Making Coad Or Sticky Wax - The Easy Way...

[Martyn]

I dont think this is actually quite the same as the coad or shoemakers wax you read about because there is no liquid pitch required, but it's damned good nonetheless. It's basically following a recipe Chuck Burrows told me about a few years ago - it's dead simple to make and it works!



What you will need:

Some beeswax
Some Pine resin or rosin



Both can be bought off ebay - or you can collect your own, whichever you prefer. Beeswax comes in a variety of different purities, typically the 'lentils' are the purest form, being a pale straw colour and very free of anything but pure wax. Purity isn't that important here though, so long as it's free of twigs and bits of dead bees, it should be fine.

Pine resin or rosin is also readily available on ebay. It's used in aromatherapy and in the making of incense. It usually appears in the form of little broken rocks. I think when they clean and purify it, they must pour it out into trays and then smash it up with a toffee hammer. Anyway, pick a seller you like the look of and buy some. Doesn't matter which kind really, so long as it's pine resin of some kind, it'll work. I bought mine some time ago to make cutlers resin - same stuff, different recipe.

You'll need a mix of somewhere between 60%-70% beeswax and 30%-40% resin or thereabouts. Approximately one third resin, to two thirds beeswax. It's not critical though, so dont stress over weights and measures, just make sure you've got about twice as much wax as you have resin and you'll be fine.

Nest we're going to turn your little rocks of resin...



...into resin powder. This is easy, if you're using the commercial resin bought off ebay, it's quite brittle. Just put it in a tough plastic bag, put it on something hard and hit it with a hammer. You'll have a bag of resin powder in under a minute.

Next we need a container to make it in. There are lots of options here, but I just went for an old British army mess tin...



Whatever you decide to use, it's probably a good idea to make it 'sacrificial' or permanently earmark it as your wax melting tin. You'll need something to heat it on. I would strongly advise against a naked flame. I'm going to melt mine directly on my halogen hob.

You'll also need something to pour it into. I've read about pouring it into iced water and then pulling it like toffee. I just pour it into a mould. I use a couple of hockey-puck sized ramekins.



I use the ramekins to measure out my ingredients too. Two heaped ramekins of wax beans and one flat ramekin of resin powder. Dump them both into your melting pot, make yourself a stirring stick from a length of old cardboard packaging and it's off to the stove. Dab a paper towel with liquid dish soap and lightly rub some inside the ramekins, this will act as a release agent.

I have no photos of the next stage, because it does require your undivided attention. But it's very simple. Heat the contents of your melting pot over a medium heat until it melts, stirring all the while as soon as you are able. If it starts to smoke, it's way too hot. Take it off the heat and allow to cool a little. Wax takes time to melt, so don't rush it. Heat it gently. The resin powder will go gloopy at first, like half-melted toffee. Just give it time and keep stirring. It'll dissolve into the wax to form a fairly clear, uniform amber liquid. At this stage I add a desert spoonful of olive oil. This lowers the melting point of the wax and makes it softer at room temperature. If you are in a hot country, you could leave this out, your call. When you are happy all the ingredients are fully melted and completely mixed together, take it off the heat, stir it a bit more and let it sit for a moment. This will let any particulates sink to the bottom. Then pour your wax into the moulds. It's a good idea to have the moulds sitting on a piece of baking foil or something, to catch any spills.

Let the wax cool at room temperature for an hour or so, until it's fully solid and cool to the touch, then put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. Freezing the wax causes it to shrink away from the sides of the mould. When you take the moulds out of the freezer, turn them upside down and give them a sharp rap on the table and the wax puck should pop right out. If it doesn't, put it back in the freezer and try again later.

That's it, that's all there is to it. No buckets of iced water or toffee pulling or anything. Let your wax come up to room temperature before using. It looks like wax and feels a bit like wax, but it's softer and much, much stickier. A single light pass is enough to load your thread. It loads the thread much easier than beeswax and it's way stickier. If you rub it, it makes your fingers a little tacky too, which is useful for gripping the needles. It's sticky wax.

Edited March 20, 2016 by Martyn

[MichaelT]

Thanks for sharing. Its so simple I'll have to make some just to try it out.

[Matt S]

Thanks for sharing. Its so simple I'll have to make some just to try it out.

It really is so much better than straight beeswax when using linen thread, I don't know why more people don't use it.

[Martyn]

Double post

Edited March 21, 2016 by Martyn

[Martyn]

It really is so much better than straight beeswax when using linen thread, I don't know why more people don't use it.

I completely agree - but I'm using it on pre-waxed tiger thread too. At least it's supposed to be pre-waxed, but I've found that it varies and awful lot. This sticky wax is so good though, a quick, single pass over the block and you're away. It's dead simple to make and once you've tried it, you wont go back.

The recipe above is actually 'recipe 1' from this article here:

http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/shoe/CODE.HTM

Just to add to the above instructions, the reason some recipes call for 'toffy-pulling', is because they make the coad on a bain-marie type double boiler and the wax doesn't get hot enough to thoroughly melt the resin into an homogeneous mix. So you toffee pull it to mix it, but it's very messy and an awful lot of work. By heating the wax directly on an electric element, you can get it hotter and get a thorough, homogeneous mix directly in the pan. The risk is of course, you are working with very hot wax/resin mix. This stuff is like napalm and capable of inflicting very serious injuries. If you spill it on yourself, it's not going to wash off under the tap, it'll carry on burning through your flesh until it cools naturally, so great care must be taken. Obviously that is x10 if you get it near a naked flame and it catches fire too. If you make it - BE CAREFUL - you have been warned. /End of health and safety message.

