Prep. 1. From yellow resin, 16 lbs.; hard mutton suet or stearin, 8 lbs.; palm oil, 21⁄2 lbs.; melted together.
2. As last, but substituting turmeric, 1 lb., for the palm oil.
3. Best annotta, 6 oz., or q. s.; water, 1 gal.; boil; add, of hard mutton suet or stearin, 35 lbs.; yellow resin, 70 lbs.; again boil, with constant agitation, until perfectly mixed and of a proper colour, and, as soon as it begins to thicken, pour it out into basins to cool. When cold, rub each cake over with a little potato starch.
Wax, Gilder’s. See Gilding.
Wax, Mod′eling. Prep. Take of beeswax, lead plaster, olive oil, and yellow resin, equal parts; whiting, q. s. to form a paste; mix well, and roll it into sticks. Colours may be added at will.
Wax, Refined. Crude wax, especially that imported, is generally loaded 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 4 or 5% of water in a bright copper or stone-ware boiler, preferably heated by steam, and, after the whole is perfectly liquid, and has boiled for some minutes, withdrawing the heat, and sprinkling over its surface a little oil of vitriol, in the proportion of about 5 or 6 fl. oz. to every cwt. of wax. This operation should be conducted with great care and circumspection; as, when done carelessly, the melted wax froths up, and boils 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 until it becomes sufficiently cool to be drawn off for ‘moulding.’ It is then very gently skimmed with a hot ladle, baled or decanted into hot tin ‘jacks,’ and by means of these poured 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 called, is taken out, and the impurities (mostly bees) scraped from its under surface. The scraped cake is usually reserved for a second operation; but if required, it may be at once remelted, and strained through canvas into a mould.
Much of the foreign wax has a pale, dirty colour, which renders it, no matter however pure, objectionable to the retail purchaser. Such wax undergoes the operation of ‘colouring’ as well as ‘refining.’ A small quantity of the best roll annotta, cut into slices (1⁄4 lb., more or less, to wax, 1 cwt., depending on the paleness of the latter), is put into a clean boiler with about a gallon of water, and boiled for some time, or until it is perfectly dissolved, when a few ladlefuls of the melted wax are added, and the boiling continued until the wax has taken up all the colour, or until the water is mostly evaporated. The portion of wax thus treated has now a deep orange colour, and is added, in quantity as required, to the remainder of the melted wax in the larger boiler until the proper shade of colour is produced when cold; the whole being well mixed, and a sample of it cooled now and then, to ascertain when enough has been added. The copper is next brought to a boil, and treated with oil of vitriol, &c., as before. Some persons add palm oil (bright) to the wax, until it gets sufficient colour, but this plan is objectionable
from the quantity required for the purpose being often so large as to injure the quality of the product; besides which the colour produced is inferior, and less transparent and permanent than that given by annotta.
Another method of refining crude wax, and which produces a very bright article, is to melt it in a large earthen or stoneware vessel, heated by steam or a salt-water bath, then to cautiously add to it about 1% of concentrated nitric acid, and to continue the boiling until nitrous fumes cease to be evolved, after which the whole is allowed to settle, and is treated as before.
Obs. The great art in the above process is to produce a wax which shall at once be ‘bright,’ or semi-translucent in thin places, and good coloured. The former is best ensured by allowing the melted mass to settle well, and by carefully skimming and decanting the clear portion without disturbing the sediment. It should not be poured into the moulds too warm, as, in that case, it is apt to ‘separate,’ and the resulting cakes to be ‘streaky,’ or of different shades of colour. Again, it should 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 to 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 absolutely necessary that the ‘jacks’ or cans, ladles, and skimmers, used in the above process, be kept pretty hot, as without this precaution the wax cools, and accumulates upon them in such quantity as to render them inconvenient, and often quite useless, without being constantly scraped out.