Cleaning Beeswax

[Hickory]

I received a 11 lb block of beeswax that sat under a guys work bench for an unknown number of years and it is contaminated with a lot of debris.
Will melting it and straining it work?
And what to use as a filter?
And how hot is the best for doing this?

[Edward429451]

Yes, you can! How clean do you want it?

You can melt it down in a double boiler and skim it with a spoon...or you could cheese cloth and strain it through that, but you would lose a small bit to the cloth.

Hot enough that it'll readily flow when poured, but not hot enough to smoke on it's own sitting there on the heat. Smoke means turn the temp down.

[Hickory]

I'm thinking if I come away with 9.5-10 lbs I'll be happy.
How clean? Well, just clean enough to look good and not cause any bore damage.

[Edward429451]

You should get more than that back from it, I would think. Even if it's embedded with quite a bit, it'll all melt off and be skimmed out of there. I bet you get closer to 10.5 LBS.

[Ballistics in Scotland]

I'd do it in two stages. First melt and strain it. A kitchen sieve will remove any big or long impurities, such as hair, fibres etc. But beeswax is difficult to remove entirely, so a piece of wire insect screen wire will be cheap enough to throw away. This leaves you with things small enough to pass through fine mesh.

Next float it on hot water, stirring well. Skim off any light fibres, sawdust, wood chips etc. which come to the top. Small and heavy ones will fall to the bottom of the water. Let it go cold, and lift your cake of pure beeswax (well, nearly) from the top.

You can also use the hot water bath to make thin sheets, suitable for a grease cookie and card behind a bullet.

[Valley-Shooter]

I'd do it in two stages. First melt and strain it. A kitchen sieve will remove any big or long impurities, such as hair, fibres etc. But beeswax is difficult to remove entirely, so a piece of wire insect screen wire will be cheap enough to throw away. This leaves you with things small enough to pass through fine mesh.

Next float it on hot water, stirring well. Skim off any light fibres, sawdust, wood chips etc. which come to the top. Small and heavy ones will fall to the bottom of the water. Let it go cold, and lift your cake of pure beeswax (well, nearly) from the top.

You can also use the hot water bath to make thin sheets, suitable for a grease cookie and card behind a bullet.

This sounds like a good idea.
You need a metal screen to retain heat, a candle makers website I looked at says 175 degrees Fahrenheit is a good temperature to work up to. Don't scorch the wax, you could ruin the whole batch.

[rancher1913]

If you put it in pantyhose and weight them down in a large pot all the junk stays in the hose and everything that floats up is pure
Fill the pot with water and heat it up

[Beagle333]

If you put it in pantyhose and weight them down in a large pot all the junk stays in the hose and everything that floats up is pure
Fill the pot with water and heat it up

That is my method. Really cleans up nicely in one step.

[ammohead]

Be careful not to get too hot over an open flame. Beeswax is quite flammable.

[Hickory]

Thanks for the advice, I'm going to tackle this after the deer season and make some Ben's Red.

[Dan Cash]

Spatula and scrape off the debris. ods and ends in the wax won't hurt anything.

[runfiverun]

pit it in some boiling water until the wax melts then turn off the heat and wait for the pot to cool down.
get your clean wax off the top, the gunk off the bottom.
you can weight some panty hose down with the wax in it and boil it that way too.
the hose will catch most of the big stuff.

[quail4jake]

The panti hose idea works great. When I was keeping bees we used a cheese cloth funnel filter for big debris then boiled in water to remove honey and propolis which would make it USDA "gradeable", I put some through the diatomateous earth filter under pressure which would make it almost white then uv light sterilization made it USP medical which sold for $$$$ if it passed inspection to be bone and suture wax. For our purposes...panti hose.

[country gent]

I put it in panty hose and melted in double boiler and melted it submered in the boiling water The wax melts thru and debris stays in. Several wraps of cheese cloth works also. The better the end is sealed the better it works. Let cool on top of the water and set on old towel to dry then scrape wipe and remaining debris off.

[Beagle333]

I just cleaned some this afternoon. A fellow sent me a few big bricks of dirty wax and I put a brick in a nylon stocking with some reject boolits and tied knot in the stockings and put it in a gallon bean can. I filled this about 2/3 with water and put it in a larger boiler which I also filled up to halfway up the bean can. Then I heated it until the wax melted and floated free. Now I have a nice clean cake of wax on top of my bean can of water. I'll do another tomorrow. It takes quite a while for a bean can full of water and wax to cool down. (when the wax cools, it shrinks away from the can and falls out easily when tipped over after all is cool) Then you can remelt the big blocks in a clean container (or the bean can again) and pour it into smaller molds of your choice.

[Dusty Bannister]

I also use the double boiler method and use rectangular plastic containers formerly containing potato salad type foods from the store. I apply a light oil coating as a release agent for the mold. I use a coat hanger to form a small hoop over which I fold several layers of cheese cloth and pour the wax through the cheese cloth filter into the molds. After I have completed filling the molds I let it all cool and cut the filter out of the hoop. That material makes a great fire starter. When needed, I wipe out the melting container with a paper towel while the wax is still warm to get rid of debris that has settled in the bottom. More fire starter material in hand. And if that is not good enough, warm it, unfold the towel, sprinkle on some sawdust or wood chips and roll it up again.

As soon as the wax slabs are cool and firm, pop out of the molds and wrap individually in plastic wrap. Store in a snap lid container because clean beeswax is a dirt magnet.

[centershot]

Eleven pounds of beeswax? LUCKY BOY!!!

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

I tried the Pantyhose method...Mama wasn't happy

[Light attack]

All these work. I used to have a business casting beeswax into decorative molds. The best thing to use is a paint filter that auto painters use. Very fine mesh. Use the double boiler and pour the wax through filter into a mold of your choice.

[AllanD]

My girlfriend was puzzled when I asked her to save her pantyhose that got runs in them and saw me taking a pair of scissors to the leg without a run.

I use them to store onions so they don't rot.
Drop an onion down the saved leg tie a knot in it and add another onion.
when the leg is full hang it from a hook. to get the onion out just cut it above the onion you want.

"sweet onions are particularly vulnerable to rotting even if stored in the fridge, but THIS storage method allows air circulation and they keep longer.