John and all
When I was making Charlies Dell's lube I got some materials from him to make the formula. He gave me a couple of pounds of the soap he was using. He told me that Ivory had changed the formula and added something, I think it was to make it smell better. Any way Charlie stopped using Ivory and looked around he finally found a commercial product that was just soap. The downside was he had to buy it by the barrel. 
Ivory beads may still work but one of Charlie's things was to as much as possible use only basic ingredients.
40 Rod

Lead Stearate Pb(C17H35COO)2 and Dibasic Lead Stearate, 2PbO, Pb(C17H35COO)2 are basic lead soap of commercial stearic acid....
so does that mean steartic acid is a substitute?

I searched quite a while to make my own list, but it does no good if only I look at it.  Here is a list of black powder lubes for those of us who like to experiment

US Army 1855 - 1 part beeswax, 3 parts tallow

US Army 1861 - 8 parts beeswax, 1 part tallow

US Army 1873 - 8 parts bayberry wax, 1 part graphite

US Army 1880 - Japan wax

Sharps Rifle Co. 1878 - 1 part beeswax, 2 parts sperm oil.

Maynard Rifle  1890 - 1 part beeswax, 3 parts tallow

Marlin Firearms Co. 1891 - 1 part beeswax, 4 parts tallow

S&W 1891 -  tallow

H.M. Pope 1900 - 3 parts mutton tallow, 2 parts bay wax, 1 part beeswax, 1 part steam cylinder oil, .2 of 1 part Acheson graphite. (The bay wax can be omitted)

(5) parts Bee's Wax
(4) parts Lard/Crisco
(1) part Canola/Olive oil


Buck Emmert's Lube Formula (for black powder)
1750 grains Beeswax 
1368 grains Crisco Shortening (White) 
328 grains Crisco or Wesson Vegetable Oil 

1 pound Bees Wax
1 pound Citronella Candle
2 Tablespoons shortening

50% beeswax, 
40% white Crisco 
10% canola cooking oil.
6 cups unmelted soy wax. 
½ cup Jojoba oil. 
½ cup mutton tallow, or you can use beef tallow 
1/3 cup unsalted lard. 
1/3 cup liquid Bayberry wax. 
You can thicken this out by adding soy or using less to thin it or add more lard to make it softer.  If it gets too hot add Palm Vegetable wax or use block Bayberry wax instead of liquid Bayberry wax. 
Palm wax melts at about 160* 

50% beeswax,
40% Crisco, 
5% Canola Oil,
5% Lanolin

6 oz of beef tallow
4 oz bayberry wax
2 oz beeswax
2 oz synthetic sperm oil
1 heaping teaspoon of Moly

6 oz of beeswax
3 oz of bayberry wax
6 oz of bacon grease
1 tablespoon of Dawn soap
2 tablespoon of neatsfoot oil

40% beeswax
30% conola oil
30% lanolin

70% Soywax
20% Avocado oil
10% lanolin

One part clean beeswax
Three parts deer tallow
One canola oil
Powdered graphite 

Modern Sharps Formula
1 part Beeswax
1 part Jojoba oil

1 pound beeswax
1 pound white Crisco
1 pound Mutton Tallow
5 oz. Bag

Well...I use a product called "Junior Lube". It's made by an old Louisiana redneck named Junior Doughty. Do a search for him and/or his lube and you can find out what it's made of. I am fairly new to BPCR and newer to reloading. So I am likely only APPROXIMATELY correct when it comes to my powder measuring, bullet casting, brass reforming etc etc. But I use his lube and I get very acceptable groups at 50 yds, have not shot at 100 yds but plan to do so this week yet. He has a great write-up at his website about his NEF 45-70 handi-rifle which is what I shoot also, maybe that's why I like his recipe(?) 

Yes, I do.

As it is with all things there are pros, and cons, and I'll bet Alox is not exempt from the rule. Would like to hear what they are about the use of Alox. I just started using it and so far I like it.

                                       Sendaro

Hi John, 

A few weeks back I bought a one pound stick of alox from Paul Shuttleworth. I gave it a try and liked the results. Even while pan lubing it worked better than what I was using before. The bullets pushed out of the lube cake easy and there was no excess of lube on the bullet to be wiped off. The bullets lube with the alox seemed to even breech seat with less effort. These are my first observation and I do not proclaim them to be conclusive, however I like what I have experinced with it so far.

Would you recommend that I add bees wax to the alox I have? If so, why? 

Weather here is still around zero in the AM, and there is still much snow and ice. It's comfortable in our shooting house, but a real trip to post target on snow shoes! 

                                     Sendaro