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They hired women to wrap and package the bearings. Once a month as each women went into their menstrual cycle their sweat became more acidic which stained and etched the bearings.

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Any layered clevite style bearing taken out of package & left out in air without oil or something protective on it can deteriorate. I've had a bunch sit out just maybe for a few weeks out of package in summer when humidity is in the 50's or higher in the shop & bearings will be ruined. That's why I never take them out of protective wrapping until I'm ready to use them, & I have mock up bearings that I keep lubed that sit around exposed.

So it wou;d'nt surprise me if the acid from your prints if left on a bearing that did'nt go into a motor could do some damage over time especially in a humid environment, the acid can actually draw in moisture to the bearing & start it to rust etc. Same deal on my car right now it has been in bare steel for like 6+ months... it does not rust anywhere except if you put your hands on it somewhere & leave fingerprints or a palm print etc after a while they will start to show up..... so my car has little rusty fingerprints & palm prints on it in certain areas. Anywhere I never touched with bare hands since stripping it to steel, it is still as clean as day I stripped it..... humidity etc never affected it.

Most people who are touching bearings are going to be putting them in the engine within at least a few hours, & tehy're gonna be doused in some type of lube which will wash away the very minute acid from the skin....So I do not worry about touching the shell of the bearing when I'm handling them (not that you really need to be handling the shell itself, usually I'm touching the edges only when holding a bearing or installing) But I do believe as I said if you leave them sit out for long time after touching them they can get ruined without some type of lube on them.

I don't think this would much apply to a King or Federal bored aluminum bearing, just Clevite type layered bearings.

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But the ones we are talking about came out of the box brand new.And let me caution people that use lacquer thinner on layered bearing. The layers have their own lubercating qualities and pliability qualities,such as found in babbit,aluminum,brass and copper and other non ferris materials.The lacquer thinner penatrates and dries and can cause premature failures.

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I did jet engine ball bearing inspection for Uncle Sam years ago and part of the process was dunking the bearing in "finger print remover" before packaging it up. There must be something to it. I don't remember what chemical the finger print remover actually was and didn't smell like any familiar chemical .

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There is,I dunked my fingers a few time and used a sented hand cleaner to get that familar smell off them. That didn't come out the way I intended But it certainly saved my butt a few times

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Bob, you are killing me

oh by the way empty your pm's so I can bug ya some more.

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Can't never be too careful,I get the sniff test everytime I come home,by 3 dogs and the wife.Remind me to tell you about the dog humping my leg one night and after I changed cloths he got the jeans out of the hamper and proceeded to molest them infront of Debby,If looks could kill PMs empty,wondered why it was so quite.