Recently there was a posting on this topic but I cannot find it so am starting afresh. When fettling stoves I sometimes find an old but very dry washer in the pump. For quite a while I've been soaking these in paraffin, mainly because it's such a good penetrating material but also because this is what they'll sooner or later be exposed to so shouldn't do them any harm. The paraffin displaces the air so rapidly that the washers generally fizz in the paraffin. I then usually work 3 in 1 into them to provide longer term protection etc. I have more recently started using paraffin mixed 50:50 with engine oil. Same excellent displacement of air but no need to subsequently use 3 in 1 and the washers seem to respond very well to the treatment. Hope this helps, Colin.
For these old pump cups I take them off as soon as I get the stove and put it in the rubish regardless of appearence. But then I am in a different situation to most of you. On new leather I only put auto engine oil on them but work it in by flexing the leather. i don't think it matters a great deal what is used. Just remember if you are useing a grease type of lube your leather seal has to let air on the other side of it on a backward stroke. Don't use auto trans fluid on roo hide
I initiated what turned out to be a lengthy interchange on this topic on the International Guild of Lamp Researchers website http://www.lampguild.org/Default.html?Defaulttext.shtml&1 Check out the archives for the thread. I can't remember the exact outcome but I recall that more-or-less any lubricant would do as long as it was liquid and not boiled linseed oil. Paraffin was found to remove the lubricant from the leather so not much use on its own. Albert, not too much 'roo hide to be found hereabouts. Maybe a bit moggy-skin, otherwise I suppose it's cowhide. ('moggy' is a local term for Cattus domesticus, if anyone's interested!) Cheers, all
Nearly forgot to mention that I use Olive Oil (Extra Virgin, of course!) from my favourite German supermarket, Lidl. Never failed yet!
Quite right too Boiled Linseed Oil is not a lubricant. It is, effectively, paint. http://www.network54.com/Forum/message?forumid=81021&messageid=1084389160 It is all very well singing the praises of lubricants various, I use engine oil because I almost always have some to hand for replenishing my mobile oil-leak, but how many of us have worked a new pump leather to destruction. Not many, I'll bet. Perhaps Ross who uses the same stoves regularly can enlighten us as to how long an average pump leather can be expected to last in regular use
A furniture restorer told me that olive oil contains salt, linseed does not. What would the salt do to leather or the brass pump assembly, probably too little to do any harm. Fr Laurence
I must admit not to being too set in my ways here. I have used olive oil before & it worked but needed doing daily. I put this down to the very hot weather in the S. of France. Just about all the leathers I treat are on stoves I'm fettling from the collection. I can't remember when I last had to oil the leathers on the 2 Svea's I use daily but it was more than 2 years ago! I have to do this so infrequently with any of my "users" that I just grab what's at hand - WD40 or similar, 3in1, paraffin dunk. A tip I picked up from Simon Johns was to gently wire brush the leather to roughen the surface slightly & soak up more oil. This era may be coming to an end soon as I have a quote coming in to get gas into my kitchen & a gas hob & electric oven waiting in my garage.
I've used leather bicycle pump washers (being a collector of touring and racing bikes from the 1930's to the 1960's, I had an assortment to hand) to replace stove washers. On the tin, it says to lubricate the washers with vegetable oil, but I guess that's because mineral oil pumped into an inner tube would rot it p.d.q. I also read somewhere that stove washers should be lubricated with mineral oil. I guess that this all boils down to either type of oil being appropriate as a leather lube. Neil.
I mention Roo hide earlier in this post for the reason there was a person that seld them around my neck or the woods on ebay. If you get or got some of these be careful what you use on them. Auto transmition fluid will turn them to jelly. I have about 100 or more of these roo hide cups here and they only sit in the back of my stock. I do not sell them for this reason. May be one day I will have to use them. I also have 1/2 a roo hide here I will probably make a sadle for a rocking horse from that. Albert.
Albert's talk of saddles reminds me that what was best recommended for lubricating pump leathers was neatsfoot oil available from saddlers. It was about ?5 for 500ml when I checked, which would last the average stovie or lampie several lifetimes...
I obtained an old Tilley instruction booklet dated 1940 a few weeks ago and I've just read through it. It recommends using olive oil to lubricate the pump leather. HTH Henry
Henery we must consider what type of leather Tilley used back then. I think it would be ox hide. Also was it Red hide, Green hide or taned. I don't think there would be much difference between these.
Back to my mention of olive oil, when I lit my Hurlock for the first time in an age, it fired first time, pump leather tight, and I had used olive oil for sure on this; so I guess it stands the test of time. Rik
There is a lot of different ways to tan leather. This is how you get a green hide, red hide and so on. you can also tan a hide a leave the hair on it to be used as a floor mat. Green hide if wet with water it will stretch a mile before it tears an inch. think what your boots would be like made of green hide. I have been experamenting with red hide pump leathers. These seem to work ok. The red die seems to leach out but no big deal.