Melting Beeswax Step 2

In a earlier post I posted how to melt down your beeswax. After it cools, I usually wait 24 hours, and usually I don't get to it until I have time, but over night is good. You will get a block of wax, with nasty stuff on the bottom.

Now I watched a you tube video and that gentleman said the rough stuff on the bottom is propolis. He said it can be sold as #2 propolis. That may be, I am not saying he is correct or not. What I do is scrap it off in the trash. I think it is just dirt and what not. If you melt this down with your wax with this stuff on there it is not going to get any cleaner. So I just use a knife and scrape and cut a small layer off. I then rinse under warm water and dry it off. Now I chop it up into smaller pieces so it will melt faster. The best tools I found for this are a screw driver and hammer. Now put in the double boiler as before.

Melt it all down, pour into a container, through some cheese cloth. I filled my first container clear full, put I find it easier to only filling the container an inch or two thick, and using multiple containers. Only because you may melt it all down again until you get all clean, and a block an inch or two thick is easier to clean up and chop up that a huge block. Just my opinion.

This is the wax going through the cheese cloth, into the cottage cheese container, see the nasty stuff, left in the cheese cloth.

This is my first pour, see how the color has gotten lighter. I wouldn't fill the container full again. It is too hard to work with being 6 inches or so thick. I started pouring an inch or two containers.

These are the bee skep candles, I have made so far. The bottom right one is made with wax from my girls, the rest are made with store bought beeswax. You can keep redoing the above process to get the color lighter, or you can use the wax as you wish. I think its cool and gives it character.