[MR] sealing wax, candle wax, etc.

[TheWolfhou at aol.com]

Bees wax has color variations depending on the diet of the bees and their  
health. Usually it is light colored/creamish when new. Wax ages to browns and  
amber pigments. Bees wax burns clear without a lot of soot. By coloring 
candles,  one is adding a nonburnable stuff to the wax, making smoke, and what is the 
 point of that?  Bees wax in say waxed tablets was colored dark blacks,  
browns, or red ochres to be easlier to read what is written. Pigment was added  to 
wax and rubbed onto furnature to pigment it and to polish it. Pigment added  
would not need to be oil based pigment... just add the finely ground pigment  
(colorant) to the hot wax and mix it! My little experience with tallow is that 
 the color variations of cream to tans and brown is dependant on the 
rendering of  the fats and the kind of fat being used. Being a fat based burnable 
thing that  already produces smoke, it should accept the suspention of ground 
pigments,  thought the color probably would be a bit "muddy". Tallow does not have 
the  translucenty of bees wax... and why add the non-burnable stuff to a 
candle  to be burned? 
 
going back to the question of wax sticks or blocks for signature stamps...  
bees wax melted can be colored by adding a pigment. What that pigment is  
determined its expense. Tallow would not have been used for wax stamps since it  
would leave an oily residue...
 
Now earliest in period, you will not see many candles being used at all.  
Olive oil, fish oil, some oil was placed in a dish or conical cup, a wick was  
suspended from the surface, and it burned. Look at the chandeleirs in  
1000s-1300s illuminations! You dont see candle sticks!
 
--Blitha of Wolfhou
 
 
In a message dated 1/7/2009 1:22:48 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
bertran.de.st.jean at gmail.com writes:

Beeswax  is a creamy yellow in color (at least my pure beeswax candles are)
so is it  possible that yellow colored candles might be simply  uncolored
beeswax?  What color is tallow in its natural  state?

On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 1:08 PM, Alex Long  <kyrilex at yahoo.com> wrote:

> It would seem logical to me that  mixing molten wax with oil based pigments
> would be a reasonable recipe  for a sealing. As evidenced by existing 
painted
> artworks we know there  existed at the very least the very basic black,
> white, blue, yellow,  and red, which can be mixed to create any other color.
> Theoretically  the sealing sticks would not have been any more expensive
> than the  pigments, so that generally speaking anyone who was educated could
>  probably afford them.
>
> In candles, white reflects more light  than colors, and it might be a waste
> of pigment...but then, if you  look at the candle chandelier from King 
Rene's
> tournament book, you  will clearly see the candles are yellow.
>  http://www.greydragon.org/furniture/chandeliers.html
>
> So who  knows, maybe colored candles did exist. If they did, perhaps we do
> not  have a lot of evidence because they were rare and expensive.
> Some  modern colored candles (the less expensive ones) are not a solid
>  colored wax but rather white wax with a slip, or colored coating. That  is
> also a possibility.
>
> Yet another option would be the  concept that wax in itself was very
> expensive and what we usually see  in paintings is actually tallow. The
> proteins in the tallow might  react poorly to pigments, making them 
difficult
> to  color.
>
> Someday when I build my time machine & go visit the  middle ages, I'll make
> sure to take lots of photos & notes, so  we'll know for sure. [grin]
>
>
> -- Ceara ní Néill
>  http://www.HouseBarra.com <http://www.housebarra.com/>
> Quare  Operor Quisquam Dimidium?
>
>
>
> --- On Wed, 1/7/09,  David Austin <grandaustino at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >From  various recreations that I have seen in my travels I beleive that a
>  special sealing wax was used that was a hardend wax that was a block  as
> opposed to using a candle.  I'm not sure about which colors  are appropriate
> to which time period.
>
>  Morgant
>
> On Wed, Jan 7, 2009 at 12:00 PM,  <atlantia-request at atlantia.sca.org>
> wrote:
>
> >  Date: Wed, 7 Jan 2009 11:19:48 -0500
> > From: "Smith CTR Jeffrey C"  <jeffrey.c.smith.ctr at usmc.mil>
> > Subject: Re: [MR] Open  Flames
>
>
> >
> > While this may not be exactly  the same thing, certainly red seals (as in
> > signets) existed so  red wax was available -- my understanding is that
> > sealing with  red wax was the perogative of a sovereign, but I haven't
> >  researched it myself.  I speculate that red candles were available  only
> to
> > the very wealthy due to cost of  manufacture.  I suspect you are right
> that
> > white or  beeswax-yellow candles would predominate.
> >
> > Barcsi  Janos
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From:  atlantia-bounces at atlantia.sca.org
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 07,  2009 10:34
> > To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
> > Subject:  Re: [MR] Open Flames
> >
> > Red candle wax?
>  >
> > The popularity of coloured candles is, I'm pretty certain, a  modernism.?
> > Any images of candles I've seen in historical  paintings or the like have
> > been plain white or off-white (a la  beeswax).? And not only are white or
> > off-white?candles more  accurate historically, they are a lot less messy.
> >
> >  Your servant aye
> > Donal
>
>
>
>
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--  
In Service to the Dream,

Brian C. Bertrand
SKA-Bertran de Saint  Jean

"A bear in his natural habitat....a  Studebaker."
-Fozzie

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