Thus traditional Rocol tapping lubricant (eg RTD) is quite unlike other lubricants that you might find in the workshop. If you want taps and dies to last as long as possible then you should use the best specialist lubricant of this sort that you can find.
So on the basis that I:
i) use the cutting tools so little that any old crap will probably sustain them for as long as I need to use them, but
ii) am not completely lacking in mechanical sympathy,
should I
a) continue to use whatever comes to hand,
b) spend £4 on whatever Screwfix offers,
c) spend a tenner at Chain Reaction on half a pint of Park CF-2,
d) spend £20 at Amazon for 500g of Rocol RTD paste, or
e) choose something else entirely?
I would, frankly, rather spend twenty quid on social lubricant rather than on cutting fluid, but given that a tub that size will almost certainly outlast me - as I say, I don't use the tools very often - I'm sure I could stretch to it.
(I suppose this question really comes down to, is RTD paste close enough to being the 'best specialist lubricant' for the job, or is something else, maybe either CF-2 or one of Rocol's liquids, a better call?)