.inoxmx.com/retail-outlets/?rs=1&location_postcode=Auckland%2C+New+Zealand&postal_code=&lat=-36.8483048&lng=174.7624886&radius=20&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=100g+Aerosol&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=300g+Aerosol&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=375g+%272-way%27+Aerosol&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=125ml+Pump+Pack&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=750ml+Bottle&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=5+Litre+Bottle&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=20+Litre+Drum&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=5+Litre&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=60ml+Needle+Injector&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=92ml&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=1+Litre&sizes%5BMX3+Lubricant%5D%5B%5D=450g+Cartridge

[Gyro]

Maybe i will sound weird, but, vaseline lotion without parfums seems almost pure petroleum jelly. Never tried to use to lubricate tools, but saw such advices over internet.
Any professional opinion on it?

Vaseline, in it's various forms is excellent for improving and protecting brass terminals and preventing their threads from galling and seizing. When it comes to its lubricating film strength in higher stress applications (tool pivots and vise screws etc.), I have no clue - I don't know if such data would be available.

[Gyro]

Starrett 1620 Tool and Instrument Oil. 

https://www.amazon.com/Starrett-1620-Tool-Instrument-fl-oz/dp/B000KUA2FI

The Material Safety Dastsheet...  https://www.starrett.com/docs/default-source/msds/starrett-tool-instrument-oil-sds.pdf?sfvrsn=13

[Wallace Gasiewicz]

Food Grade mineral oil is available in gallon quantities from Tractor Supply and any other store that carries horse stuff. Less than $20 a gallon. Maybe you can probably get it in restaurant supply stores also.
Also works in oil filled RF loads like the Cantenna. (silicone transformer fluids are somewhat better and non flammable)
You can also use food grade mineral oil to coat wooden salad bowls and wooden cutting boards.
As it is cheap you can use it for cleaning tools also.

I use an oil product called Marvel that is not straight oil and has lots of other stuff in it. I use this stuff for lubricating such things as bearings and gears in old radio tuners.

NON SERIOUS COMMENT:
 As a person who is retired from Health and Safety in industry, the Toxicology Data seems to indicate that most products are safe to use OUTSIDE of California, where they are apparently very dangerous.

[Cerebus]

...
You can also use food grade mineral oil to coat wooden salad bowls and wooden cutting boards.

A much better choice, as we're there, is Tung oil, made from the Tung nut and completely edible - as in your body would process it as food rather than merely tolerating it and excreting it as it does with mineral oils. It's a drying oil, meaning that it polymerises/cures on exposure to oxygen, and once cured is very waterproof and has high chemical resistance to boot. In the days of wooden benches in chemistry laboratories it was the standard finish applied to them.

As a person who is retired from Health and Safety in industry, the Toxicology Data seems to indicate that most products are safe to use OUTSIDE of California, where they are apparently very dangerous.

As AvE says "Known to cause California by the State of Cancer".

[SilverSolder]

[...]  Tung oil, made from the Tung nut and completely edible - as in your body would process it as food rather than merely tolerating it and excreting it as it does with mineral oils. It's a drying oil, meaning that it polymerises/cures on exposure to oxygen, and once cured is very waterproof and has high chemical resistance to boot. In the days of wooden benches in chemistry laboratories it was the standard finish applied to them.  [...]

Maybe this would work as a battery terminal anti-corrosion protectant...

[Cerebus]

I have my doubts. On wood it soaks in and cures in the pores, with a few coats it levels out and provides a 'soft sheen' finish. The actual film strength isn't that high, which on things like chopping boards is an advantage, not a problem, it almost self-heals. On metals or other hard, non-porous materials I think it'd seriously lack adhesion and the poor film strength would mean that it's too easily scraped off.

Meant to add that it's a great finish for wooden tool handles. If it gets sorry for itself a quick rubdown with fine sandpaper and a fresh coat brings it back to 'as new' condition.

[Ground_Loop]

How about cutting board mineral oil? No odor and definitely not toxic.

[Humanoid]

Well, as luck would have it, the local supermarket had pure mineral oil in their pharmacy. It was only $2-$3 USD for 16oz. The mrs bought TWO of them , so I should have enough oil for the next 50-100 years or so.

Clear, odorless, and I can drink it if I decide I want the runs.

It feels slightly more viscous than 3-in-one on my fingers, but the tools soaked it up and it applied easily, especially the blackened tools—it really made the black "pop" after applying it.

Thanks for all the suggestion. I'm still looking at some of them for other uses. I think this will work for me for now for at least taking care of my hand tools. 

[Humanoid]

Food Grade mineral oil is available in gallon quantities from Tractor Supply and any other store that carries horse stuff. Less than $20 a gallon. Maybe you can probably get it in restaurant supply stores also.
Also works in oil filled RF loads like the Cantenna. (silicone transformer fluids are somewhat better and non flammable)
You can also use food grade mineral oil to coat wooden salad bowls and wooden cutting boards.
As it is cheap you can use it for cleaning tools also.

I use an oil product called Marvel that is not straight oil and has lots of other stuff in it. I use this stuff for lubricating such things as bearings and gears in old radio tuners.

NON SERIOUS COMMENT:
 As a person who is retired from Health and Safety in industry, the Toxicology Data seems to indicate that most products are safe to use OUTSIDE of California, where they are apparently very dangerous.

