I recall about a year ago or so a discussion about using beeswax as a base coat for traction. My search in the resources just brought up some unrelated info. Anyone remember any thing about that? Thanks in advance.
John
Hello John,
I make organic beeswax surfboard wax and it is very sticky and smells great. I am a little bit reluctant to publish the recipe but if you talk to me nicely I will give you a few tips. Check my website at <a href="http://www.woodensurfboardbuilder.com/" class="bb-url">www.woodensurfboardbuilder.com</a>
Roy
Hello Roy- my recollection was something like a semi-permanent coating made by brushing melted beeswax on the deck. I have a source for quantities of beeswax so any helpful hints would be appreciated. I should add that it is summertime in Florida and the air and water temps are hot. Thanks.
John
Hi John,
There are a lot of good things you can do with beeswax! you can melt the stuff and just brush it on to your board but it won’t be sticky. It might make a good basecoat.
Our Summer boardwax recipe contains only beeswax and coconut oil (There goes another trade secret!) The proportions are approximately three parts wax (by volume) and one part coconut oil. You might want to reduce the oil quantity slightly for really hot temperatures. This recipe is very sticky down to about 20 degrees celcius, below that temperature the coconut oil solidifies and makes the wax harder. It can still be used on cooler days if you warm it up in your pocket.
Regards, Roy
Hello Roy- that is the kind of info I was interested in. Now I have another project to mess with. I may try the brush on first since I don’ really like my wax too sticky. Thanks for the help.
John
If anyone is interested in a cold water beeswax boardwax I will reveal a good recipe. Beeswax is a renewable resource unlike the petroleum which the regular mass market waxes are using.
Roy
I am.
Year round 12-14 C water.
Hello Blakestah, it’s nice to hear from you. We are presently experiencing water temperatures of around 14.2 degrees and dropping.
Our summer recipe is still ok provided that it is warmed to body temperature to make it soft enough to apply. In 14 degree water it is firm, and does the job but is not super sticky.
The new winter recipe is as follows: 3 parts beeswax (by volume), one part coconut oil and one part tree resin. This makes an amazingly sticky and aromatic wax. It seems that most tree resins are good for the job. We have been using pine and native resins collected by hand. The recipe is quite soft and could be adjusted if necessary.
Regards, Roy
Hi Roy - I’ve been following your posts and have checked out your website - you are definitely on a different trip than most of us out here and I really appreciate that. I’m very interested in your beeswax based surf wax too. Do you have a recipe for warm water wax - 75f - and would you be willing to share it? I realize that you are selling wax on your site and might not want to post something that is proprietary so if not I understand. I’d just like to make a few batches for my friends and me. If not, maybe I can just buy a lifetime supply from you to justify the shipping cost.
Jeff
tree resin. roy, you went up down then up in my opinion. thank you, tom
Hello Jeffrey,
The standard wax we make, the one I published on this thread for warm water (3 parts beeswax and one part coconut oil) should be fine for 75 degree (fahrenheit) water. You can reduce the oil content slightly if it is too sticky. We use this recipe for air temperatures up to 40 degrees celsius, and water temperatures up to around 20 degrees. Our price for wax is inclusive of freight.
Roy
Aloha Roy - where do you get your coconut oil? I can’t seem to find it in the store, though perhaps I’m looking in the wrong place. Perhaps I could make my own? I have loads of coconuts at my disposal. And I’m also a beekeeper so have wax… Any suggestions on the coconut oil?
mahalo
waxfoot
Hi Waxfoot, just remember to include me in your will, ok? We get coconut oil from Punjas in Fiji.
If you can’t find them I will dig up their address. It comes in 750ml bottles. Regards, Roy
Hey Roy, thanks for the reply - I’ll check it out. You would think I could get some coconut oil here in Hawaii with all the darned coconuts… I did a bit of research on coconut oil and found out some interesting stuff. Some of which being it’s supposed health benefits. Guess there’s different kinds, depending on how it’s processed, some more expensive than others. Might have to make use of those coconuts in my yard and see if I can make my own, in true Swaylocks fashion. 'Fraid I don’t have much to leave in a will. The bees are just a hobby and not a money-making venture, and the coconuts fall from the trees outside my rental house. I’ll let you know how it goes…
aloha
waxfoot
Sweet as mate, of course I was only kidding but do let me know how it goes. Roy
Interesting topic - as I tend to find myself in places that have coconuts growing locally but not used a whole heck of a lot, this has some interesting possibilities.
Those coconuts that are dried out somewhat, past being used for coconut milk and such - well, those are the ones to extract the oil from. First you grind them up ( a small dump-find brush chipper would be good for this ) and then you can press them. This gives a premium ‘cold pressed’ oil, similar to ‘extra virgin’ olive oil. You can then heat the pressed pulp ( use steam, get it just over 100 degrees C and hold at that temperature for an hour or so ) and press it again to extract an equivalent amount that is suitable for wax additives, lubricants, cooking french fries in a fast food chain or maybe processing further to make a biodiesel-type product.
