Gilding Wax?
- Thread starter Woodmolds
- Start date
Tony,
I have never made gilding wax,but I have made colored wax. I just melted commercial past wax in a double boiler and added earth pigments to get the color I needed. I would guess you could do the same with bronzing powder. The pigment acted to thicken the wax, I would think the bronzing powder would do the same. Bronzing powder is available in a number of shades on line, from silver to bright brass.
You can adjust the thickness of the wax by adding bees wax or paraffin to thicken or thinner to thin.
Good luck Tom
I have never made gilding wax,but I have made colored wax. I just melted commercial past wax in a double boiler and added earth pigments to get the color I needed. I would guess you could do the same with bronzing powder. The pigment acted to thicken the wax, I would think the bronzing powder would do the same. Bronzing powder is available in a number of shades on line, from silver to bright brass.
You can adjust the thickness of the wax by adding bees wax or paraffin to thicken or thinner to thin.
Good luck Tom
William Balsiger
New member
Tony:
Classical alchemy is of special interest to me. I can tell you that purchasing individual components will not gain you anything monetarily, especially in terms of your "compounding" time when compared to just buying gilt or gilder's wax. These commercial products all dry hard. If not using it in time turns them hard, then simply dip your brush into ethanol and turn it into the hardened wax to soften it. The wax will apply just fine from your brush properly wetted, and then dries once again just as hard. There are similar commercial "iconistic" products out there in cake or tablet form anyway.
One can also use button-lac as a graining liquid, which is heavy in shellac wax. This is as fresh and as handy as it gets. However, use up those hardened gilder's waxes first, because now as solids they won't spill all over your
touch-up kit.
William Balsiger
Classical alchemy is of special interest to me. I can tell you that purchasing individual components will not gain you anything monetarily, especially in terms of your "compounding" time when compared to just buying gilt or gilder's wax. These commercial products all dry hard. If not using it in time turns them hard, then simply dip your brush into ethanol and turn it into the hardened wax to soften it. The wax will apply just fine from your brush properly wetted, and then dries once again just as hard. There are similar commercial "iconistic" products out there in cake or tablet form anyway.
One can also use button-lac as a graining liquid, which is heavy in shellac wax. This is as fresh and as handy as it gets. However, use up those hardened gilder's waxes first, because now as solids they won't spill all over your
touch-up kit.
William Balsiger
Woodmolds
Well-known member
Tom,
Thanks, I think I'll try your method. It doesn't sound to hard or expensive. I have at least two, maybe all three of the ingredients on hand.
William,
So you're saying it would cost me about $30-32 dollars to make 2oz of gold gilding wax? This is the prices I'm finding. I don't presently have any to soften, so I need to start somewhere. There seems to be only a couple of places that have any ready made gold wax! I ordered from one place and was informed it was discontinued.
I assumed, it would be easier to make some that spend hours chasing it down.
Tony
Thanks, I think I'll try your method. It doesn't sound to hard or expensive. I have at least two, maybe all three of the ingredients on hand.
William,
So you're saying it would cost me about $30-32 dollars to make 2oz of gold gilding wax? This is the prices I'm finding. I don't presently have any to soften, so I need to start somewhere. There seems to be only a couple of places that have any ready made gold wax! I ordered from one place and was informed it was discontinued.
I assumed, it would be easier to make some that spend hours chasing it down.
Tony
William Balsiger
New member
Tony,
1. I've never purchased fractions of an ounce of anything. It's not cost-effective.
2. Nor should it ever take hours to source the net for anything, www.iconofile.com.
1. I've never purchased fractions of an ounce of anything. It's not cost-effective.
2. Nor should it ever take hours to source the net for anything, www.iconofile.com.