Don't get me started on California. 

I checked out the Marvel Mystery Oil. Was a little more than I wanted to spend right now, but looks like good stuff for a variety of applications.

Also see my previous post

[helius]

Looks good.
Now that you have white mineral oil, here's a secret: wipe it on your razor blades. It leaves a film that doesn't wash off easily and retards rust for months. I have gotten much longer life out of them this way.

[Cerebus]

Really? If I was to use a razor blade for "months" it'd hurt like hell. You must have the hide of a rhinoceros. 

[SilverSolder]

I can get maybe 2-3 weeks out of a razor blade, there is no way it will rust before going dull!

[Humanoid]

I think he meant to oil up the additional blades you aren't using to keep them from rusting.

[Cerebus]

Let's hope so, or come the zombie apocalypse he's going to be one tough mother to stop! 

[Humanoid]

There could be a market for Rusty Zombie Shaving Blades. Zomblades™

[helius]

I actually don't find that my razor blades dull very easily (perhaps the oil helps here). I have gotten more than 40 uses from each blade, depending on the type. The Feather blades do dull a little bit faster, but the Astra seem more durable. With an adjustable comb height razor, it's possible to keep using a blade that has dulled somewhat without tearing.

Older blades were made of carbon steel, which actually can be stropped repeatedly to restore its edge. There is still at least one manufacturer for these in Pakistan. Oil treatment won't last months on these, regrettably; it would have to be more frequent to resist corrosion.

[SilverSolder]

Not much you can do to maintain a modern blade (plastic item with 5 or more blades in parallel), they are gone when they are gone.  The best thing I've found is to clean them and blow them dry after each use, that seems to make them last longer.  But getting more than about 30 uses out of them is pushing it...

[Humanoid]

Not much you can do to maintain a modern blade (plastic item with 5 or more blades in parallel), they are gone when they are gone.  The best thing I've found is to clean them and blow them dry after each use, that seems to make them last longer.  But getting more than about 30 uses out of them is pushing it...

I can't use multi blades for shaving. They don't agree with my face. I use the thin disposable kind and a metal holder. Even single blade disposables with a handle dull right away for me. I think my beard hair is like solid core cable. A typical day sets me back 2 blades. 

Regular razors for cutting things, maybe a few days if I'm cutting a lot of stuff. They'll still work, but they won't glide through things anymore. If I need that perfect cut I'll just open a new one and slide the old one over to the grunt work area of my desk.

[SilverSolder]

I learned a technique from an old soldier...   wet your face with warm water first, before applying foam.  That lets the foam connect better with the beard to soften it.  Works amazingly well for me!

[Nusa]

Also, all the SAE30 engine oils I saw had detergents in them.

Look in the lawnmower section, and you should find quarts. Most small engines still don't have oil filters, so a non-detergent oil is desirable so that contaminants get trapped in sludge rather than continuing to abrade parts in motion. That was the way many of the big engines did it too, pre-1960ish. If you ever revive any old engines, don't switch to detergent oil until you have a major rebuild and clear out all the sludge.

[SilverSolder]

Also, all the SAE30 engine oils I saw had detergents in them.

Look in the lawnmower section, and you should find quarts. Most small engines still don't have oil filters, so a non-detergent oil is desirable so that contaminants get trapped in sludge rather than continuing to abrade parts in motion. That was the way many of the big engines did it too, pre-1960ish. If you ever revive any old engines, don't switch to detergent oil until you have a major rebuild and clear out all the sludge.

I just checked the manuals for some of my small four stroke engines, Briggs & Stratton specifically say to use Detergent type oils in their engines.  Always RTFM! 

[amyk]

Maybe i will sound weird, but, vaseline lotion without parfums seems almost pure petroleum jelly. Never tried to use to lubricate tools, but saw such advices over internet.
Any professional opinion on it?

Petroleum jelly is basically very high viscosity mineral oil.

[Cerebus]

Maybe i will sound weird, but, vaseline lotion without parfums seems almost pure petroleum jelly. Never tried to use to lubricate tools, but saw such advices over internet.
Any professional opinion on it?

Petroleum jelly is basically very high viscosity mineral oil.

Yup. Just in case anyone was sleeping during their school chemistry lessons, paraffin, mineral oil, petroleum jelly and paraffin wax are all mixtures of alkanes (molecules with the formula C_nH_2n+2), called paraffins before IUPAC names came along, where n for the various materials is roughly:

• 6 - 20 for commercial paraffin/kerosene (likely to contain some aromatic compounds as well as pure alkanes)
• 10 - 20 for medical grade liquid paraffin
• 10 - 24 for [pure] mineral oils
• 24 - 30 for petroleum jelly
• 30 and above for paraffin wax

The boundaries between the categories aren't particularly exact, and the values for n are likely to vary depending on who you ask. The higher the number of carbons, the higher the boiling point, viscosity and temperature where flammable vapours start to form. The melting point of hexadecane (n=16) is 18ºC so is the last alkane that's liquid at room temperature, for heptadecane (n=17), it's 21ºC so that's solid at a nominal 20ºC room temperature. Basic material data for C₉ to C₅₄ alkanes here at Wikipedia.