[Sca-cooks] OT furniture beeswax for candles?

[Steven Weidner]

>Gentles all,
>
>in a discussion but a short while ago, it was
>mentioned that medieval candles would be made out
>of *refined* beeswax rather than the honey-colored
>stuff favored today. Today I saw a block of
>whitish wax labelled 'beeswax' in the window of a
>woodworking and machine rental shop. The stuff is
>intended to wax wooden floors. Apparently it
>contains some chemical hardening agent, but the
>sales staff were completely mystified by my
>innocent question "is it good for candles?" Does
>anyone here have experience with it?

A possible warning about the hardening agent: one such agent is stearine, or
stearic acid.  It raises the melting point of the wax so that it stays solid
longer, but it doesn't raise the flash point.  What this means is that while
you're trying to melt it, it may need sufficient heat to soften that it
spontaneously combusts as soon as it melts.  If you're going to do this, try
it with a small batch first, and have a fire extinguisher handy.

Good luck!

Steinn Karlsson