Bees wax

[Piquant]

Ooo! What year?

wm

1967 RS/SS

 

[Whughett]

50/50 with Crisco for felt wad lubricant.
40/50/10 bees wax Crisco olive oil for pan lubed bullets or melted for dipping paper cartridges or the loaded nylon cones for my Burnside Carbine. Many here prefer Lambs Tallow to the Crisco. I’m frugal so i use Crisco.
The 50/50 can be Melted and poured on top of a pan of cold water, dusted with corn starch then cut into lube cookies for over the ball in revolver shooting.
Beeswax mixed with turpentine makes a wonderful smelling wax for shop use. Waxing screws or applying thin coats to machinery.
at one time I could get it for cheap at a local bee keepers co-op for wax processing. Now I pay highway robbery prices at Hobby Lobby.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

A local bee keeper sold me a piece of raw pure beeswax. Now what do I do with it? have heard of mixing with olive oil, mink oil, etc to make a patch lube. Are there any other uses? Does anyone have any recipes that they would be willing to share?
thanks, bp

Yes, clean it first, by staining out the crud and bee parts...,
I use 40/60 beeswax to cheapest olive oil for lube.
LD

 

[LME]

My father who is long dead was a plumber all his adult life. These were the only measuring device he ever used. He was able to span distances between fittings easier with the stiff ruler, and cut his copper tube very accurately. I worked in the trade for over 40 years and cannot remember any other trade who use this type ruler. Now I use this rule in my workshop, and it is a permanent resident of my workbench.

When I was starting in the trades every carpenter had a folding rule. It was great for measuring inside measurement like door and window openings. I have one in my shop but rarely use it.

 

[Whughett]

[QUOTE="LME, post: 2034179, member: 33685"
When I was starting in the trades every carpenter had a folding rule. It was great for measuring inside measurement like door and window openings. I have one in my shop but rarely use it.
[/QUOTE]
and checking for square with diagonal measurements using inside corners and the brass extension rule that slides out from the end.

 

[Barry Strickland]

I will combine both subjects here. Many years ago when I was a working pipefitter I used beeswax to lubricate the joints in my folding Lufkin rules.

 

[Rifleman1776]

My beeswax is made into two different patch lubes. One is with genuine whale oil I had in storage since it was legal. The other is with peanut oil. Wish I had not wasted the wax or cloth on the peanut oil one. Other mixes like moose snot are better.

 

[Snydly]

Been using the Paul Mathews recipe for over 20 years now. Great stuff for patch lube and great to lube bullets with for BP cartridge '
2 parts dark bees was
1 part Neetsfoot oil.(real not synthetic)
1 part Murphys soap

 

[1BadDart]

My brother and I have bees so I’ll have to experiment with beeswax.

I was a carpenter for years and have several folding rules, I prefer the white inside read rules over the outside read with the extension. Engineers rules are pretty handy at times too, when I was a union carpenter I carried a 1’ piece from a broken engineers rule in my apron.

 

[DuncNZ]

I make a paste made with raw bees wax and olive oil for use on metal and with linseed oil for use on wood .
I use artists grade linseed oil and natural turpentine with lots of hand rubbing as a stock finish , these are more expensive than the paint shop stuff , but do give better finishes .
I notice that a number of you use Tung oil as a stock finish , this stuff originally came from China , is it a finish that was used by the gunmakers of 200+ years ago ?
Some people are highly allergic to Tung oil and get nasty rashes where ever it touches their skin.
The Japanese used Tung as a stock finish for their military rifles in WW2 .
As I have said before , measure out your quantities so that you can repeat the recipe some time in the future .

 

[satwel]

I use beeswax for:

Flux when casting round and mini balls.

Mixed 50/50 with mutton tallow to lube mini balls

When I use my jewelers saw to cut brass, I frequently run the blade across a block of bees wax to lube it.

 

[maillemaker]

Beeswax has many uses in the black powder world.

As others have said, it can be useful for fluxing your melt.

It is also a fundamental component of most "lubes". A common lube recipe is 50% beeswax and 50% Crisco. US Ordnance Manual are 1:3 tallow:beeswax (1855) to 1:8 tallow:beeswax (1861). The British ultimately settled on 100% beeswax for their lube, finding that the fatty acids in tallow caused the lead to oxidize (corrode), increasing the bullet's diameter.

 

[Johnny Tremain]

Bee's wax, Cornola oil, and lard is what I make my bullet lube for cast boolits.

 

[Timber Wolf]

I will combine both subjects here. Many years ago when I was a working pipefitter I used beeswax to lubricate the joints in my folding Lufkin rules.

Winner! I use Bee’s Wax to lube the joint and sprue screw on molds. Also rub some on unfinished stock innards when they are exposed. I am a Carpenter by trade and throughly enjoy a nice folding rule, I will have to break them out and lube them up!

 

[Terrier]

Nice photo of wax but, the interesting item is ruler, have you lately priced one $$$$ they are now collectable.

They’re cheap(ish) at HG Lipscomb in Nashville. I’ve bought several there.

 

[Sentry44]

I have two formulas.

Hot weather: 60% lambs tallow, 30% beeswax, 10% olive oil

Cold weather: 80% lambs tallow, 20% olive oil

The tallow and olive oil are the lubricant. Beeswax is tacky, but it helps the mix stay stable in warm temps. Oherwise the tallow can get gloppy.

Sentry44

 

[user 31257]

My father who is long dead was a plumber all his adult life. These were the only measuring device he ever used. He was able to span distances between fittings easier with the stiff ruler, and cut his copper tube very accurately. I worked in the trade for over 40 years and cannot remember any other trade who use this type ruler. Now I use this rule in my workshop, and it is a permanent resident of my workbench.

My father in law is a mason and he always used a wooden rule for layout, my father is a civil engineer and he always had one with him.

 

[bronko220002]

Excellent for lubing the alignment pins and sprue screw on you casting molds too.

 

[Larry (Omaha)]

A local bee keeper sold me a piece of raw pure beeswax. Now what do I do with it? have heard of mixing with olive oil, mink oil, etc to make a patch lube. Are there any other uses? Does anyone have any recipes that they would be willing to share?
thanks, bp

If you are inserting screws in any type of wood, especially hardwood, beeswax it what you want on the screw.
Larry

 

[leadhoarder]

That looks pretty dirty, you might want to melt it down and strain it through some cheesecloth. Beeswax contains wings, bodies, legs and any dirt from the hive.

All of that is just more organic material that will add to the authenticity of your muzzleloading experience.