Beeswax and Linseed oil

[Paragon]

Just cut the wax. If you have to, take a thin wire or better an old knife and heat it up to cut right through it.

[habu68]

Yes, but those little muffins are so cute....

[robnichols]

I have noticed that the ring seals to replace in the base of your toilet are made of beeswax. They are cheap and found in every Home Depot/lowe's- has anyone tried one of these?

Rob

[gerald]

I tried one.............it WAS NOT bee's wax. I don't know what it was, but the stuff gooped up on warm metal and stayed sticky for days until I put it back in the fire and burned it off so I could use something else (Minwax). Threw the rest of the wax ring in the trash.

[fritzdecat]

This place Jere Kirkpatrick's Valley Forge & Welding

Sells beeswax for smithin

[JAllcorn]

Dadant bee supply co (online) sells beeswax for $4.76/lb min order 25 lbs. If you are close to one of their stores you can buy single 1 lb blocks.

I've been building a staircase out of #14 rebar (1-3/4" diameter) and am using beeswax to finish. Heat w/ rosebud torch until bar turns "blue" and apply w/ 1 lb block and wipe off. Lots of smoke and dripped wax. Repeat 3 or 4 times. When cool, the bar is slightly sticky, then after a few days the stickiness goes away.

Cheapest canola oil from a thrift store works well, esp for food item use. Apply hot w/ brush and wipe off. Leaves sort of shiny coat. Looks good.

[ThomasPowers]

I got a mess of nasty clean up and cappings from a beekeeper for almost nothing and boiled them out in the yard a couple of times to purify it and had several pounds of lovely beeswax still very redolent of the honey. My advice, Buy Local! Traded for a couple of hive tools later...

[pete46]

I Just Use Canning Wax From The Grocery Store..

[Gerald Boggs]

Finishing with Wax/Linseed oil finish. I just spent a month up at Chris Gavin's shop in Baltimore. Here's how he finishes almost all his iron.


First: descale with a torch. if you're not doing this yet, man will you like the ease in which the rest of the scale comes off with the wire brush.

Second: Heat the metal up until it's just too hot to hold and apply the wax / linseed oil mix*. It should lightly smoke as you rub it on. I used a rag to do this. It melts easy and flows into the cracks and corners.

Third: Let it sit and dry/cure for a day.

Fourth: Apply a coat of wax, not the mix, but just wax and let dry for at least a hour. Fifth: Rub to a nice low luster shine. If needed apply a second coat of wax after installation.


I got to take a look at work that was treated this way years ago and it still looked great.



Here's a mix recipe, but not his. I forgot to get it from him. Large can of Butcher brand bowling alley wax, 1/2 cup boiled linseed oil, thinner as necessary, and a couple of teaspoons of Jap dryer. Heat wax until melted and mix in all the rest. After it cools, it should be pretty soft, but still form as a solid.

*Because you're heating the metal to that high of temperature, I don't think adding Jap dryer is necessary. How much thinner is a matter of choice, controlled by how thin you want the mix. I would say, just enough to make it workable.



On the subject of bees wax, here's my two cents :-) Bee's wax is snowy white when the bees first draw out the comb, but all the walking around on it they do with their little dirty pollen covered feet, quickly turns it first yellowish then brown. Yes, I'm also a bee keeper. For those of you that aren't, why not? It's great fun. There's bee keepers in NY city, so you can do it anywhere.

In conversation with Peter Ross, He didn't think that the use of bee's wax was common (Expensive) in the old days. It's just something we modern day smiths have started doing, thinking it was the old way. Of course, I could easily have misunderstood him. However, if it's bee's wax you want, any bee supply catalog will sell blocks of wax. As an example: Brushy Mountain Bee Farm - 1 800 BEESWAX sells wax for $4 a pound. As will any candle craft catalog.

[Golden_eagle]

I Just have to wash the sticky mess off the reject from our hives. But its worth the work...