But a word of warning – this is a right palaver!

The process involves 7 steps:

1. Wax selection and harvest
2. Rendering
3. Preparing the show mould
4. Cleaning the wax
5. Pouring the mould
6. Cooling
7. De-moulding

1. Wax selection and harvest

Wax should be gathered from hives where there is not much propolis as this can darken it. Only super cappings should be used and these should be the cappings from clean, freshly drawn frames preferably of  heather honey as these produce the finest whitest waxes.  Only the best frames should be used and select at least twice as many as required to allow for disasters. These frames should be uncapped into a clean uncapping tray and the cappings left to drain. The following day wash the cappings in rainwater then spread them out on paper to dry.  Or pile them into a pillow case, tie the neck and spin-dry!

When dry, you can pick through them for any foreign bodies or discoloured pieces. Be ruthless – if in doubt throw it out.

2. Rendering

First, render the raw wax down into a block using a Pyrex Jug in a water bath. Pyrex does not react with wax. The water bath can be as simple as a large saucepan. If possible, set the jug on low wire grid in the water bath to raise it off the floor of the pan. This is to prevent excessive heat at the bottom of the jug. Simmer gently to prevent splashes. Remove the wax as soon as it has melted and is runny enough to go flow through a fine cloth.

Finally run the wax through the fine cloth and pour into a mould or moulds.

You now have some relatively clean beeswax but it will contain impurities so those have to be removed and the cleaned wax cast into a suitable mould.

3. Preparing the Show Mould

A Pyrex or stainless steel mould is ideal and it should be carefully examined to make sure there are no flaws as these will show up in the cake.

The show schedule will give the required weight and any other criteria. So, you have the weight but how to get the right amount into the mould?

1. Wax and water weigh approximately the same.  Also, 1 fluid ounce of water weights 1 ounce 0r 100mls of water weighs 100g. So use a  measuring jug and pour the measured water into the wax mould.
2. Mark the water level in the mould on the outside of the mould with a waterproof marker or a little strip of duct tape;
3. Next, place empty the mould in a water bowl – perhaps a washing-up bowl and hold it down with one hand while you pour in sufficient water to come just below the mark from step 4. ;
4. Measure the amount of water in the bowl or reserve the water.

Next prepare the mould for casting by washing it thoroughly in hot water and detergent then dry it carefully on a linen cloth – linen being famous for being lint-free. Add 2 or 3 drops of both soft water and detergent (Padmore) or washing up liquid and glycerine (Williams) and rub all over the inside of the mould until it seems dry. Alternatively, spray with silicone – available from candle making equipment suppliers. Silicone makes everything slippery as fish.

4. Cleaning the wax

Dust, hairs, flies – all of these things will ruin your wax cake so be sure to exclude sources of these and set the time aside so you will not be disturbed. Turn off the phone. Exclude pets, children, nosy parkers etc. If you can, wear a white coat or at least an apron, and a hat too. Heat your oven to a low setting to warm your equipment.

• Start by re-melting the rendered wax in the Pyrex jug in the water bath.
• When melted, remove immediately and pour the wax through a very fine cloth into another clean, warmed Pyrex jug.
• Carefully clean the first jug immediately while it is still warm and keep it warm and dry. Or, if you are made of money, you could have a third Pyrex jug in readiness.
• Repeat, but this time run it through filter paper into the cleaned Pyrex jug.
• Each time you do this throw away the dregs as these may contain impurities.
• Cover the jug with cling film and keep it warm.

5. Pouring the mould

First heat the wax in the Pyrex jug in the water bath again, but not above 90ºC or the wax will denature. While you are doing this, heat the reserved water to about 66ºC and heat the mould and the glass lid in the oven until slightly too hot to handle. Use your imagination how to safely test this one!

You will be ready to pour when the wax is within 1º of 70ºC. Pour the reserved, heated water into the bowl.  Float your mould in it and make sure it is steady. Then wipe the outside of the jug and gently pour a steady stream of wax into the centre of the mould taking great care not to splash or to set the mould rocking which would cause the wax to lap up the sides of the mould. Fill to the level marked on outside of mould from step 4 – it should come to rest on the bottom of the mould. Now look for any air bubbles and if you see any, quickly prick them with a warm skewer. Finally, place the hot glass plate over the top or the mould. This will keep the top of the wax mould hot and give a nice smooth, glossy surface. For reference, let’s call this entire arrangement of bowl of water, floating mould of wax plus the glass plate – the ‘Kit and Caboodle’.

