Michael:

You are correct some folks mix bees wax with other materials to make it softer, but when it stays soft the pigtails will slip. Pure bees wax will soften when you rub it in and then harden when cooled, preventing them from slippage.

daniel:

Pure Bees wax only gets into the fiber after rubbing to melt it, then hardens.

Bob

I've been using bee's wax for years. In recent years I started adding a little coconut oil to soften it a bit. Works great.

I have a little potpourri crock pot from the craft store. This is great for melting beeswax and soaking your bowstring in after construction. You can easily dip your loops in it from time to time as these are the hardest part of the string to wax once the string is built.

But as stated all you need to do is rub the string with the block of wax fast and then burnish it with a piece of leather. I have even used the back of my glove for this.

Found another use for my bee's wax with a little cod liver oil mixed in it. The 80 something guy two doors down wants me to teach him how to shoot a pistol better. Instead of running out to the shooting range, I had him use my CO2 bb pistol. They work better if the cartridge has some sealant, instead of vaseline I used the bee's wax, works perfect and no mess. BB pistols are not toys, that thing is powerful and dangerous if not handled properly, not a good starter pistol to turn a kid loose with. I have retired and/or given away all of my recurves, I waxed up the strings for my Sunset. I am far smoother and more accurate with the Sunset, it will be the only bow i shoot for a while.

I have a piece of bees wax that my dad used in the mid '50's. It’s very hard but just slide one of the many grooves over the string and rub briskly then the piece of leather as mentioned by Arromakr.

My old B50 spool has more wax in it than the current B55 spools.

I use pure bee's wax on all of my strings. I got a large round of it from a vendor on the big auction when I bought my first recurve. I see no reason to change. Like was commented above: rub it on then use a piece of leather an rub it in. My bundles have always stayed together with it no problem when making strings.

Well, curiosity got the best of me and I looked through a few old archery books with string making chapters.

In Archery by Dr. Robert Elmer, 1926, he uses pure beeswax. In Archery: It's Theory and Practice by Horace A. Ford, 1880, he recommended beeswax. James Duff, author of Bows and Arrows, 1927, preferred pure beeswax mixed with an equal part of resin.

The only thing the resin does is to make the wax a bit more sticky. You may find that useful in keeping strands together while twisting the string.

I use beeswax combined with powdered rosin. I got the recipe from an old archery book. Good thing I made up a good amount that will last me a long time because I don't have the recipe anymore and don't know which book I got it from. Guess I'm no help!

One of the problems of being as strong as i am is giving my bows and arrows away when I want to go lighter or down size my stuff. No one is strong enough. Now my wife wants to dump all but two of her bows. It will be easier to have people that can draw her bows. One thing that, so far, every single supposedly 'experienced' person did was ask "what's that stuff for?" when seeing my string wax. I had two CP guys come over telling me they wanted to go recurve, both said were left handers, one grabbed my lefty Wing with his rleft hand and then looked confused. and both had never heard of string wax. That gave them a failing score. I will cut those recurves in half and toss them before I give stuff to greedy people that hear about free stuff.

I'd say the beeswax purists had the strongest showing on this thread. 😊

When i was a kid I had string bee's wax that smelled like fish. I got some wax from my basswood honey supplier and mixed a little cod liver oil in it. Smells funky and works, but it is still not that fishy smell i remember.

I usually take a lighter to warm and soften it up a bit then rub in by hand.

I agree with Aromakr, I use straight bees wax. Works great to build and maintain strings.

I'm going to disagree with the previous post. If you go back in archery, pure bees wax has always been used on bow strings. yes it takes a little effort, but just rub in on the string, then rub the string with a small piece of leather briskly and the wax will melt into the string just fine. A softer wax is why many of you have trouble with string elongation when making Flemish strings the strands are actually slipping in the bundles using soft waxes.

Bob

Bee's wax is typically combined with pine pitch and a softer paraffin to make string wax. Toilet seal rings are a good source of the latter. Made my own string wax after buying the components. It was fun...there are YouTube how-to videos.