Raw Beeswax use

[Sean Gadhar]

I was talking with a honey seller about getting local Beeswax, he said he had loads but hadn't had time to process any. Then he told me he would let me have a bunch for a few bucks if I wanted to process it myself.

Anyone doing this? I watched some videos and it seems messy but not hard to do.
If you do process Beeswax, do you re-melt and re-filter multiple times?

I want it mostly for patch and bullet lubes & I'm a bit concerned what might come from not getting all the Honey and sediment out of the wax.

The Videos I've seen, seem to show some level of fine matter getting through the filtering.

 

[SSGOldfart]

Yes Sir that statement sum it up nicely. Filter it a couple of times,and break it down into a smaller size.which makes it easier to use.my was is solar melted first time.
Remember mice will chow wax.
Don't ask lol

 

[Carbon 6]

Honey is water soluble, wax isn't . so repeated washing and soaking will remove the honey.
The solid debris can be removed by melting and letting the wax slowly cool and stratify. once hard the debris can be scraped off.

You could process further by filtering/straining.

Just remember, don't pour anything down your drain.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Well if mice will eat it I better watch doing it around the chickens, I bet they would eat it as well.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Just remember, don't pour anything down your drain.

Yea seems like a Garden project, happy wife happy life

 

[Carbon 6]

Hot wax will solidify in your plumbing pipes, even cold wax can be sticky and float, not being able to get past the traps.
Plumbers in my area get at least $150 an hour, and work very slowly.

 

[Ames]

Don't overthink it. Start with wax cappings from the frames. Wash them with water to get most of the honey out. Drain the water from the wax, let it dry,and melt it in a double boiler. Then pour it through a cheese cloth rubber banded to some Tupperware.
When cool the next day you will see any honey and water at the bottom of the Tupperware. Rinse it off the bottom of the block of wax and repeat the process one more time.
Your just shooting the stuff, not eating it.

 

[Zonie]

I kinda like the comment, "not eating it".

I can see where getting all of the traces of honey out of the wax would be important but I think we're talking about using the wax for a bullet/patch lube?

If so, what's a few legs, feet, bits of wing or antenna going to hurt in a barrel? They are all a lot softer than the steel the barrel is made from.

Well, maybe the bits of wing might cause a flyer or two but at least you can tell the others watching you shoot, "Oh. That shot was just a flyer caused by a bee wing." Having a good excuse like this can be important when your trying to impress folks around you with your great marksmanship.

 

[hawkeye2]

That bullet made a bee line to the X ring!

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Might be I am overthinking it. I guess I imagined finding the honey or bee parts caused some kind of crud building up in the barrel. Better to ask now then have people tell be after "didn't you know it would . . . . . . . . . . "

 

[Ames]

I think the only thing to avoid would be buying bulk "dirty" wax with an amount of propolis kicking around in with it. That stuff is the bees glue and is not water soluble. Can only imagine burning that in the barrel might cause problems, wiping with water wont bring back out.
Start with clean capping wax. You will be glad you did.

 

[Carbon 6]

 

[hawkeye2]

Honey is approximatly 75% sugar(s) and that would caramelize and you can't even imagine what that's like to remove from the bore. I have seen it happen and no it wasn't me. I just started 6 hives a couple of months back though I won't be able to harvest any honey or wax the first year. All the beekeepers expressed supprise when I told them the wax would be for bullet lube.

 

[Sean Gadhar]

Well I will have to see what I get from this guy. I have a food grade 55 gal. Drum and it is going to reach temps of 100+ here all week, seems like if I set the drum out 1/2 full in the AM, after work i should have 20-30 gallons of warm water I can rinse the wax with. then go from there.

 

[Kansas Jake]

Several years back I bought some bees wax from a local bee keeper. It had been pressed or whatever they do to get the honey out, but not cleaned. I simply melted it and most of the odd stuff settled to the bottom of the pan and I poured the clean wax slowly off the top. There was only a tablespoon or two of dirty wax left from about a quart of wax.

 

[renegadehunter]

This is something I never really thought about, I have a small amount of wax from a beekeeper and it "looks" nice and clean. I wouldn't have thought to make sure it has the honey removed. The wax pieces I have still look like honey comb.
Interesting story how I got it. I came home from work a while back and the neighbor was standing in my front yard with his wife. He let me know that there was a bee swarm in my juniper bush. He told me he knew a guy that knew a guy that was a beekeeper and had him on the way. The beekeeper showed up and asked me if I minded if he gathered the bees and took them? Umm, no problem with me if you remove the swarm from my front yard lol. He seemed very pleased to get some free bees. He set out a box and then found the queen in the swarm and put her in the box. He told me he would return an hour after dark so that all the other bees would also be in the box with the queen. He then asked me again if I was ok with him taking them for free? I said they aren't my bees and you're welcome to them...but say, would you be willing to part with any bees wax? He looked surprised and asked what for? I told him for muzzleloading lube recipes, he said he'd heard of that but I was the first one to ever ask for any.
Anyway, I woke up the next morning to a small brown paper sack full of wax on my front porch and a front yard free of bee swarms. I already have some wax I bought from Hobby Lobby, so haven't messed with this stuff yet.

 

[Boomerang]

You might want to leave the honey in there. It could turn out to be a really sweet load!

 

[Zonie]

If you can see the cells in the honeycomb wax there is a good chance there is some honey in them.
They usually squash the wax cells flat to squeeze the honey out of them.

 

[Ames]

We usually cut the cappings from the frame and spin the honey out with an extractor.
Never squashed it out.

 

[David Veale]

I keep bees, so think I can speak to this. The wax is typically melted down -- along with any honey it contains. The wax (and usually a few bees, etc) floats to the top and honey stays at the bottom. When it's cooled, I pull it off, wash any honey. Then I remelt it and pour the molten wax (through a cloth to filter out any debris) into a mold, which I suspect is the same process your wax went through. It will still smell like honey, but I doubt there's any real honey in it. If in doubt, you can always melt it down again. Any residual honey would be at the bottom of the pot, probably just a drop or two. This is more or less the same process I use for rendering tallow from deer and sheep.