Important: Safety Warning
This page describes trade processes that use dangerously toxic materials such as cyanide solutions, mercury amalgams, or strong acids. These processes require training, equipment, and precautions far beyond what the text describes.
This information has been left in for historical purposes but should not be acted upon.
Home › Fixed Oils And Fats › To Refine Wax
To Refine Wax
Another method of refining crude wax, and which produces a very bright article, is to melt it with about 1 per cent. of concentrated nitric acid, in a large earthen or stoneware vessel, heated by steam or a salt-water bath, and to continue the boiling till nitrous fumes cease to be evolved, after which the whole is allowed to settle, and treated as before.