beeswax - how to "re-new" old beeswax?

[bedbugbilly]

Today, while cleaning, I found about a 5 pound block of beeswax I had forgotten about. I purchased a number of them probably 30 years ago from a local Apiary supply when my wife was teaching elementary and we used it for her kids to make dipped candles at Christmas time.

This block is really "dried out" - i.e. not soft like it was when new and what I've purchased in the last few years for making ny BP lube. I'm assuming that natural beeswax has moisture of some kind in it when new that makes it softer like new beeswax is. Is there a way to save this old hard block of beeswax? Re-melt it? Add something to soften it (an oil of some sort?) and "freshen" it up again so I could pour smaller cakes of it to make lube?

Today, I was melting a bunch of old boolits down and pouring muffin ingots - decided to use a small piece of the beeswax to flux with. I used a wide wood chisel and a mallet to cut a piece off and it was so dried out that there was no cutting - it was more like chipping a piece off of a rock.

Thanks for any info - appreciate it!

[GhostHawk]

I would melt it and add a tablespoon of water to it.

You could try oil but I don't think bee's make oil.
If you did try oil I would use a natural oil like coconut or walnut, possibly olive oil. Should not take much.

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Use it as is. It's still good.

[LenH]

I got some a couple of years ago and kept it in a brown paper bag, it turned a whitish color. It looked dried out but when I melted it
for bullet lube, it worked just fine. I bought a block from a bee keeper at a flee market (the size of a bread pan) and it did the same thing.
It took a hammer and chisel to break it up into usable sizes.

[Rapier]

You just heat it to a liquid and run it through a double layer of cheese cloth to remove any impurities. Bee's wax does not really go bad.

[gwpercle]

..." like chipping a piece off a rock . " That has to be the most dried out beeswax on Earth !
Melt it all down and add a little olive oil ... then pour a muffin and see if the texture is right .
Beeswax has a long , long shelf life and doesn't go bad .
Gary

[firefly1957]

If it is pure beeswax just heating it will do I have a piece I use from time to time that my father gave me he used it to wax his sled runners in the 1940's ! I used it first in the 1970's to do the same . It gets a powdery white surface but heating that makes it look fresh again.

I have a lot of newer beeswax I use for gun related stuff I have even used it with great results on a pistol grip. This was one of those used to be cheap kits with a duckfoot three barrel pistol a pepperbox pistol and a small double barreled derringer . The latter pistol was missing but for $5 what could go wrong?
I have fired them they work and I could hit the broadside of a barn as long as I was standing inside!

[bedbugbilly]

Thanks all - appreciate the information. I'll set up a double boiler and melt it down, strain it and pour into muffins. I was going to melt down some foundry ingots of pure lead to convert to muffins over my LP hotplate outside this week and then do the beeswax, but we're getting hit with the Canadian smoke here in lower Michigan right now. Enough in the air that it bothers when you're outside for a while.

Thanks again!

Jim

[greenjoytj]

Exposure to air would cause evaporation of alcohols out of the Beeswax and both shrinkage and hardening.
Also oxidation would cause the wax to turn white.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beeswax
Chemically, beeswax consists mainly of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.

[jednorris]

I am a Beekeeper, the wax will never go bad or become useless for fluxing or lube. I pour about a 1/4" layer into a container full of water and when it solidifies you can break off chunks just the right size for your needs.