Cleaning Up Your Wax

At the end of a season, we spend a good deal of time processing wax. Most people want to know how to clean up the utensils used for that processing.

Setting up your wax area first saves a good amount of grief later, so use heavy duty paper to cover any benches, floors and walls that may get splashed. If it does spill, then wait until it sets before removing the wax because using hot water will simply spread it further. I also use an apron or old clothes since I accidentally splashed hot wax over a woollen jumper. That required placing paper towels over the material and using an iron to melt the wax out.

I dedicate a limited number of utensils to the wax melting task so I have a choice of leaving them waxy until the next job or cleaning them up at the time. I use two cleaning methods and I am sure there are more.

One option is to heat your oven to 200C. Put all your waxy tools onto a tray covered with paper, switch off the oven and place the tray into the oven for 15 minutes. They will be warm enough to then use paper towels to wipe all the utensils clean.

The other method I have found quick and easy is using an electrical heat gun. I use this to keep wax hot as it drains through sieves at times when the wax is cooling too quickly and blocking the sieve. For cleaning up utensils, I simply heat the tool and allow any wax to drip off, then use paper towels or an old cloth to wipe them down. They come out looking like new.

Happy waxing!