NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Oil for Sextants, Chronometers, etc.
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2012 Apr 03, 20:46 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2012 Apr 03, 20:46 +0100
The trouble with vegetable oils and animal oils is that they go rancid. That is, they oxidize and usually turn into something quite acidic. When I took my chronometer in to a specialist in chronometer repair, the first thing he did was sniff it. If he smelt rancid sperm whale oil, he said, the chronometer would have to be completely dismantled and cleaned as a matter of course. Geoffrey Kolbe
