Cleaning Wax Off Waxed Thread?

[Rocket6R]

I’ve got some Tandy black waxed 5 cord thread. There’s so much wax on it that I get wax all over the leather and the awl holes are pretty caked with it. Anyway, is there a good way to remove some or all of the wax? If I remove all of the wax I assume I can re-wax it with beeswax or paraffin, right?

Thanks, Paul

[DavidL]

Tiger thread and fil au chinois thread both have the right amount of wax out the box. Any thread that has too much wax isn't that high of quality, although there are some that are good. Linen thread like barbours comes with no wax.

The way I do it is to thread your needle onto the cord and pull from one end to the other.

[Rocket6R]

Tiger thread and fil au chinois thread both have the right amount of wax out the box. Any thread that has too much wax isn't that high of quality, although there are some that are good. Linen thread like barbours comes with no wax.

The way I do it is to thread your needle onto the cord and pull from one end to the other.

Wow! Thanks for the tip. I took a 24" piece of thread and put one end through the eyelet. I then pulled the thread through the eyelet. I had a BB sized piece of wax that now built up on the eyelet of the needle. I removed the wax ball and examines the 24" of thread. The thread now feels lightly waxed and more appropriate for my stitching work. Thanks for this simple solution.

Paul

[chiefjason]

You can run it through a double piece of pinched leather or cardboard. Or poke an awl hole in scrap leather and pull it through. My thread tends to twist if I pull it through the needle too far.

[Northmount]

Cut off a length of thread you want to use, tie one end to a doorknob or other fixed point, stretch the thread out tight, take a piece of brown paper, or denim and rub the thread briskly. The heat generated from burnishing will help set the wax into the thread, and the paper or denim will collect the excess.

Even after passing the thread through a needle, there is still lots of excess wax. Burnishing with paper or denim works much better.

Tom

[Mudruck]

One thing that I use when I have to use the Tandy thread is a piece of scrap leather with 4 awl holes punched through it in a line. You feed the thread through the holes, one hole threaded up, the next threaded down kind of thing and quickly pull the thread through the leather. It will remove the excess thread and helps to flatten the thread a bit as well.