Perhaps I am confused about cosmoline' constituents. I thought it also co ntained enough creosote to give it creosote's disctinctive smell.
Once upon a time (he said, launching into one of the old-timer's shaggy d og stories), we bought a Schwinn Town & Country tandem. Lo and behold, a fter a while it developed a crack as a result of frame rust. I think it w as at the front seat clamp and the tubes joining there. So, I wrote Mr. Kingbay at Schwinn, explaining that we had "acquired" the bike from the e state of the original owner, and had this problem... And Mr. Kingbay aske d what color we'd like the replacement, and warned us that we'd be liable for the freight cost. And they sent another frame in the right color. Th ere was another problem, this time with cosmoline leaking out of a crack in the "bood tube" (bb connector tube), so back it went. When we picked up the new frame in the late summer of 1974, while moving from Oregon to Ohio, they nicely gave us a factory tour. There, hanging in a corner, we re maybe 6 - 8 more T&C frames, leftovers for warranty replacements, each packed with "cosmoline" like stuff. It was good, and we said good thing s about Schwinn for a long time. Still do. We rode that bike for decades, modernized it with Phil brackets and hubs and 700c wheels, new rear drop outs, and bunches of other stuff, so when we finally sold it only the for k and headset were original. But, it worked well.
harvey sachs McLean VA
Don Wilson wrote:
On hearsay, avoid Cosmoline. It was used for shipping metal objects aboard ship on several weeks or months voyages that were then also to be warehoused on piers in ocean air. It is a massive job to remove cosmoline from such objects. Further, the solvents sometimes used by frustrated individuals trying to remove it can damage the metal surfaces as much as rust would have. Source: my late father who prior to one early WWII Pacific island invasion was given an Ithaca Model 37 full choke .12 gauge pump shotgun packed in cosmoline to clean and carry ashore. After what he described as a nightmarish cleaning process, but before the invasion, the perhaps oxymoronic "Rules of Land Warfare" then in force prohibiting use of shotguns in combat were invoked and the cleaning process was done for naught. He went ashore instead with the ubiquitous M-1 Carbine. I do not recall if it had been shipped in cosmoline, but likely it had been.
Don Wilson
Los Olivos, CA
>> Cosmoline is an oil and parrafin (wax) blend, just
>> like (some of) you used to use to treat cycle
>> chains...melt a bar or two of parrafin in a coffee
>> can and mix in an equal amount of 30 weight motor
>> oil. ugh. But it WILL prevent oxidation on both
>> ferrous and non-ferrous metal surfaces. Depending
>> how you mix it, it may stink, and depending on how
>> you mix it it may not set up hard or be easy to
>> apply a thin, uniform, cosmetically inoffensive
>> layer. Why not store things in an low humidity
>> setting?
>>
>> Dale Phelps,
>> Longmont CO