Sealing wax

“ Sealing-wax that has been well aflame takes a long time to harden thoroughly after it has parted with nearly all its heat. By selecting the proper moment after blowing out the flame, the wax will be cool enough for the finger to press it without discomfort, and it will still be sufficiently soft to take a sharp impression. Dentist’s wax, which is far less brittle, is easily worked, and takes impressions that are nearly as sharp as those of sealing-wax ”

“ A stick of sealing-wax should be held in readiness under the arm, in a fold or two of dry flannel or fur. If the wax is very strongly electrified, it is apt to be far too powerful, and to cause the bubbles, when it is presented to them, to destroy each other. A feeble electrification is sufficient; then the instant it is exposed the bubbles coalesce. The wax may be brought so near one bubble in which another one is resting, that it pulls them to one side, but the inner one is screened from electrical action by the outer one. ”

“ The use of sealing-wax gives a touch of distinction for which a few persons still take time. Only white or delicately colored wax is acceptable, unless at holiday time, when the festive touch given by scarlet is in season. ”

“ If a piece of sealing-wax be rubbed briskly against the sleeve of your coat, or any other woollen substance, for some time, and then held within an inch or less of hair, feathers, bits of paper, or other light bodies; they will be attracted, that is, they will jump up, and adhere to the wax. If a tube of glass, or small phial, be rubbed in a similar manner, it will answer much better. The bottle thus rubbed becomes electric ”

“ For sealing letters no light is so convenient as a wax taper. A lamp or candle may smoke and blacken the wax. To seal well, your wax should be of the finest quality. Good red wax is generally the best, and its colour should be of a brilliant scarlet. Inferior red wax consumes very fast ”

“ Thus the hot material is forced firmly against every part and takes a brilliant impression. Such moulds are used for electrotyping as well as for plaster work. To produce a smooth face to a lump of hot guttapercha, it should be pulled outwards from the middle to all sides by thumbs and fingers, so as to produce a fresh torn face over the whole upper surface.
Sealing-wax is one of the handiest materials, and is used professionally for all the coin reproductions that are published. Only the best wax is of any67 use for impressions. ”

“ A two-ounce stick of the best wax will be enough for a quarter of a pint of spirits. Recollect that much depends on the goodness of the sealing-wax; and that you may vary the color of the varnish by using different colored wax. As this varnish dries very quickly, it should not be made until it is wanted for use.
669. Method of preparing the Composition used for Colored Drawings and Prints, so as to make them resemble Paint in Oil.—Take of Canada Balsam, one ounce; spirit of turpentine, two ounces; mix them together. ”

“ Sealing wax is to be used, or not, as inclination directs, but neatness and skill are necessary in its use, or an unsightly blotch will result, than which the self-sealing envelope is far preferable. A heavy cream-white envelope sealed with a large, perfect seal of rich red, or bronze-brown wax with a clear monogram or initial stamped thereon, is always pleasing to the eye. ”

“ They are then brushed with a bristle brush before a dust extractor, a procedure rendered necessary by the fine metallic dust from the coins, which then assume a light or dark brown colour such as is seen on copper coins which are in actual circulation. The practice of placing the coins whilst still wet into melted paraffin wax at 260°F. [120°-130°C.] , which gives a dark appearance even to the brightest, has the disadvantage that the wax prevents the use of sealing-wax for taking impressions, and is therefore not recommended. ”

“ For economy’s sake, good “parcel wax” may be used, but best red sealing wax is safer. This wax frame may be used repeatedly, being cleaned prior to each silvering operation. It is the only special appliance necessary, and half an hour is a liberal time allowance for making it.
Use a stock solution of silver nitrate of the strength of 25 grains to 1 ounce of distilled water: Take 2 drachms of silver nitrate stock solution and convert it to ammonia nitrate, by adding ammonia drop by drop until the precipitate is redissolved. Add 3 1/2 ounces of distilled water. ”

