# Palm Grease on Korks



## Enthalpy

Hello you all!

I've stopped using cork grease from the music shop. Not only does it cost a bit, most stink.

For 4 months, I've been using *palm grease*, mixed with some canola oil as a solid cooking oil.







Mine happens to come from the hard discounter, 150 cents for 1kg.

Zero odour, vegan, no known allergies, should fit many faiths. Tallow served in the past, but I find it disgusting while I accept a vegetable grease.

Palm grease lubricates very effectively, even tight corks become easy. Mind the bell at clarinets and oboes.

After about a week, corks glide less easily. At that price, I just replenish with palm grease. I don't remember whether cork grease lasted longer. I don't want any more.

Marc Schaefer, aka Enthalpy


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## Heck148

Cork grease gets thick and gummy...I use the tuning-slide grease that brass players use...works great - no sticky, no gummy, no gunk.


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## Enthalpy

Someone reported success with *bag balm on corks*
wikipedia​so I tried. The composition varies a lot, I chose the weakest smell at the drugstore, this one contains petroleum (from mineral oil), paraffin (again from mineral oil), and in third position vegetable oils, plus minor things that don't lubricate.


Very efficient lubricant too.
The consistency makes spreading easier that the solid palm grease.
The weak smell is too much for me, so I go back to palm oil. Individual choice of course.
To understand why the oil must be replenished, I impregnated paper with palm oil 2.5 months ago. Despite ~57 C+O atoms per molecule, the paper has significantly dried now. I believe this is evaporation, because palm oil isn't sensitive to oxidation, and the paper feels grainy and looks more opaque again. However, evaporation is too slow to require new oil on the corks after a week. Meanwhile I must clean away oil from around the corks, so it's just swept away by repeated assembly and disassembly.


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