waxing leather question

[Vebrand]

I was given a block of wax several years ago and was told then it was parafin by a guy who used to make wax armor, and it just set up on a shelf. I finally got around to melting it and went to wax some stuff and planned to rewax some of my armor. However when I used it it dried right away and left a white wax coat on the leather which I don't recall happening before when I waxed leather some 10 plus years ago. Any ideas?

Vebrand

[Konstantin the Red]

Sounds like you put quite a thick coat on; more than you needed to, with such wax as may still have been present. That might have been accomplished with your wax heated to just barely above melting point, so it didn't have enough heat in it to soak in for a few seconds before hardening up.

To fix, I'd wirebrush the excess off, salvaging any that I could out of sheer thrift, and maybe try it again, trying to do it very thin. Warming the leather likely would help, as would blending a lower-melting wax in, such as some brick beeswax. I wouldn't want to get crazy with warming the leather for fear of reducing the stuff to cooked brittleness.

Paraffin wax is white and looks about like a block of candle. Chips up flaky.

[Kilkenny]

Personally, I would (a) recommend against using paraffin on leather; and (b) take a hair dryer and use it on your piece(s) to warm the wax and get the excess to run off.

The other thing I would do is, as soon as I've taken the hair dryer off of the leather, buff it with a piece of denim scrap. The denim will do a good job of rubbing in what can be rubbed in and taking off what needs to come off and will give a nice finish.

[losthelm]

If you decide to make candles or need more parafin your local megamart should have the stuff in one pound packages for canning.
Usualy the package has 4 blocks in them if your trying to portion things out.

[Vebrand]

Thanks, all