6. Slow Cooling using the Oven Method

Ron Brown in his book ‘Beeswax’ describes a method of very slow cooling using the oven! Slow cooling prevents a cracking or a rippled surface.

First check the oven is level and if it isn’t – level it.

At an appropriate time, take two clean housebricks and place them in an old baking tin and put it on a shelf near the top of your oven. Check there is space on a lower shelf for the Kit and Caboodle.

Heat the oven to about 100ºC for about half an hour to heat the bricks, then drop the temperature to about 70ºC till you are ready. When you have got your bowl full of warm water, poured your wax into the mould and added the sheet of glass, turn off the oven and gently place the Kit and Caboodle into the oven and go to bed.  But make sure you have turned the oven off.

7. De-moulding

In the morning, when the wax is completely cold, see if you can pursuade it out. If it won’t oblige, you could plunge it into a bucket of cold water and with luck the wax will float free although it might take its time. Or you could try putting it into the fridge, or even the freezer for a while.

When it does come out, handle it with great care. Dry it gently with a towel but do not rub the moulded side. The idea is to remove any loose bits and pieces that would otherwise come off on the judge when he is handling it without destroying the beautiful smooth surface.

Check carefully for any impurities, cracks, hairs or any other flaws. If it’s perfect give yourself a round of applause. Otherwise, prepare to do it all over again.

Transport to the show with great care preferably in a protective case and show on velvet (Williams).

Click here for how to render beeswax

Click here for the properties of beeswax

Click here for  how to make mead from beeswax cappings

Calder,M. Recipes using Beeswax. Northern Bee Books. West Yorkshire. U.K.

Brown,B. Beeswax. Northern Bee Books. Scout Bottom Ln, Scout Rd, Mytholmroyd, Hebden Bridge,UK https://www.northernbeebooks.co.uk/products/brown-beeswax/

Hooper,T. Guide to Bees and Honey. Blandford, London. 1991.

Lindsey,F. About the Apiary. Wellington Beekeepers Association. 2001.

Manley,R.O.B. Honey Farming. Faber and Faber. London. 1946.

Padmore,F. Wax for Show (No.3). ).B.B.K.A. National Honey Show Publication. https://honeyshow.co.uk/shop/index.php/product/wax-for-show/

Witherell,P.C. Other Products of the Hive. In The Hive and the Honey Bee. Ed. Dadant & Sons. Dadant & Sons. Hamilton. Illinois. USA.

Williams,R. Beeswax for Show. In Bees, Hives and Honey – The Beekeeper’s Companion. Ed. Eddie O’Sulllivan.FIBKA. Ireland. 2000.

Thorne,E.H. Beekeeping Equipment. Wragby, Lincs. 2002-2003 http://www.thorne.co.uk

Most recipes will start you ‘grating’ your beeswax which is horrible – if one day your are feeling particularly smug or happy – grating a bit of beeswax should set you straight again. It’s also the best way I know to destroy every cheese-grater known to man not to mention fingernails and knuckles. The sharper the grater the more dangerous it becomes and fingernails and strips of skin do not add to the aesthetics of your wraps.

Also, many recipes use pine resin or ‘rosin’. This is a by-product of turpentine production and, apparently it gives the  wraps a slightly tacky feel so they will stick together when you parcel up your sandwiches or whatever. Unfortunately you’re unlikely to find rosin in the supermarket.  If you are a musician, you might have some or know where to find some – my Uncle used to apply it to his violin bow – I suppose the tackiness makes for a more satisfying screech.

But rosin is not essential – there are alternatives such as hairy string or rubber bands – which are widely available. Hairy string has rustic charm and makes for a very attractive parcel. Another alternative is to employ the ancient art of origami and fold your beeswax wraps into a novelty lunch box. A second one, slightly larger, can be used as a lid.

Time
About an hour

Materials
An old baking sheet
Tin foil
100% cotton cloth
Unwired beeswax foundation
Sunflower oil
A piece of string. Don’t ask how long.

