Rendering Beeswax from honeycomb

Comments · 1.8K

• CH

  @chrisvisser-fee2631 · 4 years ago

  This is the sort of thing I love about the internet. A quarter hour video from a dude with a totally different life, about a topic that'll never apply to me, but it's just there for anyone to watch and appreciate.

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• FO

  @fossilsfabe4304 · 4 years ago

  Very good video. Apparently in the Middle ages, although they had no other source of sugar, the bees wax was worth 14 times as much as the honey. It still makes better candles than paraffin wax as it burns longer and smells nice. Go bees!

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• PI

  @pirut1 · 4 years ago

  This was fascinating! You clearly have a love and deep respect for the bees as you don't waste even a bit of their precious resources.  Thanks for taking the time to record your process!

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• RO

  @RobertJJ3 · 4 years ago

  Being a YouTuber often means cranking out a lot of videos, most unnecessary. I always appreciate a smaller channel putting out a very well done video that does just what it needs to. Thank you for this, sir.

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• ML

  @mleeriley3977 · 4 years ago

  This was something I never knew or even thought about other than the fact that if there are no bees we die!  No food.  No pollination.  You, sir, are an artist.  Your duties with the bees is well appreciated by me.  I hope others realize the importance of these tiny creatures!

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• AT

  @ateronan7884 · 3 years ago

  My grandparents were beekeepers in rural Mexico. My aunt was telling me about the entire process they would go through. How they sold honey , candles and more. This video made me very happy. This explains a lot of the patience they had. Thank you

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• KA

  @Kalsofur · 4 years ago

  And this is what I will show people who dare say &quot;it&apos;s a complicated process&quot; and &quot;you need machines and the industrial system to make beeswax otherwise it&apos;s impossible&quot;<br>Feels incredibly good to have someone make such pure and clean beeswax this well explained.

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• JA

  @jackk4332 · 4 years ago (edited)

  Pro tip. &nbsp;Take all the &quot;junk&quot; and stuff it into a ladies stocking. &nbsp;Tie it off and toss it back into your boil pot. &nbsp;You&apos;ll extract even more off stuff you normally would have thrown out. &nbsp;This would include the junk you scrapped off the bottom of the first big disk, the paper towels, and even the trash you skimmed off the top of the first pot.<br><br>Also, find some muffin tins at the local Goodwill and grab some of the riffled paper muffin moulds. &nbsp;These are almost perfectly 1.5 ounces when filled with wax and the paper is pre-waxed and pulls off super easy.

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• TO

  @tonydyvr · 4 years ago (edited)

  Awesome video!<br><br>For the record - since you like making firestarters out of the wax-soaked paper towel, if you have some time to play around I&apos;d encourage you to do something similar with the &quot;junk&quot; residue you throw away after skimming it off the first melt - that stuff has a lot of wax left in it no matter how hard you squeeze it. &nbsp;<br><br>If you buy a set of dedicated molds (i.e. only used to make firestarters) similar to the ones you have at <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JrmSet7gPs&amp;t=746">12:26</a> but a bit larger, you can fill them with clean wood shavings, cover the whole mold with a healthy dose of &quot;junk-skim&quot; and bake in a low oven (on an old cookie sheet - drippy!!) until the liquid renders down and fills up the gaps around the sawdust. &nbsp;<br><br>Remove and cool, and you&apos;ll be left with a mostly-woodchips-and-cleanish-wax amalgam in the bottom of the molds, and a nasty (but mostly wax-free) layer of bee parts, dirt, etc. on top. &nbsp;This top part you can cut off leaving a set of useful, thick firestarters that&apos;ll burn for a long time at the center of a fire. &nbsp;<br><br>Trial and error will let you find a junk-to-woodchip ratio that works. &nbsp;Have fun!<br><br>PS: &nbsp;I suggested woodchips, but almost any cellulose-based material is good. &nbsp;Strips of clean cardboard cut to size and packed in the molds would work well too.

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• PA

  @paulnash6944 · 3 years ago

  My father use to use beeswax all of the time in his workplace. My dad was a welder, and sometimes, bolts would break and the tip would be stuck in steel, so he would put hot beeswax on the bolt to get it out. R.I.P. Kenneth Gerard Nash (26 March 1965-23 March 2020). For those wondering, his death was not COVID-related.

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• NA

  @NameName2.0 · 4 years ago

  never forget folks, Bees are our friends.

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• 6R

  @6root91 · 4 years ago

  This was an interesting watch dude. Nothing fancy, just a really wholesome wax extracting video. The time-lapses were a nice touch and your other tips and experiments throughout the process were also a treat. Great job.

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