Originally Posted by
Jacob Reverb
IMO, it works better than grease because it doesn't get pitch and sawdust embedded into it, making, in effect, a mild valve grinding compound (sawdust is abrasive due to the silica in it, one reason carbide saw teeth get dull).
I replaced my arbor bearings at 18 years, and there appeared to still be plenty of graphite coating on the gears. Seems like pitch doesn't stick to the graphite, or maybe it ablates...dunno. It's not as if those gears have any load on them, or get cycled so many times that you need an oil bath like in a gearbox. The main reason for lubricating them, in my view, is to keep them from getting gummed up with pitch and sawdust. My dad's saw got that way late in life, and it became almost impossible to raise/lower or tilt the trunnion.
YMMV