# cleaning beeswax with oxyalic acid



## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Thanks for this very informative posting. 
I'm not sure of any dangers in your system, but it sounds like something I'm going to start doing here when I recycle my combs this year.


----------



## jrbbees (Apr 4, 2010)

Make a solar melter. Make it so the wax, as it melts, runs down a flat sheet and is exposed to the sun light before it drips off in the catch tray.

The UV light will bleach it very nicely. You may have to put it through the melter a few times but it works. Costs nothing. Does not add anything to your wax. Does not burn it.

I've gotten white wax out of old black brood comb from old cutout trees.
Just keep running it through.


----------



## Laurence Hope (Aug 24, 2005)

"...I've gotten white wax out of old black brood comb..."
Me, too. Just using a solar melter, re-running the wax several times - and with no
filter attached.


----------



## fat/beeman (Aug 23, 2002)

the solar melter as mention above works great for me. I use a glass sliding door that way its big enough for 20 frames. the sun will take black combs and if left in long enough will be snow white,I like yellow wax.

Don


----------



## deknow (Jul 17, 2006)

i think experimentation is great...but a couple of things to point out:

1. you don't know if there is any OA retained in the wax (neither do i). you don't know how that might affect candle burning, application of cosmetics, foundation, etc.

2. you are concerned enough to not want to expose your pipes to the OA in water (which i think is smart)...but shouldn't it follow that you would be concerned about how the end product is used?

deknow


----------



## Kat (Sep 16, 2010)

So... tell me!!!

What happened when you made candles out of the wax cleaned with oxalic acid?
Did they sputter at all?

I am the girl trying the peroxide - keep washing it over and over, even when only using a tiny bit of peroxide, the candles sputter..

However - I melted and poured a test candle from a piece of this same wax (it sputtered previously - several months ago_ and this time it burned perfectly...quite a puzzle


----------



## gtp086 (Jun 19, 2012)

arkansasbee said:


> I had 6 1/2 lbs. of cleaned beeswax (no slumgum) that was still dark brown/olive green, darker than what I wanted to use for candles. After doing a search and reading all the posts on cleaning beeswax I still had no clear answer. There were several mentions of hydrogen peroxide, either the solution or Clorox 2 and a few mentions of oxylic acid but no details. I decided to do an experiment. I placed two gallons of water and 61/2 lbs of dark, cleaned wax in a stainless stock pot


I read in a book on beeswax processing that Oxalic Acid attacks stainless steel. 
So a ceramic pot (like a crockpot) or an enameled pot might be a better choice. 
The book said oxalic acid was more effective than sulfuric acid. 
The major bulk wax processors use concentrated hydrogen peroxide to bleach wax. 
The book also said that chlorine bleach SHOULD NOT BE USE to bleach wax because
chlorine retained in the wax can make candles toxic when burned. 
The book also said iron and copper ions stain wax. Don't process wax in copper or iron vessels.

I refilter wax through a cafeteria size (13" diameter) coffee filter nested in a steaming basket in a wax melter.
I can filter about a pound or two per day per setup. The coffee filter is much more effective than paper towel. 

I was delighted to read that your experiment produced such good results.


----------

