On Tue, 22 Jan 2013 09:00:12 -0600, "HeyBub"
wrote:

wrote:
MOST are highly refined chemically treated petroleum oils, but some
are silicone oils, some are ester oils, and some are jojoba oil - or a
mixture of jojoba and ester. and sometimes also silicone.

Not only:

I got a non-working grandfather clock.

I put the innards in a hydrosonic batch for a couple of hours (don't ask me
to describe the resultant solution - it was gross). In my legacy drawer was
a small bottle of watch oil left me by my grandfather.

The oil was made from real whales.

Clock works fine, now.

That "real whale oil" was likely over 70 years old. GREAT stuff for
those very fine applications.