[Francois d'Auzon]

Hey all.

Recently received a commissioned replica 15th century harness. Am thrilled with it, but the maker seems to have take a vacation on delivery. He suggested I use turtle wax to keep it polished and rust free. I’m sure I could probably just rub it down with ballisttol regularly instead, and be fine, but does anyone know what specific turtle wax product he meant? Looked over their site and… they have a ton.

Failing that, anyone know any decent maintenance oils I can rub it down with that work well but, maybe, don’t smell quite as bad as Ballistol (subjective issue, of course… no knocks on anyone who thinks it smells great)..

[Blaz Berlec]

Yeah, I mostly stopped using Ballistol because of the strong smell. I didn't mind it that much at first, but it gets tiresome to have it all over the house just by oiling some blades or armour in an open, vented garage...

I started using Fluid Film aerosol - on paper it sounds even worse than light mineral oil, it's main ingredient is lanolin, natural oil in sheep's wool. But it doesn't have any strong smell, and I think it works even a bit better than Ballistol - the difference is with the pieces that have been handled and not re-oiled, Fluid Film bonds a bit better to the surface. And application is just as easy.