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 100 degrees C;
2. Cover an old baking tray with tin foil – it needs to cover the base and go up over the sides with no holes or tears.
3. Tie up a length of string like a clothesline somewhere handy;
4. Cut some squares of cotton cloth – use pinking shears if possible to prevent fraying.  At about 10″x10″, my squares were a bit on the small side but there was just enough wax mixture for the 6. The size you use is up to you but they do need to be slightly smaller than the baking tray and the bigger they are of course, the more wax they will use;
5. Weigh 50 grams of unwired beeswax foundation and arrange it on the baking tray;
6. Sprinkle over 10 grams of sunflower oil;
7. Place the tray in the oven for 5 minutes or until wax has melted;
8. Take out the tray.  Give it a bit of a swirl to make sure the oil and wax are mixed then add your first cloth square;
9. Put the tray back into the oven for a couple of minutes;
10. Remove the tray and lay your second cloth square on top of the first – if there is space around the edges – off-set it slightly – aim to cover the whole baking sheet so the cotton can wick the wax out of the corners.
11. Then get hold of both squares together by one edge and turn them over so the fresh one is on the bottom. It shouldn’t be hot enought to burn you unless your oven thermostat is malfunctioning or you are a total wimp but be a bit careful about splattering wax everywhere.
12. Repeat steps 9 and 10 until all your squares are in the tin.
13. You will know when to stop because the wax will have been all used up and your last square will take time to get impregnated;
14. Remove the cloth squares one by one, hold aloft and gently waft for a few seconds then drape them over the string to set – it’ll only take a few minutes. If they start to stick together in the tin put it back in the oven for a bit.

Click here for how to render beeswax

Click here for more about beeswax

Click here for more recipes

Click here for how to fill your teeth with beeswax

Click here for more about pine resin or ‘rosin’

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If you are young and your teeth are white and shiny – then there probably is a stone in the mix and as long as you don’t crunch it – all will be well.

However, if you are not so young and your teeth are rickety like mine – there’s probably a lump of dentistry in there. And you know what that means don’t you. Dentist is what it means. Usually.

However, for us  beekeepers there is another possible, albeit temporary solution. Read on…

Stone Age Dentistry

In times gone by, before dentists were even thought of, beeswax was often used to fill teeth. Mr.Google will tell you that the oldest examples are up 9,500 years old. Here is a picture of a beeswax filling from 6,500 years ago in Slovenia.

The owner of this tooth was a 24-30 year old man and the beeswax would have sealed his tooth protecting the exposed dentine.

Dentine, Enamel and Pulp

Dentine is the substance that sits beneath the protective enamel layer of the tooth. It contains thousands of little tubules leading to the central ‘pulp’ region of the tooth where all the nerves live. When the enamel is chipped, or cracked, or rotted away the dentine  is exposed and all those little tubules conduct messages about heat, cold, sugar, acid etc direct to the nerves in the pulp. Oh that hurts, that really really hurts.

The Mother of Invention

In the absence of a dentist – necessity becomes the mother of invention and not just for Stone Age men. Last week, a large lump of tooth turned up in my breakfast mouthful. It left what felt like huge hole with rough edges in the side of my tooth. Mercifully, there was no nerve pain but very soon the rough edges began to rasp away at the edge of my tongue. As luck would have it – it was a Sunday!

By Monday, my tongue would be in tatters, so like Stone Age man I started to think about beeswax.

Method.

If you cut a small piece of beeswax and put it into your mouth, after a while it will warm up and become malleable. At this point break a piece off about the size of the hole in your tooth, shape it into a little pellet, introduce it gently into the hole and squeeze it firmly into place until it stays put.

If it stands a bit pround – ‘close and grind’ your teeth together carefully. Bear in mind it might not work first time and you might need to take several runs at it. But after the second attempt mine stuck like glue and that’s two weeks ago now.

I know it’s a temporary measure and that very soon I will have to pick up the phone and phone the dentist but I’m ever so busy and I know what she’s going to do – she’s going grind my tooth down to a point and all being well, she’s going to make me a crown. If all is not well, she is going to do root canal work and it’s going to be horrible.

