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making bees wax workable

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Bevan R.:

--- Quote from: Marc St Louis on November 20, 2010, 05:53:23 pm ---I mix it with about 30% P jelly for use as a string wax and it works quite well

--- End quote ---

I assume you mean petroleum jelly?

boo:
I mix my bees wax with deer tallow. Just render down the deer fat, screen the liquid in a bowl, mix around 50/50 with liquid bees wax and your done. I adjust the mixture until i get the constancy i want for different things. I use it on my bows, shooting patches, leather goods, Knife handles, and what ever else i can come up with.
 

JW_Halverson:
I used the 1:3 beeswax to olive oil mix for muzzleloading patches until I learned that it fouls barrels badly on hunid summer days.  Now I use straight deer tallow.

JackCrafty:
I dunno.  I've used straight beeswax on a couple bows and it didn't look too good.  It looked dull and "powdery" after a while.  So I heated the beeswax with a heat gun and rubbed some tung oil into the finish.  Worked like a charm.

You can mix beeswax with just about anything.  If you mix it with fat, it will stay soft.  If you mix it with a drying oil (tung, linseed, walnut) it will harden over time.

CraigMBeckett:
To make beeswax workable for spreading on you bow melt it with pure gum turpentine, this makes a wax paste, the original wax polish used on furniture. Spread it on thinly, let it dry for a while then polish off, repeat as many times as you think necessary to build up a wax skin. I make mine in glass jars with airtight seals, grate the wax chuck it in the jar add a small quantity of turpentine, (don't use mineral turps it is claimed not to be as good as the pure gum type for this particular application), leave for a while then give the mixture a stir. If it is still too stiff or has not all dissolved into a nice workable paste add more turps, if too runny add more wax or leave the lid off to allow some of the turps to evaporate.

By the way I would first treat the bow with a number of coats of linseed oil first, using the application method used by old furniture makers. A coat an hour for a day followed by a coat a day for a week etc. just apply thinly with a lint free cloth then with another cloth remove the excess.

Do not use the paste on your string pure beeswax is best for this, other claim beeswax with a small amount of resin or is it rosin melted into it is good for strings.

Craig

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