When my grandmother was a kid she used to work summers peeling bark from
spruce trees destined for pulp mills. Anyway they used to mix kerosene with
bacon fat/grease and rub it on themselves as a mosquitoes/ blackfly
repellent.

"Bob in Oregon" wrote in message
ups.com...
I have used kerosene in the past to remove rust from tools. It is also
of course used as oil in lanterns. I used it the other day to my
surprise to clean some greasy parts up and it worked great. I got to
thinking about it and am a little puzzled, since most solvents do not
act as oils and vice versa. What exactly is kerosene, and what do you
use it for?