Trad Gang
Main Boards => PowWow => Topic started by: dennis rice on December 09, 2010, 09:10:00 PM
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Does anybody know what the formula or how many parts of bee's wax to rosin for making a real sticky string wax for flemish strings
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Hey Dennis. Hope you are having a good hunting season.
Look in the following thread for links to a bunch of other threads.
http://tradgang.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=079320
Hope to see you at NGTA Jan 2.
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Mine is pure (strained and cleaned) bee's wax and a toilet bowl ring--the ideal combination of a natural (hard) wax and a synthetic (soft and sticky). Unfortunately I don't remember the blend, or what brand I used. I poured up around 40 lbs when I did it, after a lot of experimenting. Hope I have it written down somewhere.
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Dennis, no real "set in stone" recipe or formula.
Alot of folks like different blends.
I alwasys like pure beeswax mixed with a little, pine rosin. Like twisting strings, you have to experiment, to find what will work for ya!
Try a small batch, a little at a time, always can remelt and add either more wax, or rosin, to get the tacky stuff you like working with.
I have a dedicated pan just to melt both with!
No real rules, just be careful melting the rosin, Hot and Flamable, best done outside!
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Good point on the dedicated pan--wax sticks to everything, and it's hard to remove. I used a disposable aluminum pan.
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Try bees wax and vaseline. The vaseline will soften up the bees wax. Go easy on the vaseline until you get the right tackiness by adding a little at a time.
It also makes good lip balm and smells good enough to eat! :p
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Where would a fella get beeswax?
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I did a web search and bought mine on-line. Lots of candle-makers like bee's wax. The place where I got mine sold it cheaper if you bought more (to a point). I thought I had enough for a lifetime supply, but it looks like I'll need to make another pour this summer.
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First batch I made was 1 lb of bee's wax and one toilet bow ring, It came out harder than I liked, so I mixed it all up again with another toilet bow ring and I like how it came out. In other words, 1 lb of bee's wax and 2 toilet bow rings.
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I use 3 bees to 1 toilet and rub it in with a clean rag as the rag always comes away with dirt on it and I figure that dirt can not be good for my strings.
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Chad, you gave me 6 cups of your string wax at the Tenn Classic a few years ago. No wonder you are running out. I think I traded you for sipping rights to my half gallon of Evan Williams. d;^)
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Robert, do a search for bee keepers, in Tenn.
You can also check with your county extension dept.
The first wax I ever used, was from Tennessee. My Father brought some back along with honey. Very dark, and somewhat sticky.
They said the bees were in the sourghum, which caused it to be dark!
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I buy mine from a guy on a major casting website, but I can't post the link here. It's premium quality from Wisconsin and he get's $4 per pound plus shipping. There may even be a price break on 3 pounds or more.....I believe there was when I bought mine?
If anybody would like the info, just PM me.
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I think I mixed mine even weight 1-1 ratio for bees wax & toilet ring wax.
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I have used the Bohning string wax for sometime and have reached the point where I need to try something else. The Bohning is messy and leaves a black residue on the string and is hard to get into the string even when using friction to heat up the string and wax. After a few days the string dries out and looks all fuzzy again. Has anyone tried the Sticky Wax from Kustom King Archery? It is expensive for a 1 1/4 ounce product. A second question I have concerning string wax is how do you keep your loops in the flemish string waxed? I cannot for the life of me get my loops satifactorily waxed and that is where the most wear seems to be.
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i use a lotta beeswax and candle paraffin for pickup potting, 30% beeswax and 70% paraffin. this blend also makes for a reasonably hard cake of string wax (poured into waxed papered cup muffin molds).
i like a hard cake of string wax - the soft stuff just smears far too much on the string and i'm sure that adds both needless weight and the ability to attract dirt.