Topic: Paraffin wax.
How many of you guys wax your strings? 
Any one use paraffin wax? Can you find bee wax? Do you use dedicated bow string wax? Any questions?
My SKB I have waxed with paraffin a couple of times.
- NickAntz
- Member
- Offline
2 2015-09-08 20:42:03 (edited by Pedro C 2015-09-08 23:58:18)
Re: Paraffin wax.
From a candle? 
I got besswax blocks online.. I guess they'll work well enough for synthetic strings? according to some people. Using a piece of leather or similar to rub the wax into the string sounds good.
It'll probably be a while before I wax the bowstring in my Nomad.
Re: Paraffin wax.
I recommend using wax pretty often. just use your fingers to rub it in. It will keep your string from fraying.
+1
Re: Paraffin wax.
Paraffin is too hard to penetrate well enough. Use bee's wax or a dedicated bow string wax. Your string will last lots longer!
5 2015-09-09 20:49:52 (edited by Pedro C 2015-09-09 20:50:11)
Re: Paraffin wax.
I read using a piece of leather allows one to build heat more easily without burning your fingers from the friction, and thus allows the wax to penetrate better. I find it very hard to do so with beeswax and just fingers, it's too solid. But I guess making a bit of a superficial coating by just passing the string through the block might be good enough?
- marc
- Member
- Offline
Re: Paraffin wax.
Same as WillScarlet!! And I also use a small piece of deer skin.
- NickAntz
- Member
- Offline
Re: Paraffin wax.
I lite a candle and let it drip melted paraffin on the string... but still the result looked nothing like a new and waxed string... I'll try wax block next time.
Re: Paraffin wax.
If you can get a dedicated bowstring wax, that'd likely work better
Re: Paraffin wax.
NickAntz wrote:
How many of you guys wax your strings?
My SKB I have waxed with paraffin a couple of times.
Mostly just use the silicon blends like this one: https://www.60xcustomstrings.com/bcy-x- … tring-wax/
10 2018-06-23 15:19:27 (edited by CTR 2018-06-23 15:20:21)
Re: Paraffin wax.
So I'm not a subject matter expert here, but here is my hot take:
Beeswax or dedicated string wax aren't that hard to get. Beeswax is actually, in a weird way, essentially secreted bee fat. The point though of these waxes is to be very very sticky, as it is just friction that holds your whole string together. You also want it to be relatively soft and flexible at room temperature so it can move with the string. Candle wax, at least in my experience, is the opposite of that: it is highly lubricious, and in fact I use candle wax to wax wooden drawer runners and such. I would very much want to avoid putting it on my bows.
And interesting, albeit somewhat weird, source of wax which works on bowstrings (and I use in serving) are those tiny little baybell cheese wheels. It contains a red pigment, so might not be preferable for waxing your whole string, but it does work.
And the disclaimer at the bottom here is that all this is based on my accumulated years of knowledge and experience and could be completely wrong.
As far as finding beeswax in your country with reasonable shipping, methinks Ebay would be the way to do it:
https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R … p;_sacat=0