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I Forge Iron

Bees Wax


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If anyone uses beeswax to finish their hand-wrought treasures, I found this site that sells one pound blocks for $7 including postage; Rudy's Honey - Livingston Texas I switched from beeswax to parafin wax when my only source was Woodcraft and they must think beeswax is yellow gold. Besides, the bees just look better when you wax them with real beeswax...

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Other overlooked thing about beeswax is that is it more porous than paraffin,so atmospheric humidity can affect surface of your finished product in short time.Here is my recipe for black paraffin:Melt down desired amount of this material and then add blob of asphalt(leftover from road builders).Stir gently for some time.After a few minutes that blob is gonna be smaller,but never truly dissolves,so take it out.Melting point of asphalt is higher,but in this case it doesn't matter 'cos goal is to have black paraffin.Enjoy

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Shipping from Brushy Mountain was $8.53 bringing the total cost to $12.53. Rudys Honey is $7 per pound INCLUDING SHIPPING.

Drenched in Flame, before there was Rustoleum, smiths would wipe bees wax onto their newely minted products to inhibit rust...at least for a while. It is applied while the iron is at a low heat, say 150-200F. If you apply it too hot, it will just burn off. If you get it to melt onto the surface and it looks wet, spread/wipe it out smooth and just let it cool and polish it up. And don't forget to wire brush the iron to a shine BEFORE you wax it.

Jan, your receipe sounds pretty waterproof! I use bees wax just because it is a traditional finish to forged items. If I want it to last outdoors, your stuff sounds effective but so is paint.

Edited by Quenchcrack
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The only experience I have with waxing metal is on foot traps. I put water in a half fifty gallon drum with black walnut hulls in the liquid in a sack. The sack prevents the debris from the hulls from getting into the liquid. The water will turn black from the hulls and becames my dye. After cooks for half hour or so at a roaring boil, I remove the sack and put in my traps. I boil the traps for another half hour. Then I remove the traps from the drum and let them hang to dry. I have another pot with parafin wax in it at about 300 degrees F. I dip the traps in till the trap reachs the temp of the wax, about a minute. When I remove the traps they have a very thin even coating of wax. I do this to prevent rust when the traps are in use. I don't know if this relates to wax on projects or not.

Paul

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Jan, cow horns? What did they do, rendure them like horses hooves and apply the molten goo to the ironwork? Yuk! I may still try your black parafin recipe if I can find some blacktop down here.



LoL,I DID apply cow horn on hot stuff one day at some demo in Ireland and there was that woman,making faces first,then shouting:Stop it!STOP IT!!!!
She was behaving like at dirty protest demo,really,but I kept going.
It was my demo,after all and sometimes I like to see my spectators suffer,to let them know that this job is NOT easy one.;)
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Last time I bought some at a conference, it was $6.00/pound. So, $7 shipped isn't too bad.

I have a line on some local beekeepers as a wax source. Know of one guy who wants to sell 200 pounds at $4.00/pd. I didn't have the extra cash to buy it all at once. If I knew I could unload it all and make a few bucks for my time, I could probably still get it, provided he didn't want an inflated price for it now.:rolleyes:

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You can buy asphalt cutback from pro paint stores (lotsa painters use it for staining). Really though I'd probably just mix in a little black artist's oil paint... the linseed will add significantly to the protective qualities of the mixture and the pigment will get it real black. Mortar colorant would work too, it's just powdered pigment... you should be able to get black mortar color at Lowes or HD.

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  • 8 months later...

I know it's been a while on this thread, but I stopped in at a local "craft" store and a pound of beeswax was selling for $17.99:o

I went to Rudy's link at the top of the thread and, although his pirce did go up to $9 per lb, it is still free shipping:D

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