Gentlemens:

While not a lubricant expert, I thought I would toss in a couple of pennies...

Being an machinist type, I have always used center lube on hinge pins. Center lube is the lubricant used between a dead (stationary) center and a revolving part in a lathe or cylindrical grinder. It is designed to maintain a boundary layer of lubricant under extreme pressure and rotational movement between the center and the moving work. I figured if it would hold up under these conditions it would do so on a hinge pin. Good stuff.

Back longer ago than I care to remember when I was a pup, I was told by someone who was then an old timer that center lube used to be a whale oil product, but they had now found ways to make petroleum product hold up to the pressure. Perhaps this explains the reference to the Brits using whale oil on their hinge pins.

Glenn