AW: [meteorite-list] RE: POLL: rustiest most unstable known

[MexicoDoug at aol.com]

Martin A. wrote:

<< Hehe, Lithium grease, applied on the tongue it may relieve your 
depressions in watching your irons rusting to pulp. NOOOOOOO just a joke! Kids, DON'T do 
it at home! Buckleboo! >>

Hey Martin, rumor is that Valium straight up in grain alcohol taken with a 
pinch of gun oil shaken not stirred lifts the spirits of sad irons, or at least 
blows them away.  Too much lithium grease is hard on the chamois.  (I did try 
"white" lithium grease left over from my cycling days, and it worked as well 
as the next grease, with the exception that it is a finer, less oily grease 
than most and for that it gets a minimal positive.  But in the big scheme of 
things, even the best secret formula of gun oil can't cure cancer!  If you enjoy 
curating like this its time to get a pet.

Though, I would like to see some further discussion on "dielectric" greases, 
namely the one I used that was for spark plugs and worked fine on a crappy 
Campo that was thrown away which I rescued in the name of science.  As Steve 
Schoner points out, corrosion is a redox reaction and the best bet is to make sure 
they go where you want their potential, or better yet, just stonewall (pun?) 
the flow of electrons (Remember=>loss of electrons = oxidation).  You need 
your electrons to stay put on your base metal, so an appropriate dielectric 
compound is the answer if you are not playing in the make-shift lab to better 
"prepare" your specimen by roasting it in the oven and drowning it in the 
black-magical solvents that some Merlin out there is offering.  That where the 
dielectric "grease" comes in (it probably isn't a grease at all, not much more than 
brake oils or transmission oils are oils).

Alternately, transmission fluid was suggested.  A big pickle jar filled with 
transmission fluid ought to work well especially when heated for a time to 
engine temperature.  It does penetrate well as someone wants to make sure it gets 
between the teeth of the transmission gears, not to mention all the corrosion 
inhibiters.  

But, I would still try my luck with ordinary this:
http://www.midwayautosupply.com/manufacturerminorcategory.asp?Dielectric%20Gre
ase

Or from Germany proven on especially nasty Italian specimens:
http://www.international-auto.com/index.cfm/fa/p/pid/2765/sc/8140

Or something a bit more exotic along the same lines:
http://www3.3m.com/catalog/us/en001/auto_marine_aero/aerospace/node_GS9NWKSQZT
be/root_GST1T4S9TCgv/vroot_GSNNJ6NQDKge/gvel_S3PQPD4JXXgl/theme_us_aerospace_3
_0/command_AbcPageHandler/output_html

Or, Maybe Rusty Bill has these all beat, btw since the US military knows a 
lot and uses it on their oriented nosecones.  A material that has great 
dielectric properties and goes on so thin, you can't see it that comes with a light 
maintenance schedule.  Cada quien su rollo (to each his own eggroll)...
http://www.paleobond.com/MeteoriteProducts.htm

Then again, it all depends on whether these roasted, char-broiled, and 
parboiled, chemically cured, coated and pickled pieces of metal really have a heart 
of a meteorite left in them or are just chemically modified vulcanized 
masterpieces* for boasting taxidermeteoricists.  It's probably "ok - but why????", 
and loses all kinds of trace stuff near the surface...not that corrosion 
wouldn't have the same effect.  That meteoriticistical alteration would be a good 
question for a museum curator as long as it is a research collection and not a 
Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not collection where a chunk from a junkyard would be 
just as an effective draw with the right promotion.  Hopefully if I ever get 
picked up by a UFO the beings won't be so crude in their pickling methods.  I'd 
just like to tell them that once you loose the natural look and feel of things, 
getting cremed is better than a slow death by burial in fancy boxes.  It's 
only supposed to be a duck if it walks, talks, quacks and poops like a duck.

*meteorites from Planet Vulcan, the OTHER Mercury we never can see.

Saludos, Doug