----- Original Message -----
From: "steve -MS/V beluga" barnacle42@ameritech.net
I would think West Marine or the

Hi Steve,

They do. It's called "Compass Oil" and appears to be a product that is sold
to the industrial market as "Odorless Mineral Spirits".

We used to sell a product called "Chevron Base Oil C" to a local
manufacturer of compasses. The product was very similar to OMS except with a
slightly higher flash point.

Now, for a cautionary tale that I've told before. Chevron discontinued Base
Oil C so one of our crack sales people decided that our compass manufacturer
customer could get by on plain old kerosene which is very similar in most
ways to Base Oil C and OMS.

Everything was fine till a compass was sold to a commercial fisherman
(Norwegian I think) who operated in the north Atlantic in the winter.
Because of refining tolerances and differences in anticipated market there
is one important difference between kerosene and the more expensive
products. Kerosene has a significantly higher cloud point and pour point
than was needed on that fishing boat. When a petroleum product is chilled it
acts a bit like sorbet; First small crystals (of wax) form and, as the
product gets colder, those crystals get larger and aggregate until the
product is essentially solid.

All hands seemed quite surprised at how upset a guy could get just because
his compass quit working in the middle of the night in the middle of the
north Atlantic.

Fortunately the lawsuit was dropped but, needless to say, we lost an old and
valued customer over that little oversight.

BTW: Those wax crystals go right back into solution as the product warms up.

ABTW: The same thing would happen to Base Oil C or OMS, just at a lower
temperature.

The point that Rick made about using the product that the compass was
designed for is VERY important. The things he said about differing
viscosities are absolutely true but there is also the issue of seal
compatibility. The solvency of alcohol vs. OMS vs. white oil (the generic
term for baby oil without the perfume) is widely different in terms of Kauri
Butanol value and the differences are even more pronounced than that since
in many cases a given gasket material might be "attacked" by one product and
not by another. Even as innocuous a product as baby oil will eat up certain
types of rubber in fairly short order.

Magnetically yours,

Alex

Mel,

Maryland Nautical Sales in Baltimore (Near Fort McHenry)
repair compasses.  They are also one of the world's largest
chart agents.

They have a very good web site.

Brian Hall
CHB 45 "Any  Sea"
Baltimore