More info at http://www.attra.org/attra-pub/oilseed.html ( oilseed extraction techniques ) , http://www.journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/oilpress.html , http://rtt.colorado.edu/~robertjp/Energy/CoconutOil-Fuel.pdf ( a very interesting description of small scale low tech methods for extracting oil from dried coconuts [copra] and making it into stove, lamp and small generator fuels, though from personal experience the German Petromax line of pressure lamps and stoves will burn straight vegetable oils quite nicely without any processing) ,
From the VITA organisation ( www.vita.org )
SMALL-SCALE OIL EXTRACTION FROM GROUNDNUTS AND COPRA
Describes technologies for oil extraction, plus the three main stages of processing. (ILO) 111pp $15.75
among quite a few other useful publications, listed on http://www.vita.org/publications/pubcat.htm
Hope that’s of use
doc…
Ho Doc, you just stoked me out with all the good info! Hadn’t quite figured out how to grind the meat up, etc. - was just going to go with the methods that my Samoan friends use. (my friend’s sister makes the most ONO palusami EVER! and an unbelievable curried breadfruit as well…) They of course use fresh coconuts for cooking purposes. Crack them open and then they scrape the meat out, kind of ‘grinding’ it as they go. Old car rim w/ tire as base, vertical steel post welded on, with flat square of steel (maybe 4" square) welded on top. Corners of the square good for scraping. Then, using the fibers from inside a heliconia plant’s stem to hold the meat in, they squeeze the “coconut cream” (as they call it) out. Mmmm, getting hungry…
Off to check out all those links. Thanks Doc…
waxfoot
ps - here’s another link for you: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/what_is_virgin_coconut_oil.htm
Dammit, man, now you got me hungry. When I was little, I got fed too many macaroons, so it took a while to get to where I liked coconut again. And then on a long trip to Centro, I learned how to shave an end off one with a very sharp small machete, drink the very sweet and very fresh coconut milk and ( for the real green ones) split it open and eat the jellylike, creamy coconut meat with a spoon. Never got around to cooking fish with coconut milk, lime juice and such, poisson cru style, 'cos the coconut milk was just too good to pass up all by itself.
mm…kinda miss that. Gonna have to sharpen up the small machete.
doc…
I’ve been using a machete (well, cane knive) to husk mine. Unfortunately don’t have anything I can make one of those de-husking spikes out of (though I might have to look into that if I’m going to need to husk a bunch of cocos). That coconut water you drank is apparently pretty nutrient rich stuff. Studies were done using that coconut water as a growing medium for plant tissue culture. Lots of nutrients for growing plantlets, but the inconsistencies in quality and stable quantities of nutrients were an obstacle. Supposedly you can eat coconuts at all stages of development. Super green - the “spoon meat” is good, then fresh coconut, and you can even eat the spongy material inside a nut that has already germinated.
For grinding the meat up, I was thinking maybe I could find a used juicer or something. I figure if you can juice apples and hard vegetables with the things, you ought to be able to juice a coconut… I guess you might still have to go back and squeeze the ‘pulp’ that the juicer rejected to get more liquid out…
Samoans use every part of the coconut and tree. Wood for houses, nuts for food, even the fronds for roofing. So we had bamboo surfboards… how about a coconut board!? Probably heavy as all get out, and I know bamboo is a better renewable resource, but fun to think about. Boy, I gotta find something else to do with my spare time. 
Off to sharpen the cane knife…
You’re thinking pretty parallel to what I’m thinking for a coconut meat remover, if you cut them in half ( a bandsaw would be ideal, one like they use in butcher shops ) or just a wedge of steel, not especially sharp, mounted in a stump of wood. Or a stump with a hollow in it and a fairly healthy spliotting maul as is used for firewood.
Actually… you see, we don’t have coconuts here in New England, more’s the pity. But we have lots and lots of apples. And the technology they use for small-scale cider making, grinding the apples and pressing the juice, I see no good reason why it couldn’t be used for coconut meat with mebbe a few variations. Coconut meat, not copra…
Grinding the meat up? Well, how about a fairly good sized garbage disposal, the sink mounted variety. You might have to bash the meat into reasonably small pieces to feed it in. Or a small wood chipper, which I know from experience would do the job on smallish sections of seasoned hardwood.
For pressing - a cheesecloth or maybe canvas bag, mounted in an appropriate arrangement - see http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/andrew_lea/frameset.htm for a whole lot of cider-making resources including diagrams, pics and so forth.
looking out my window, I see the apples are coming along nicely for fall.
doc…