Meanwhile, in my shed is a beeswax mountain sufficient for as many as 3.5 million dental plugs and that should be enough to last me for the rest of my natural life.

So now it’s turning out to be Procrastination that’s the Mother of Invention.

Click here for beeswax facts

Click here for beeswax lipbalm recipe

Click here for beeswax handcream recipe

Click here for beeswax furniture polish recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

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They are out working away in every patch of sunshine and this picture shows the colour of the pollen loads – a much stronger yellow than willow or rape. Inside the hives, everything is bright yellow with dandelion pollen. A little honey is appearing in the supers, it is very yellow quick to granulate and has a bit of a bitter aftertaste but the smell around the hives is wonderful – sort of waxy and musky.

Click here to see what bees can do with a dandelion flow and an Apiguard eke.

Also coming in is sycamore Acer pseudoplatanus and horse chestnut Aesculus hippocastanum.

Sycamore pollen is a sort of snot green while horse chestnut is a very striking dark crimson although you will often see it described as ‘brick red’.

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014.  All Rights Reserved.

For a start there’s the matter of CAUSTIC SODA. Note the capital letters there; those are there as a mark of Respect. When using Caustic Soda, be on your Toes because it is a VERY NASTY chemical indeed. Wear gloves, don’t spill it and don’t blame me if you do.

When mixed with water it gets hot and when you then mix that solution with a mixture of fats and oils you get a very strong chemical reaction during which more heat is produced and the end result is soap.

Then there’s the beeswax. Beeswax, as we know, is about the most recalcitrant substance known to man so don’t spill that either. It is also flammable – click here for more beeswax facts. Its effects on soap and the making of it, even in tiny quantities are profound.

For a start, in order to melt the beeswax you have to heat the oils much hotter than you normally would. Then, even a 1% addition of beeswax will cause the soap to thicken very quickly. If you are an experienced soap maker you will have gathered I am not! Nevertheless, here is a recipe for beeswax soap I’ve concocted – it works, it makes a lovely sudsy soap and I’m still here to tell the tale.

Ingredients

•  65g NaOH (Caustic Soda),
• 116g Water;
• 70g Olive oil;
• 263g Coconut oil;
• 112g Sunflower oil;
• 10g clean, grated Beeswax;
• 2 tsp Lavender oil.

Method

1. Put beeswax, sunflower, olive and coconut oils in a pan and heat very gently till the beeswax has melted;
2. Weigh the water and put it in a pyrex jug or similar;
3. Get your rubber gloves on;
4. Carefully weigh caustic soda;
5. Carefully pour the caustic soda into the jug with the water and stir with the butt end of a wooden spoon – get all the grains aloft and swirling then put the jug somewhere safe and leave it alone;
6. Grease your soap mould – such as an old loaf tin – with a lump of coconut oil;
7. Get your hand blender ready;
8. When the beeswax has melted, stir the oils with a spatula just to get them well mixed;
9. Allow the mixture to cool a little, you can stand it in water bath or just let it cool naturally, till you see it beginning to congeal on the base of the pan;
10. Pour in the caustic soda/water mixture and stir gently (with the mixer turned off) then add your lavender;
11. Now turn the mixer on and give it what-for. It should turn a nice golden colour and start to thicken;
12. When it looks like a cake batter, pour it into your soap mould;
13. Wrap the whole thing in clingfilm and old towels to keep the heat in and leave it till it’s set;

Once set and still a bit warm turn it out of the mould and cut it up into bars. If yours is like mine you will notice that the lovely golden colour has gone away and the soap is now a warm ivory.

If you are unsure of what quantities of ingredients to use, there are several online resources for soapmakers. soapcalc.net has an online soap calculator which allows you to add in your oil ingredients and water as percentages of the total oils and it will give you the correct amount of caustic soda to use.

The table below shows the output when I input the oils and beeswax in my recipe above.  The pink row (Lye – NaOH) shows the amount of Caustic Soda to use.

Click here to go to the soapcalc soap calculator

Click here for simple beeswax wraps

Click here for how to render beeswax

Click here for beeswax facts

Click here for beeswax lipbalm recipe

Click here for beeswax handcream recipe

Click here for beeswax furniture polish recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

Click here for emergency home  dental repairs with beeswax

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

For the beekeeper, honey is probably the most profitable part of the harvest but it is not the only one. The next most important crop, for most, is beeswax, of which there are three sources:

• Cappings from your honey extraction;
• Old combs;
• Scrapings from hive.

