Working with Beeswax

When the bees make honey they store it in hexagonal wax cells in a wooden frame, supplied by the beekeeper. The bees seal the honey into the cells with fresh beeswax, made by young worker bees from glands in their bodies. These frames are removed at harvest time and the beekeeper slices off these caps and spins the frames to remove the honey. The cappings are set aside and later spun to extract more of the remaining honey.

We buy these cappings in 45 gallon drums, mostly from Menno and Delores Reimer of Sunshine Honey in Tatamagouche. We wash and rinse the cappings in water to dissolve any honey and float off any small particles of dirt.

We also remove any old comb wax that might have gotten included; old wax is often dark brown and degraded from years of use in the hive. We then melt the cappings over hot water. The wax floats to the surface and is skimmed off, while any remaining honey and all the other dirt stays with the hot water.

At this point, we end up with blocks of rendered wax, like these:

Each of those blocks weighs about 5 pounds. They still have some dirt in them but if the wax is melted and filtered it can be used for some kinds of candles, particularly hand dips.

When we first started making candles we bought both cappings and blocks of beeswax from several different beekeepers. Some of the cappings were already cleaned of honey and those made lovely candles. But all of the blocks of beeswax that we bought were unsatisfactory because the honey had not been washed out, and some may have been damaged by being over-heated. Candles made from this wax did not burn well. Here's what happens if you make a candle from wax that hasn't been properly cleaned:

Tea light candles are the most sensitive to bad wax. If there is dirt or honey in the wax, they won't burn properly. This image is from one of a series of test burns that we made with different grades of wax. This picture was taken after 50 minutes.

In this image, you can see high and cheery flame from the centre candle, which was made with our clean wax. The candle on the right is barely burning; the honey had not been washed from that wax. The flame on the candle on the left never did fully rise up; this wax was cleaner but not great. All three candles were burning along for the first half hour and then the candle on the right dropped back to a small blue flame while the candle on the left never really improved. It seems that the honey carmelises on the wick as it burns and keeps the wax from rising.

We found that it was almost impossible to get the honey out of the beeswax. We have tried shocking melted wax with cold water, adding vinegar to the meltwater, stirring the wax and water vigorously and nothing seemed to work very well. So now we don't buy rendered wax from beekeepers; we buy the cappings so that we can be sure that any honey is washed out.

Another problem with beeswax is that it contains many fine, almost microscopic dirt particles that will clog the pores in the wick. We have learned to hold the wax in a molten state for three days so that the dirt can settle out by gravity. When we ladle off the refined wax it is a gorgeous golden yellow colour and the bottom half-inch of wax is unbelievably black with this dirt. Here's a bit of refined wax poured into a soap mold; we sell these blocks to hobbyists who want a bit of beeswax for art projects:

There are a couple of advantages to having really nice clean wax available to us. One is that the candles look and smell lovely, and they feel warm in the hand. Another is that the wax has essentially been pasteurised. And a third is that with clean wax we can size the wicks appropriately.

Candles burn by melting the wax, which climbs the wick by capillary action where it is vaporised and burned. When wax is not clean the small dirt particles will clog the wick and interfere with the flame. Candlemakers can compensate for this by putting a larger wick in the candle but they run the risk of turning the candle into a torch. With clean wax we can choose the size of wick appropriate to the purpose.

Candles burn in three different ways. Tapers, the long slim candles, ideally burn straight down the length of the shaft. The wax pool at the top of the candle is consumed as the candle burns and none should be left to dribble down the candle. A pillar candle burns by melting a wax pool in the centre of the candle. If the wick is sized correctly the wax pool should extend right out to within 1/8 inch from the candle wall, and as the candle burns down the owner should gently bend the wall in so that it melts and feeds the wax pool. Tealights and votives must be burned in a container because they liquefy as they burn, and without container walls the wax would run across the table. Each of these types of candles need different wick sizes, and we have found that having consistently clean beeswax means that we can reliably use the right wick for each candle and have good results. And it means that we can use 100% cotton wicks with a self-trimming feature that provides a clean and smokefree burn.

Cleaning and refining our beeswax is a lot of work but the results are worth it.

Here's the process to make a round of tea lights and votives.

We use silicone molds, and these ones have a hole in the bottom so we can use a nail to hold space for the wick. These have just been poured.

Ten minutes later the wax has hardened enough that we can turn it out of the mold.

You can see the nail which has made the channel for the wick.

We prepare the wicks in advance by dipping cotton wicking in wax and hanging it to cool. We cut the wicks to length and insert one end in a small wick tab, which holds the wick in place as the candle burns down. This has to be done while the tea light is still warm.

A few tea lights and votives, which are made the same way.

This is the production from one pouring. We can only pour so many or the candles would be cold before we got around to putting the wicks in. For tapers and pillars, of course, the wick is in place in the mold before the wax is poured in.

The fruit of an afternoon's work. There is always wax spilled around and tracked about on our shoes, so we learned early on to make candles out in the shed.