“ Then I broke off a piece of sealing-wax, melted it in the teaspoon, and poured it out carefully into the marked circle so that it formed a round, convex button of the right size. While the wax was cooling to the proper consistency, I smeared the coin with vaseline, and wiped the excess off with my handkerchief. Then I carefully laid it on the stiffening wax and made steady pressure. ”

“ With the sort of paper described for country houses, or for young people, or those living in studios or bungalows, gay sealing wax may be quite alluring, especially if it can be persuaded to pour smoothly like liquid, and not to look like a streaked and broken off slice of dough. ”

“ Steel Tempering-.-Heat the steel red hot and then plunge it into sealing wax.
For tempering small steel springs, they may be plunged into a fish oil which has a small amount of rosin and tallow.
Varnishes.—Black Varnish. Shellac, 5 parts; borax, 2 parts; glycerine, 2 parts; aniline black, 6 parts; water, 45 parts. Dissolve the shellac in hot water and add the other ingredients at a temperature of 200 degrees.
A good can varnish is made by dissolving 15 parts of shellac, and adding thereto 2 parts of Venice turpentine, 8 parts of sandarac, and 75 parts of spirits. ”

“ The resins are melted together in an earthenware pot over a moderate fire, and the colouring matter is added slowly with careful stirring. The mass when taken from the fire is poured into oiled tin moulds the form of the sticks required, and when hard the sticks are polished by passing them rapidly over a charcoal fire, or through a spirit flame, which melts the superficial film. ”

“ Gather the wax together in the water without loss of time, remove it with wet hands, and pull it fast hand over hand as quickly as possible till it attains a light golden colour. Pull off a small piece with the hands, or cut it off with wet scissors, and throw it into the water. If it floats on the surface it has been pulled enough; if it sinks, the wax requires more working. If not pulled enough, the wax is brittle, becoming tougher and better the more it is pulled. ”

“ For the same reason the wax-saucepan should be kept very clean, and the wax frequently poured off, and all sediment thrown away. A bit of cotton-fluff off the duster is enough to drag a "lump" out on the end of the waxing-tool, which, before you have time to notice it, will be dribbling over the glass and perhaps spoiling it; for you must note that sometimes it is necessary to re-wax down unfired work, which a drop of wax the size of a pinhole, flirted off from the end of the tool, will utterly ruin. ”

“ Stir the whole until it is entirely cool, and the result will be a kind of pomade fit for waxing furniture, and which must be rubbed over them according to the usual method. The oil of turpentine is soon dissipated; but the wax, which by its mixture is reduced to a state of very great division, may be extended with more ease, and in a more uniform manner. The essence soon penetrates the pores of the wood, calls forth the colour of it, causes the wax to adhere better, and the lustre which thence results is equal to that of varnish, without having any of its inconveniences. ”

“ Then put it in your little furnace of tiles and iron hoops and melt out the wax with such heat as may be needful. Of course your wax must have been free from all impurities or it would never melt out properly. And when you have melted it out you make the fire stronger till your mould is regularly burnt, & the more it is baked the better your work will be. Then let it cool, and because the silver adapts [75] itself more readily to the cold than to the hot mould—cold, mark you, but not moist—when it is well molten pour it in. ”

“ To Mold a Calla Lily. Have ready a basin of hot soap suds, strong as possible of soap, and hot, so that your lily will be smooth, not lumpy or bubbly. Melt your wax by setting the tin cup in boiling water, as glue is melted. To every pound of white wax add a tube of Winsor & Newton’s flake white paint, dissolved and thoroughly mixed with one tablespoonful balsam fir, or Venetian turpentine, and half table spoonful of dissolved gum mastic, the whitest possible. This is a good recipe for sheeting wax for your own use, and will be given below in preparations for sheeted wax flowers. ”

“ A small quantity of scions may be kept in an icebox (not a mechanical refrigerator) , by cutting them into convenient lengths of one or two feet, dipping them in melted beeswax, wrapping them in tar or asphalt paper and placing them close to the ice. They will remain in good condition for several months if there is always a good supply of ice. Care must be taken in dipping the scions in melted wax, for if the wax is too hot it will injure the buds. It should never become so hot that it smokes. I find it advisable to keep an unmelted piece of wax in the liquid wax to hold the temperature down. ”