Edited March 21, 2016 by Martyn

[zuludog]

I use a similar method, as described in Chris Taylor's book; Leatherwork - a practical guide

Melt a block of beeswax with about 10% linseed oil. I use a small aluminium foil pie or cake container in a shallow amount of water in a frying pan, and let it simmer fot a couple of minutes. This mixture melts easily and is fairly safe & easy to handle. Then either carefully remove the foil container or let the whole setup cool

When it's cool enough to handle, but still warm & soft just form it into the desired shape with your hands

[Martyn]

When it's cool enough to handle, but still warm & soft just form it into the desired shape with your hands

Yeah, I found you can still shape it even when it's gone cold. I decided that the pucks of wax I'd made were a little on the large side so decided to cut each in half and shape them into the more traditional egg shape. I made 3x100g pucks into 6x50g eggs. I thought I might have to reheat the wax a little to make it soft enough, but you can get it malleable just by working it. It's hard at first, but there is give and the heat from your hands soon softens it to a point where it becomes like modelling clay.

Also of note, I kept going with one of em, working and pulling it and it does bleach and get lighter. So the claim that toffy pulling bleaches as well as mixes the wax, is true. It does work.

Omelette anyone? :D

Edited March 22, 2016 by Martyn

[Martyn]

This wouldn't be complete without some sewing pictures.

Tiger thread, cream, 0.8mm at 6spi.

Tiger thread, colonial tan, 0.8mm at 6spi.

It makes the world of difference to my mind, even using what is supposed to be pre-waxed tiger thread. The thread is stiffer and lays better in the holes. It lays flatter with fewer twists and tensioning is better. When you draw up on the thread, it feels like it's locked into the hole and keeping the tension you put on it.

no twists

It makes it noticeably easier to sew with - it keeps your fingers just slightly tacky so you're not fighting for grip on the needles and I think my stitching is better for using it.

Edited March 22, 2016 by Martyn

[Matt S]

For some reason I never thought of using coad on Tiger. I'll have to give that a go.

[Martyn]

Matt, you should try it mate, if nothing else it makes it nicer to sew with. But I've found Ritza to be quite variable in how much it's waxed. The white and black 0.8mm I have seems OK, but the colours seem to be much lighter waxed and definitely benefit from a little more IMO. In fact I think they all do really, most of it seems to relax after you tension up the stitch, that doesn't happen if you add a bit of sticky wax. I know some people prefer less because it has a tendency to make the thread a bit shiny, others like it quite heavy and I suppose out of the box, the thread caters for the lowest common denominator. I mean it's a lot easier to put more on than take it off. I definitely like it with more on though. Give it a try and see what you think.

Edited March 23, 2016 by Martyn

[grmnsplx]

I'll have to try this. Thanks!

[grmnsplx]

Some of you coad eggs are different shades. Are those different ratios of resin to wax?

[Matt T]

Some of you coad eggs are different shades. Are those different ratios of resin to wax?

No. He pulled / stretched and worked that ball longer than the others.

[Martyn]

grmnsplx, MattT is correct. They were all mixed, melted and cast into 4oz cakes at the same time and at that stage, were all exactly the same colour. The cakes were too big though, so I cut them in half and squeezed and kneeded them into 2oz eggs. The action of kneeding and pulling the wax, bleaches it and all the eggs have been worked a bit differently, so they are all all vary in shade.

[grmnsplx]

Ah, I missed that part. Thanks!

[Martyn]

I made an egg-cup. :D

I wasn't going to show this cos it's really not very good, but I figure what the hell. You have to show the rough with the smooth right?

It was a load of firsts. First time making a leather container, first time doing herringbone stitch, first time doing box stitch (the bottom is all over the place, it's really bad), first time doing basket stamping (or any tooling for that matter). But the box is functional. The every bit of detritus on my worktop was sticking to my sticky egg. It was starting to get pebble-dashed with crud. I've learned a lot from making this little box. It was worthwhile. One thing that stumped me though, re the box-stitch, how do you get the awl to exit the base in a neat circle?

 

Edited March 25, 2016 by Martyn

[philg9]

On 3/25/2016 at 9:39 PM, Martyn said:

I made an egg-cup. :D

I wasn't going to show this cos it's really not very good, but I figure what the hell. You have to show the rough with the smooth right?

It was a load of firsts. First time making a leather container, first time doing herringbone stitch, first time doing box stitch (the bottom is all over the place, it's really bad), first time doing basket stamping (or any tooling for that matter). But the box is functional. The every bit of detritus on my worktop was sticking to my sticky egg. It was starting to get pebble-dashed with crud. I've learned a lot from making this little box. It was worthwhile. One thing that stumped me though, re the box-stitch, how do you get the awl to exit the base in a neat circle?

 

Martyn,   all good stuff this,   I make all my own waxes for my harness work,   including the traditional saddlers black pitch wax.   With Coad,  along with the beeswax and pine rosin,  the traditional recipie is to add add some tallow to the mix once melted, it will bring it to that proper thread wax consistency.  I do pourt my Coad mix into warm water, about 25 degrees once its all melted then scoop it out and knead like I do with the black pitch wax, it then comes out at the same consistency.  I find without Tallow, the Coad can be a bit crunchy and can have crystals left in it if it isnt crushed to fine powder first.