Beeswax has a thousand and one cosmetic and domestic uses but unless a good price can be assured the most fundamental use for the beeswax crop is as new foundation.

What is Rendering?

Before the beekeeper can embark on any wax venture he/she must render the wax. Rendering beeswax means to melt it and separate it from physical impurities such as propolis, mouldy pollen, larval moults and chalkbrood mummies. Once rendered, spores of disease-causing organisms such as Nosema and American Foul Brood are harmlessly encapsulated within the body of the wax. Eggs of things like wax moth are killed by the heat.

What temperature?

To filter out the rubbish, the wax must first be melted so that it is runny enough to be strained. Beeswax melts at 62ºC but this temperature is not hot enough for it to run through a cloth or other strainer – it will just cool too quickly and clog up before you can say knife. If melted in water or in some kind of a water bath then the heat cannot rise to instantly damaging temperatures. In fact you can take it all the way up to close to the boiling point of water without damage then it will run through your cloth no problem. However it is damaged by prolonged or excessive heat and will discolour to a murky olive – so don’t leave it boiling for ages and ages. Oh and by the way, it will ignite if presented with a naked flame – so don’t do that either.

Once melted, the wax can be separated from the aforementioned detritus by some sort of straining method.

The horrible stuff left in the strainer – that dark brown mess of dead larvae, pupal shirts (yes – ‘shirts’) and old chalk brood etc is called ‘slumgum’. Slumgum is a disgusting mess but great for lighting fires or priming swarm catchers: just slap it around the insides of your bait hives – while still warm of course.

How pure does it need to be?

Rendering beeswax is the first step in the purification process. The cakes of wax from this first straining are only partially clean – see header photo above – but beekeeping equipment suppliers will accept this standard of wax in exchange for foundation.

I should add that you won’t get much wax like this from combs as grotty as those above. Old comb is a great firelighter and that’s what it’s best used for but unless you want a chimney fire make sure your flue is clean because it burns ferociously. For the finest purest beeswax, stick to the burr or brace comb you have scraped off the hives during the summer or better still the cappings from your extraction.

To get really pure beeswax is a two step process. Render it first to get rid of the big rubbish then if you want it pure enough for soap or cosmetics – break it up, melt again and strain through a very fine cloth.

The Process

Here are some of the many ways of rendering beeswax for foundation where priorities are sterilisation and economy:

• One of the simplest rendering methods must be Witherell’s boil-up-and-strain method. The combs are placed in cold water and brought to the boil, once melted the whole lot is strained through a 3mm mesh. When the ‘liquor’ cools the wax will set in a slab on top of the water.
• A variation of this is Witherell’s submerged sack, or boil-in-the-bag, method. Here the combs are tied up in a sack and plunged into a vessel of water which is then brought slowly to the boil. The sack is given the odd poke with a stick to let the wax float free.
• Witherell’s third method involves wrapping an entire brood box, full of old combs in their frames, in 3mm mesh then plunging the whole lot into a vat of water and soaking from ‘several minutes to several hours’. The water is then brought to a slow boil and allowed to cool so that the wax hardens on the surface of the water. That sounds impractical to me – don’t you think?
• A simple one, for small-scale bits and pieces, is the water bath method (Williams). The wax cappings etc wrapped in a pair of old tights or similar are placed in a jug which is in turn placed in pan of water. The water is brought slowly to a gentle boil and when the wax is melted, the tights (containing the debris) can be removed and the clean wax can be poured into a suitable mould for use later.
• The solar extractor is an insulated wooden box with a double glazed glass panel for a lid. Inside there is a metal tray emptying into a removable container. The old combs are placed inside and the whole box is angled to catch as much sun as possible. If the combs are wrapped in muslin then the wax will come out ready filtered. According to Hooper the sun will produce temps of 71-88ºC, however he is talking about the broiling south east of England – temperatures in Ireland could be expected to be a bit lower. The heat produced will also sterilise frames of Nosema spores and wax moth eggs. The solar extractor only extracts 20-50% of wax (Witherell) but it has the advantage of low operating costs.
• A steam wax extractor is a bit like vegetable steamer in that there is a lower vessel containing the water above which, is a steamer containing the vegetables or in this case the wax. When the water is heated to boiling, the steam is forced up into the steamer, the wax is melted and it is run off a side vent into a suitable container. Steam wax extractors are not cheap – but they do have the advantage that they can extract almost all useable wax.
• A variation on the steam wax extractor is the steam press. This is like a steam extractor in that there is a lower water container but the upper chamber consists of a press. The combs are wrapped in the filter cloth of choice and placed in the press then the water is brought up to boiling. As the steam rises up and starts to melt the wax, downward pressure can be applied to the bag of combs to force the wax out of the slumgum.
• Mr.R.O.B.Manley had one of the above but was rather disenchanted with it so he used it as a press only. He would just toss all the bits of old comb into the 20 gallon boiler he used for syrup along with gallons of rainwater. As it melted he would scoop out basins full of ‘mush’ into a sack. The sack was then put into the press under a specially made, round, flat, disk and pressure applied by means of “the heavy lathe cut screw and its spider”. The wax was run out into a large tank of rainwater “where it would solidify in all sorts of queer shapes”.
• Witherell mentions a variation of the steam extractor that instead of pressing the slumgum, spins it to extract the remaining wax centrifugally – this is the Heated Centrifuge Method. It finds little favour with Witherell though; he describes it as messy and cumbersome and more for use by professional rendering plants. Dear oh dear.

