Originally Posted by
Ironfish653
It’s not “factory grease” or even Cosmoline; it’s just oil, partly for lubrication during assembly, but mostly to keep the bare metal surfaces from oxidizing during storage and shipping before sale.
I used to work for a major power equipment manufacturer, and spent some time in the Guidebar plant, that made, among other things, drive sprockets and chain for chainsaws.
We used 30w Mobil synthetic on finished product.
Thanks very much for that info. I don't know what chains people have been buying that are coated in grease. Looking at a new KMC 8-speed chain I just bought, it looks pretty much like all the chains I've bought in the recent past: no grease, and no visible drippy oil, either. Just a thin coating, barely detectable.
I imagine that that's similar to the treatment that the Shimano tech guy I quoted earlier was referring to when he said that there was no need to clean and then lubricate new Shimano chains and that, under dry conditions, the factory lubrication might well last for the full life span of the chain (i.e., the same life span as is seen by people who treat cleaning and oiling or waxing a chain as a religious rite).