Thread Wax, What Is This?

[janaka]

encounter this funny looking thing that the shop said it's for waxing thread, a cobbler came into the shop and i grabbed this change to ask him. he said yes, they had been using for waxing thread. hmm... so i bought one to try it myself.

it's easy to use as compare to previously where i used to iron candle wax into threads, and it has mild aroma. the only thing i don't like about it is that it tend to be a little too sticky.

anyone know what this is?

[gst +8, 29/1/2013 0038h] oh it's beeswax...

Edited January 28, 2013 by janaka

[Matt S]

Probably beeswax and pine rosin (dried sap). The stickiness helps the stitches to lock together.

[Cyberthrasher]

Looks like the piece of beeswax I cut off my block for the wife the other night. I rolled it up so the pieces would bind back together and that's exactly what it looked like.

[janaka]

oh... thank you guys, i thought beeswax supposedly to be more light yellowish, which i found when i ran through drawers from the shop, those are in clean bright yellow and much more harder.

[Cyberthrasher]

with the color it might have something else mixed in too like Matt was saying. Mine's dark, but it doesn't have those swirls in it. It's pretty tacky though which helps a lot.

[J Hayes]

Probably beeswax and pine rosin (dried sap). The stickiness helps the stitches to lock together.

+1

Jeremy

[Les No6]

Matt’s right its bees wax and rosin, here some I made on the left is brown wax, bees wax and rosin, in the middle, harness makers black wax my own recipe, pitch, rosin and a bit of bees wax and on the right harness makers black wax traditional recipe, pitch, rosin and a bit of oil, winter mix. These are the best thread wax’s to use the purpose is to protect the thread and to glue the stitches in place.

[electrathon]

To help me understand: Isn't rosin cooked pine sap? I had some sap, cooked it and mixed it (on a double boiler). Mixed it in with some bees wax (about 90% wax). It worked but the two did not really want to mix, took constant stiring. Like oil and water just not as bad. Poored it into a mold and now have little cakes of it. Seems far more sticky than the wax alone, which I believe is the idea. Did I do it right or an I way off here?

[Matt S]

Yep rosin is pine sap without the volatiles like turpentine. Wax and rosin don't mix without help so what I do is pour the melted mix into a pot of cold water, then use my hands to mix it as it cools, like making taffy/toffee. It'll get paler as you work it. Watch for hotspots in a large batch even if the outside is cool. WARNING: COAD MIX CAN BURN YOU. BE VERY CAREFUL AND IF YOU BURN YOURSELF DON'T TELL YOUR WIFE IT WAS MY FAULT.

Les I would be interested to know your exact mix for black wax. What type of pitch and oil do you use?

[Les No6]

Yes its cooked pine sap if you are collecting your own by tapping pine trees which I haven’t done you have to cook the sap for quite a long time to drive off all the water and volatiles, also if the land owner catches you hacking lumps out of his trees I don’t think he will be best pleasedJ. The easiest way is to collect the rosin from the trees which oozes out of wounds and dries out, once you get your eye in it easy to spot, you’ll need an old stout knife and a container I take two one for the nice clean rosin for the brown wax and one for the dirtier rosin for the black wax, this need less cooking it needs to be cooked until its hard and brittle when cool, just take a bit out and put it in cold water to check if its ready. You can buy it also which is nice and clean and isn’t expensive. And you want 50, 50 mix Matt describes the process perfectly be sure to use wet hands.

Matt;

Same process for the black wax equal amounts of pitch (same stuff they tar roofs and roads with its very cheap ask a roofer for a bit) and rosin the amount of oil depends on the ambient temperature when its very warm in summer you don’t need any in Winter the wax would be too hard and brittle, the problem with this is that wax mixed for winter is no good in summer just melts an vise versa, linseed oil is the oil I use but you can use any oil its not critical. If you use bees wax instead of oil use about 5% and the wax is good for all seasons

[TwinOaks]

As an aside regarding beeswax: It is available in varying shades of yellow, or white. The difference is that the the white wax is only the caps of the comb, while yellow has wax from all over the hive....in short, it's cleaner. Functionally, there's no difference.

[Matt S]

Thanks Les I'll give that a go, I have a lump of road tar somewhere round here.

[electrathon]

When I cooked the pine sap it did get pretty stiff in the pan when it first cooled (I reheated it and then mixed it). I thought I had overheated it but it did flow out when I reheated it. Never got runny like wax though, it was pretty thick. Next time I will look for more clean sap, it really was tough to get the crud out of it.

Now as to mixing tar into the mix for sewing, this just seems sort of grose to me. I work for a road department and tar is sticky, dirty, nasty. Not sure I would want my leather smelling like that.

[pcox]

when I use hot wax in my Landis #1 I use beeswax and beef tallow. The moreheat cycles the wax goes thru the harder it getts a smcll chunk of tallow from time to time keeps it softer and it lubes better. I use beeswax from my own bees I use brood comb wax whitch is very dark with pollen. To clean it I melt it in water and the wax will float and the dirt sinks to the bottom. For rosin I go to the music store and get acake useed to rosin Violin bow strings.