The Kochstar Melter

The ‘New’ Kochstar Wax Melter (as described in the Thorne Catalogue) is a thermostatically controlled tank to heat the wax to between 30 and 100ºC. It comes equipped with two taps, one near the bottom to run the water out and another about 4″ up to run the wax from off the top of the water because as you know – like butter, beeswax floats on water.

I bought one of these and I remain disenchanted with it. Thorne’s have instructions on their website and I’ve followed them to the letter without success. The taps have a very narrow bore so they are easily blocked by even one little cocoon and if you do want to run wax off through the top tap you will need to get it very hot or it sets in the tap and blocks it. I made a lagging jacket for it which helped a bit but not much.

My Process

Nowadays I put a trivet into the bottom of my Kochstar boiler then drape a large cloth (old net curtains from charity shops are great) with 2-3mm mesh over the top which I the fill with the various horrible bits of old wax followed by a gallon or so of rainwater and press the lid down with the edges of the cloth still hanging out over the edges. The trivet is necessary or the cloth will sink to the bottom; the element heats the bottom of the tank to a very fierce heat and if the cloth is synthetic it will stick and then it will melt and then it will burn despite the water – much like an overheated stew. This is the bitter voice of experience of both those things.

Once the beeswax is well-melted you can lift the cloth up and hold it aloft to drain a bit then slap it onto a cold concrete floor – mind your shoes – where the slumgum will solidify and can be peeled away from the cloth in the morning.

Don’t do this in the kitchen!

Don’t overheat beeswax or it will turn nasty shade of olive.

Pour the beeswax and the water into a plastic bucket, put a lid on it and let it cool. The wax will rise to the surface and set in a cake. Once it is completely cold you can tip it out. Scrape the crud off its bottom and it should look like the ones in the header photo above. That’s Millie in the background.

Further info:

Click here for beeswax facts

Click  here for a simple way to make beeswax wraps

Click here for beeswax lipbalm recipe

Click here for beeswax handcream recipe

Click here for beeswax furniture polish recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

Click here for home dentistry with beeswax

Sources

Hooper,T. Guide to Bees and Honey. Blandford, London. 1991.

Manley,R.O.B. Honey Farming. Faber and Faber. London. 1946.

Witherell,P.C. Other Products of the Hive. In The Hive and the Honey Bee. Ed. Dadant & Sons. Dadant & Sons. Hamilton. Illinois. USA.

Williams,R. Beeswax for Show. In Bees, Hives and Honey – The Beekeeper’s Companion. Ed. Eddie O’Sulllivan. FIBKA. Ireland. 2000.

http://www.thorne.co.uk

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

It’ll calm your hair down in an emergency as well.

