bee's wax..?

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quiknot

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wisconsin
a couple of questions...

1- anyone know the current cost of bee's wax?

2- any good recipes for use as a lubricate?

thanks
 
Available at most all of the hobby type shops, Hobby Lobby, Michael's,ect.

Heat and mix, in a double boiler equal amounts of T/C Bore Butter and beeswax. It works for my Sharps, Hawken, and soaked into felt wads my C&B revolvers.

Oneshooter
Livin in Texas
 
Find a beekeeper and buy it direct. Why? Many beeswax have some petroleum added to it. According to the folks at Colonial Williamsburg, this degrades its ability to protect the wood & metal. One former Master Gunsmith (he's working in administration now) there told me that after he rubbed down the stock and the metal parts, he didn't hesistate to put his gun into a stream and let the running water clean it for him. :what: He wouldn't do it with some commercial bought beeswax though and said that their labs examined the commercial stuff and rejected it as inferior for its protective quality.
 
Dang I'm Broke Lube Pills Recipe

Dang I'm Broke Lube Pills

What I did was start out with:
Parafin comes in a brick divided to to 4 like a stick a butter, I used a stick.
Then 1/4 of a Toilet Seal Ring(Bolwax)substitute with beeswax or use just the parafin.
Then 8-10 Tablespoon of Olive Oil
The Olive oil is the Lube the Waxes just carry it and keep the pill as you want it.
And that made alot about 600 pills...about 1/8" thick for the most part, ...a good level stiff heated pizza/flat walled baking pan is the best thing to pour your mix into...so mix cools evenly .

And worked good for me...you need to try your best guess and add/subract as you like them for your use.

By Smokin_Gun
 
Last edited:
The toilet bowl rings I have seen are not made of beeswax. There may be some which have some beeswax in them but they also contain other stuff, mostly heavy petroleum grease.

www.dadant.com is a beekeeping supply business. They also sell beeswax for candle making. I haven't priced their stuff for a while but you can check the prices when you shop around.

I have made bullet/patch lube from beeswax mixed with just about every kind of animal fat, except mutton. I will try that too, when I get some. I'm using olive oil now. It works very well and doesn't get rancid when it ages like all the animal fats I tried.

Steve
 
I use a lot of lube because I shoot cowboy action with black powder, and I'm pumping thousands of "big lube" .44 bullets through the Magma-Sizer to keep the Dillon 550 fed. My preferred lube is a simple 50/50 (by volume) mix of beeswax and crisco (or generic equivalent). While buying beeswax from a beekeeper is generally the cheapest way, I don't know any beekeepers and I don't really go through that much beeswax. Even in the 50/50 mix, a pound of beeswax goes a LONG way.

The last time I needed some, I bought it at Michael's -- the craft supply store. They have a candle making aisle, and in it you'll find one pound bricks of pure beeswax for something like $7-8. I bought two pounds a couple of years ago, and still have quite a bit left.

Be sure to get 100% beeswax, though. If you just buy "candle wax" you're getting paraffin or other petroleum-based waxes, which don't work as black powder lube.
 
Sundance44s

Bee careful buying beeswax at hobby shops ..most of what they have if for the candle makers and it contains paraffin wax , which is fine for candlemakeing .. but when useing it for a 50/50 beeswax crisco mix ..it will stay a little hard when cooled . You can get 100 % natural beeswax off the net for $5.95 a lb ..it`s good stuff ..they also sell the candlemakers grade much cheaper than the hobby shops . 5 lbs will last ya a very long time probally years and at 33 bucks shipped to your door not a bad investment .
www.hiveharvest.com
 
Steve the Toilet ring seals as I said are Bolwax not beeswax. And yes have a lite petroleum base but not not a heavy Pertoleum Grease. Not enough to hinder BP shooting when mixed as I posted... for $.99 try one mixed with parafin and Olive oil and see what you get instead of Beeswax. All I can tell you is that they are the best Lube Pills I have made or tried...Including Tallow. Like I said Dang I'm broke Lube Pills...LoL! They work.
 
OK so you want to check into eBay after Christmas looking for a company called Stakich, and you should be able to find it for around $3.25 a pound, direct from Michigan, Dutch auction style. Toward February, you will find Stakich runs a special with a fixed price no matter how manny pounds of the stuff you buy, usually around 6 bucks. So if you buy 1 pound it'll cost you 6 bucks shipping, if you buy a half-ton it will still be just 6 bucks for shipping. They often have ton of the stuff (yes I mean 2000 one pound bricks), and it's proper beeswax.

For a lube, mix one part melted beeswax with two parts warm olive oil, or melted crisco, or plain melted lard. It prevents rust, lubes patches or projectiles, greases up internal parts, doesn't go rancid, has a higher melting point than plain crisco, and is non-toxic. If you want to "duplicate" a commercial lube, add some food grade wintergreen to the mixture. It costs pennies. For really hot weather, go with a 50/50 mix.

It WILL however, gunk up a muzzleloader quicker than plain spit-patching, but the gunk does stay soft as with the commercial lubes. :D

LD
 
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