February 10, 2011 - Recovering Beeswax from Water - Dan Krill's BLOG on BinaryBedlam

Recovering Beeswax from Water
February 09, 2011 11:46 PM

I couldn't find anything on the whole internet on this topic. There are lots of articles about separating bees wax from honey, but none from water, so I'm making my own article.
I needed to know this because I just got my bars of beeswax in the mail and I was ready to make my didgeridoo mouthpiece. Well I put the bars in some water and heated them up to soften them up for shaping, I walked away, and when I came back, much to my horror, they were already completely melted and evenly mixed with the water!
I thought I had ruined them and would have to buy more and wait all over again. Well it turns out, that's not the case. Beeswax melts at 147 degF, so a boil wasn't even needed in the first place, also, apparently wax is a fatty acid, so it wont dissolve in water, over time it separates.
After my panicking was done, I let the pot just sit there and cool. After about an hour, I got my beeswax back! The yellow water was crystal clear again and the melted wax particulates formed a floating disk. Moral of the story, always watch a boiling pot!

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