How to Make Odor-free Beeswax to Be Used for Furniture Wax

Honeybees form beeswax cells to hold their honey.

Make your own odor-free beeswax furniture polish to preserve the wood of your fine furniture. Rendered beeswax naturally has a honey scent, due to honey residue in the wax. For odor-free beeswax polish, refine beeswax after rendering. During beeswax rendering and refinement, use only stainless steel or enamel equipment to prevent the reaction of honey acids with metal. The water used during the rendering and refinement processes should be rainwater, as hard water or very soft water will also cause undesirable chemical reactions that lower the quality of the refined beeswax.

Things You'll Need

• Stainless steel pot with cover
• Cotton gauze bag with drawstring
• Rain water
• Insulated cooler
• Stainless steel baking pan
• Nylon mesh filter

Instructions

Beeswax Rendering

1. 

   Light-colored wax caps on the tops of honeycomb cells are high-grade wax.

   Place beeswax burrs, pieces of honeycomb used for brooding and pollen storage, along with wax left over from the honey rendering process into a cotton gauze bag. Pull the drawstring tight.

2. Place the bag of honeycombs into a stainless steel pot. Add rainwater until the pot is half full.

3. Heat the pot until the water begins to simmer. Place the lid on the pot to prevent spattering of beeswax onto nearby surfaces. Watch the pot carefully to prevent overheating.

4. Simmer the beeswax and water for 30 minutes. Turn off the heat. Allow the pot to cool until it can be handled without risk of burning yourself.

5. Place the cooled pot into an insulated cooler to slow down the cooling process. Lightly close the cooler lid, leaving a small opening for heat to escape. Slow cooling allows sediments to drop to the bottom of the pot, resulting in a cleaner wax cake when completely cooled.

6. Remove the wax cake from the top of the pot. The residue in the gauze bag can be rendered again, or it can be broken into chunks and used as fire starter. Scrape the bottom of the wax cake if debris is present.

Beeswax Refining

1. Place beeswax cake in a stainless steel pot. Add rainwater to half fill the pot.

2. Bring the water to simmer. Cover with the pot lid.

3. Simmer the beeswax in water for approximately 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the pot to cool to a comfortable temperature.

4. Place the pot, again, in an insulated cooler. Close the cooler lid, leaving the lid slightly open to allow heat to slowly escape.

5. Remove the wax cake from the top of the pot when the wax and water have completely cooled.

Beeswax Bleaching

1. Grate beeswax with a coarse grater.

2. Spread beeswax gratings thinly on a stainless steel baking pan or other shallow stainless steel pan. Cover the pan with a sheet of glass. Place the pans in a protected area in direct sunlight. The sun will melt the wax and will bleach out the color.

3. Pour bleached wax into a stainless steel pot of warm rainwater. Heat to simmer. Turn off heat.

4. Pour the water with wax through a nylon filter into a clean stainless steel pot. Allow to cool slowly.

5. Remove the wax cake from the pot. Store until ready to use.

Tips & Warnings

• Hydrogen peroxide can be poured over the grated wax to remove honey scent if refinement and sun bleaching is not sufficient to completely remove the honey odor.

• Wax is highly flammable. Use caution when heating wax. Avoid high temperatures.

References

• The Bee Buzz: Rendering Beeswax
• Ol' Buffalo Beeswax Page: Refining Beeswax
• Bee Source: All About Beeswax
• Honey Crop: Processing Wax
• Production and Trade of Beeswax: Refining Beeswax

Resources

• Recipe Goldmine: Beeswax Furniture Polish
• Beeswax Recipes: Beeswax Polishes