“ When thoroughly melted, the liquid is poured into a pail or tub of cold water. It soon becomes hard enough to handle, and it is then pulled and worked over until it becomes tough or “gets a grain,” at which stage it becomes the color of very light-colored manilla paper. When wax is applied by hand, the hands must be well greased. Hard tallow is the best material for this purpose. In top-grafting large trees it is well to carry a supply of tallow when waxing by smearing the backs of the hands before entering the tree.
Fig. 89. Inarching. 1. Common Resin and Beeswax Waxes. ”

“ If it is deemed advisable—which I think is only required in very dark over-done pictures—to wax the negative, it is easily managed by holding a piece of white wax or candle in front of a clean iron rather hot, and passing it frequently over the surface. ”

“ The essential features in all the forms that have been devised are a metal tank with a glass cover and usually a wire-cloth strainer, below which is placed the receptacle for the wax, the whole so arranged as to enable one to tilt it at such an angle as will catch the direct rays of the sun. The effectiveness of the solar wax extractor is increased by having the glass doubled, and adding also a reflector, such as a mirror or a sheet of bright metal. ”

“ Wax is freed from its impurities, and bleached, by melting it with hot water or steam, in a tinned copper or wooden vessel, letting it settle, running off the clear supernatant oily-looking liquid into an oblong trough with a line of holes in its bottom, so as to distribute it upon horizontal wooden cylinders, made to revolve half immersed in cold water, and then exposing the thin ribbons or films thus obtained to the blanching action of air, light, and moisture. ”

“ A lot of cottons are hung upon frames, as you see here, and covered with metal tags at the ends to keep the wax from covering the cotton in those places. These are carried to a heater, where the wax is melted. As you see, the frames can turn round; and as they turn, a man takes a vessel of wax and pours it first down one, and then the next and the next, and so on. When he has gone once round, if it is sufficiently cool, he gives the first a second coat, and so on until they are all of the required thickness. ”

“ When the wax is spread, let the work cool, then have a fire ready of such nature as shall melt off the wax without heating the metal to redness. When heated in this way, rinse it out in a solution of tartar and water—what among goldsmiths is called grommata. This done, let it stand for such time as you can say an Ave Maria, then clean it with a brush in fresh water, rubbing it well. [183] If your work has been well gilded, you may further colour it with the process I shall tell you of shortly. But as to do so you have first to wax it, I had best tell you to begin with how that wax is made ”

“ Many pictures have been carried out within the last century on walls in a regular wax medium that may or may not represent an ancient process. Hippolyte Flandrin executed his series of mural pictures in St Vincent de Paul and St Germain des Prés in Paris in a process worked out by Paillot de Montabert. Wax dissolved in turpentine or oil of spike is the main constituent of the medium with which the wall is saturated and the colours ground. Heat is used to drive the wax into the plaster. ”

“ In short, the most brittle glass can be wrought almost as easily as brass by the use of cutting tools kept constantly moist with camphorized oil of turpentine.
To Etch upon Glass.—Procure several thick, clear pieces of crown glass, and immerse them in melted wax, so that each may receive a complete coating, or pour over them a solution of wax in benzine. When perfectly cold draw on them, with a fine steel point, flowers, trees, houses, portraits, etc. Whatever parts of the drawing are intended to be corroded with the acid, should be perfectly free from the least particle of wax. ”

“ If a brush overloaded with hot wax is set on the cloth, the wax will spread in a drop or blur at the point where the brush touches the cloth, which will make the line irregular. Of course, to have an even flow of wax from the brush, the temperature of the wax must be kept the same. If the worker dips first into wax that is hot and which sinks into the cloth easily and then into wax that is so cool that it stays on top of the cloth and refuses to penetrate the fiber, the finished work will be ragged and uneven about the edges. ”