Home › Fixed Oils and Fats › To Refine Bees' Wax

To Refine Bees' Wax

Crude wax, especially that imported, is generally 1 >aded with dirt, bees, and other foreign matter. To free it from these substances, it undergoes the operation of refining. This is done by melting the wax along with about 3 per cent. of water in a bright copper boiler, preferably heated by steam, and after the whole is perfectly liquid, and has boiled for a few minutes, withdrawing the heat, and sprinkling over its surface a little oil of vitriol, in the proportion of about 3 or 4 fluid ounces to every 100 pounds of wax. This operation should be conducted with great care and circumspection; as, if done carelessly, the melted wax will froth up, and boil over the sides of the pan. The acid should also be well scattered over the whole surface. The melted wax is next covered over, and left for some hours to settle, or till it becomes sufficiently cool to be drawn off into the moulds. It is then very gently skimmed with a hot ladle, and bailed or decanted into basins, where it is left to cool. Great care must be taken not to disturb the sediment. When no more clear wax can be drawn off, the remainder in the melting pan is allowed to cool, and the cake or foot, as it is called, is taken out, and the impurities (mostly bees) scraped from its under surface.

The remaining portion is usually reserved for a second operation, but, if required, may be at once melted, and strained through canvas into a mould. The great art in the above process is to produce a wax which shall at once be bright or semi-translucent in thin pieces, and good colored. The former is best insured by allowing the melted mass to settle well, and by carefully skimming and decanting the clear portion without disturbing the sediment. It should also not be poured into the moulds too warm, as, in that case, it is apt to separate, and the resulting cakes to be BEES' WAX. streaky, or of different shades of color. It should also be allowed to cool very slowly.

When cooled rapidly, especially if a current of air fall upon its surface, it is apt to crack and form cakes full of fissures. Some persons who are very nice about their wax, have the cakes polished with a stiff brush when quite cold and hard. It is necessary to have the cans, ladles, and skimmers used in the above process kept quite hot, as without this precattion the wax cools, and accumulates upon them in such quantity as to render them inconvenient, and often quite useless, without being constantly scraped out.