Bold. Clean. No gimmicks.
Smart chemistry engineered for real-world performance.
We create focussed, hi-performance products for firearm maintenance. Our flagship range has grown to include specialised products for general DIY, light industrial and engineering use. All Unit 1 products are built from honest testing, real use, and backed by a relentless drive for precision, reliability and continual product innovation.
How Unit 1 started.
Unit 1 grew from a personal quest…
… to see if simple chemistry could outperform gun-care products that were either too weak, too harsh, or all marketing and no performance. So I started mixing my own. Testing. Breaking. Rebuilding. Done over a span of 10 years. Everything we make today, comes from that same mindset: if we can’t prove it, we don’t claim it.
What’s important to us is that we’re not trying to be a ‘general’ gun care brand. We’ve built a specialist system for people whose lives truly depend on their equipment.
Soon, with that mindset firmly in place, we started looking into different lubrication systems outside the firearm space which we felt could benefit from our belief that ‘everything can be improved’. We soon expanded our flagship gun care range with other products that were led by that same continual improvement philosophy.
The Unit 1 Philosophy:
Performance first.
If it doesn’t clean faster, protect longer, or perform better in real-world use, we don’t release it.
Honest engineering.
Each product has a defined job. No miracle ’15-in-1′ claims. Our carbon solvent, carbon cleaner and copper remover eliminates fouling. Our gun oil lubricates and protects. Our speciality products are built-for-purpose.
Built for harsh conditions.
South Africans know, our country has some of the harshest climatic conditions in the world. Heat, dust, rain, salt-laden coastal regions and in the winter… freezing, snow-covered mountains and terrains. Our products are made to perform in those tough conditions.
Why I built Unit 1 Lubricants...
I built it because I was tired of settling for ‘good enough.’
Tired of products that promised miracles and delivered disappointment.
Tired of asking myself, “Why is no one making this properly?” So I did what us South Africans do: I stopped complaining and started doing. Creating gun care products just for myself, in a small garage, after hours, with limited tools and a stubborn belief that performance matters more than fancy packaging.
I obsessively researched, used my high school physical science education in inorganic chemistry to learn what I needed to know and relentlessly researched how to mix each product. I consulted chemical engineer friends to make sure I was doing it right. I tested. I failed. Then I re-mixed again. And again. Until the formulas worked, not just on paper, not in theory, but on guns. A process that took 10 years to get right. After sharing each carefully-made bottle with people who demanded the very best, and on their feedback and urging, I decided to share my gun care products with the world.
Soon, the range expanded into specialist, built-for-purpose products. And the innovation continues.
Unit 1 is still guided by that same thinking today: If we can’t feel it, can’t measure it, or can’t prove it, we don’t release it.
These products exist for people who rely on their equipment. Hunters. Competition shooters. Law-abiding gun owners who want to protect themselves and their loved ones. Law Enforcement Officers. Security personnel. Technicians. People who need chemistry they can trust, not hype that’s easily ignored.
So, to me, Unit 1 and its genesis goes beyond ‘corporate storytelling’. It’s my story and it’s poured into every bottle… to the very full.
Elton Padia | Founder | Unit 1 Lubricants