Wax Removal

[redbob]

I have recently acquired several shells which are covered by a thick covering (up to 1/8th inch) of black wax. Any suggestions on how to best remove it?

[speedenforcer]

acetone maybe.

[Steve Phillips]

Boil several times in fresh water then after dry coat a couple times with Gemplers Rust Converter. The water boiling will also remove some salts and sulfides.

[redbob]

Thank you both for the valuable input. I'll let you know how it turns out.

[speedenforcer]

What Mr. Phillips suggest make perfect sense and I can assure you he knows a lot more than me. That probably would be better than the harsh acetone I suggested.

[CarlS]

If the goal is to remove the excess wax, what I've done for some people who have asked me to make their heavily waxed shells look better is to put them in the warm sun (it was summer) for a few hours and then use a heat gun to heat the wax further.  The wax becomes like water and I wipe it off with a towel.  The shell is still waxed but it is only a slight waxy surface and looks much better.  I found that paint thinner seems to slowly dissolve it too.

[redbob]

The wax that I was removing was up to 1/4" inch thick and a heat gun, wooden scraper, a rack from a roasting pan to get the shell off the surface and rags made the job manageable. The kicker was that a black colorant had been added to the wax and this wax/colorant combination made the job a little messier, so that even after the wax mixture had been removed, you still get  a nice black tint to you hands. That said, I was still very satisfied with the results and I appreciate everyone's input. 

[speedenforcer]

Do you have before and after pictures? The shells not the hands, lol.

[redbob]

[speedenforcer]

Turned out nice.

[redbob]

Thank you, I'm not quite finished; but it's getting there and it is proving to be an excellent learning experience.

[CarlS]

Looking very nice!  Great job.  Looks like some nice iron keeping it company when you aren't working on it.

[redbob]

Thank you and since Mike and you are responsible for many of them, thank you for that also.

[pipedreamer65]

Don't use q-tips.  Might bust your eardrum

[Heavy_and_Light]

I have one of those as well from the same source-I think. Same shell, same wax.... I thought about removing the wax on mine as
well but I think mine may be a bit rougher. I think someone was trying to defeat the Chlorides using excessive wax....
H&L