You can add a few drops of the essential oil of your choice – lavender is good, it has healing properties. Some people prefer peppermint. Or there’s always orange. Put essential oils in last of all and don’t get your mixture any hotter than it needs to be or all those special properties will vaporise.

Ingredients

• 65g sunflower oil;
• 25g clean beeswax – grated;
• vitamin E oil as preservative – about 10 drops;
• essential oil of your choice – about 12 drops. Lavender is very healing – I recommend it.

Method

• Put oil and beeswax in double saucepan or water bath;
• Heat gently until wax is just melted;
• Add vitamin E and optional essential oils and stir;
• Pour into pots – this will make enough for about 15 x 10ml pots.

As always be careful with beeswax and heat.

Click here for beeswax facts

Click here for rendering beeswax

Click  here for a simple way to make beeswax wraps

Click here for beeswax handcream recipe

Click here for beeswax furniture polish recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

Click here for home dentistry with beeswax

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Only use genuine turpentine – it’s expensive but it smells lovely. Don’t be tempted to use white spirit in place of turpentine or it will smell horrible. Do remember turpentine is an extremely volatile substance – keep well away from naked flames and work in a well ventilated room.

Beeswax is also very flammable so don’t get that near naked flames either.

Just be careful and don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Carnauba wax is a hard wax of plant origin which will help make the shine last longer. It is available from beekeeping suppliers such as Thornes.

Ingredients:

• 8oz clean beeswax
• 1oz carnauba wax
• 1pt pure turpentine

Method:

• Melt the waxes together in double saucepan/waterbath;
• Warm the turpentine;
• Pour the turpentine into the melted wax;
• Stir and pour into pots or tins.

Click here for beeswax facts

Click  here for a simple way to make beeswax wraps

Click here for beeswax lipbalm recipe

Click here for beeswax handcream recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

Click here for home dentistry with beeswax

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If you’re not planning to eat it you could add fragrance but it’s lovely as it is. Just apply sparingly as possible and try and keep it off your palms because it doesn’t contain those chemicals that make it vanish into your skin.

If you do get greasy palms – rub it on your head. Your hair will be glossy as a colt’s back and even on a very windy day – it’ll hold it all down nicely.

Weigh everything including the water.

Ingredients

• 50g spotlessly clean beeswax
• 200g jojoba oil
• 200g almond oil
• 200g soft water
• 10 g borax

Method

• This will make 9 x 50ml pots so get them ready first;
• Measure oils into a pyrex bowl;
• Break up beeswax and add to oils;
• Set pyrex bowl in pan of hot water and set on low heat to melt wax;
• When beeswax is melted put water and borax into a jar, mix then warm this mixture so it is the same temperature as the oil etc;
• Pour oil/beeswax mixture and boraxed water both together at the same time into a bowl and stir;
• A creamy mixture will form and you need to get it into pots before it sets and it will set quite quickly.

Click here for how to render beeswax

Click here for simple beeswax wraps

Click here for beeswax facts

Click here for beeswax lipbalm recipe

Click here for beeswax furniture polish recipe

Click here for beeswax soap recipe

Click here for beeswax candlemaking

Click here for emergency home  dental repairs with beeswax

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014. All Rights Reserved.

Remove the wedge cleanly or it won’t sit properly when you put the wax in. It doesn’t matter too much with wired wax, but if you’re using unwired wax the wedge won’t grip it properly. If necessary shave the area clean with a nice sharp chisel.

Assemble frame as above. Side bars must have grooves facing inwards for the wax. Insert one bottom bar only. Don’t nail it yet.

Slide the wax into the grooves in the side bars and bend the three long wire loops perpendicular to fit the top of the frame.

Replace the wedge thus and fix with 3 pins, each one catching a wire loop. Slant the pins so they won’t pierce the top bar. The correct frame nails to use are 10mm ‘gimp pins’ which are black lacquered so they won’t rust.

Make sure the frame is square then hammer in the remaining pins thus. There should be 9 pins in all – any more and they’re wasted. Three in the wedge, two in each bottom bar and one into the flat side of each side bar where it meets the top bar.

Copyright © Beespoke.info, 2014. All Rights Reserved.