Minding my own beeswax...

[mikemeteor]

Had some time to kill waitin for my acraglas bedding job to cure, so I decided to render some beeswax.
Claude - Don't know if this is an appropriate post for this forum, if not feel free to move it or kill it. Beeswax seems to have numerous uses in building and shooting ML'ers.

Got a 2-gallon bucket full of the raw stuff from the hive from a honey-making friend - I'm sure there's a bee expert here who knows what this is called - my buddy seemed to indicate he has an endless supply of this stuff.

Put several handfuls of the stuff in an old pot - supposed to use stainless steel but didn't have one handy - this one is forever more my beeswax making pot - covered in water and boiled it hard for 20 minutes.
Added advatage: this makes the shop smell nice - kinda like warm honey. :applause:

Had a clean 2-gal bucket ready with an old cotton t-shirt stretched and secured over the top. Poured the boiled mixture into that rig:

Here's where my method deviated from most you'll read on the web. :idunno: The watery stuff went through the shirt, the gold goop and the liquid wax (for the most part) did not. Gently stirred the sauce to unclog the material and allow all the watery liquid through.
You can see a few bees floating around in there - they gave it up for the good of the team. :applause:

After a minute of this gentle stirring, the gold goop settled to the bottom with the liquid wax floating on top - gently spooned the gold goop out of the sauce and into a container (more on this later).

left behind is the liquid wax - the good stuff !

carefully spooned this into a waiting clean container - gotta work kinda fast here - it's starting to firm up - but no so fast you pick up the impurities on the bottom.

Let it cool, and out pops the beeswax, pretty as you like.

Some say you should further refine this in a double boiler - but think I'll forgo that - I think this is fine for ML purpose - I'm not making fancy candles here.

I left out all the safety issues - hot, flammable stuff, avoiding boilovers, etc etc. If you're gonna do this as a first-timer - probably should read all those warnings on the web.
/MM

p.s. what about that gold goop we spooned out?
I read that if you let that air-dry, it makes tremendous fire-starter material - but I did not test this.
Anyone know about this ?
what IS that stuff anyway ? Bee poop ? :shocked2:

 

[SpottedBull]

Hey that is a great tutorial! Gotta get ahold of my bee-buddies and get some of that raw material and do some myself.

 

[Rogue River]

I believe that is called "Propalus". The bees gather it from trees and shrubs and use it to seal holes and all the nooks and crannies in the hive. If you don't work your hives very often they will seal it up tight and you have one hell of a time getting into it when you do want to inspect it! Sticky stuff! I think it's a pitch. You can Google it to learn more! :grin:

 

[necchi]

I just pour mine through an old t-shirt.

 

[Capt. Fred]

Nice going. I wish I knew a bee guy. Not too many around any more. My wife brought some sort of bee's wax mixture home from the Dr's office and I've been putting it on my fingers this winter. Really helps with the skin cracking. Good stuff.

 

[MSW]

that's really cool - thanks for the tutorial!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Cheese cloth, bought in the automotive section of your department store- not the Notions, coffee filters, T-shirts, doubled over, old rags, etc. can be used to filter out all the crud from beeswax.

I recommend using a double boiler arrangement, but all this means is putting the "pot" with the wax in it, into a skillet with an inch of water. The water boils at 212 degrees F., so at no time will the wax be heated above that temperature. That makes it safe from burning, or flashing on you. If you must, you can spend lots of money at the Gormet shops buying a " Real " double boiler, but I can't see any reason to do it. Not for this kind of work!

I use coffee filters, in a strainer to pour wax, or oils through to clean them of crud. The strainer hooks on the rim of a large bowl, and lets me pour the saved fluids into small containers for use later. I once had some oil that was so dirty, that I strained it twice, having changed the filters for the second straining. It worked, and the finished oil was so much clearer, that I may do it every time I am filtering oil from now on.

I think beeswax done this way is more than adequate for using it to mix lubes. Just removing all the debris- the brown stuff, as well as the few bee carcasses-- is worth the effort.

 

[ohio ramrod]

Nice going. I wish I knew a bee guy. Not too many around any more. My wife brought some sort of bee's wax mixture home from the Dr's office and I've been putting it on my fingers this winter. Really helps with the skin cracking. Good stuff.

Many years ago I used my lard/beeswax patch lube as a hand cream out of desperation. For the last twenty years or so I use far more as an ointment/handcream than as a patch lube. Even "she who sleeps at home "uses it as a hand cream! :idunno: :idunno:

 

[pc.knife]

I do it in the same way, just rozpuszceniu wax in a pot with water, leave the whole to cool.
Wax solidifies on the surface of the water, and all the dirt they settle at the bottom of the wax. Just use a knife to remove them ...
Fall off quite a dirty job cedzenia wax

If the wax is very dirty you need the whole process is repeated twice

 

[oldude]

From your first picture(the raw wax)it looks like cappings,That is the wax caps cut off the honey comb before extraction of the honey or if the beekeeper used the crush & strain method to remove the honey from the comb then it is the whole honeycomb. The gold goop looks to be some propolis and pupai casings. Bent (AKA Bsweet Apiary)or a beekeeper shooting a muzzle loader

 

[oldude]

Your gold goop is probably some wax,bee body parts and maybe some propolis. Propolis is sap/pitch removed from trees and bushes which the bees make into a glue. Pure propolis can be used to make glue/varnish/furniture polish and even medicine. As far as a fire starter I'm sure it would work pretty good( I could be wrong) as tree pitch as well as wax burns good.
You asked if it was bee poop? Healthy bees WILL NOT poop in their hive they cross their leggs and wait for a day warm enough that they can fly and then take care of it.Bent

 

[mikemeteor]

Pure propolis can be used to make glue/varnish/furniture polish and even medicine.

Heck, that's some good stuff - can be furniture polish or medicine ! :shocked2:
Now that I know what it's called, I see you can buy it in the organic food section.

Healthy bees WILL NOT poop in their hive they cross their legs and wait for a day warm enough that they can fly and then take care of it.Bent

Thanks Bent. A man can learn a lot on this forum.