ok, i know it’s out there…
so who’s tried what?
looking for first hand reviews.
thanks.
I just make my own using a variation on Roy’s original recipe.
And…???
Mine turned out to be as slippery as Crisco.
so what variation did you use?
sirwank seems to make crisco in his variation.
and gee, really, i thought there would be more folks on here who have tried the more eco-friendly stuff.
i kind of thought that as a group we’ld be bent more in that direction…
oh well.
I picked up some of the Matunas 100% natural biodegradable hippie wax at the San Diego Sacred Craft Surf Expo. I was expecting the stuff to be so so but in fact this wax is great! A friend was riding one of my boards and even commented on how sticky the wax was. When I waxed up my brand new board the base coat took some love to get going but it turned out great. The top coat goes on nice and is super sticky. check it out http://www.matunasco.com/
Hi,
Me and my friend Jusa have been cooking some wax with Roy Stewart’s recipe. It’s works well and I’ve stopped using other waxes. It’s also considerably cheap, and if you make block for your buddy too, you propably get him to pay yours too.
When starting the project it might help to know a few things. First of all there are bee farms all around and obtaining wax is very easy. I almost didn’t believe how many farmers there are until I started asking around. Good changes are that you can get to the nearest one by foot or bike. You’ll most likely find contact information in the phonebook.
Coconut oil is cheapest in the oriental grocery stores. By far. Pine Resin however is a bit harder to obtain, but you can find it for example in shops selling traditional paints and varnishes. When you get there you ca also ask for citrus solvent which works great as wax remover.
Beeswax is flammable so be prepared.
Melting the pine resin is difficult and tricky. We have succeeded only once in melting the hole amount of it. It’s tends to get stuck on the bottom, and if the pot is too hot it’s “burns” and get’s stuck even worse. I’d be glad if somebody tells me how to mix it in succesfully.
Rubbing the wax on takes way longer time than normal wax, and the bumps take time to build up so don’t give up too soon. This I think is the main reason for sceptisism considering the properties of the wax. Most people don’t take enough time to do the wax job properly. I’ve found it important to keep the board cool and the wax warm.
I was trying to sell the wax for some pals and told them it’s edible. It’ didn’t come off my teeth for two days and my toothbrush tasted like pine trees for two weeks.
Good luck with cooking!
Crisco! LMAO! Man, you must have messed up real good!
Maybe you use a wrong ingredient? Or maybe the wrong wax for your use environment?
First time we made it we didn’t know what to expect and it took a little getting used to in the application department. It doesn’t work the same way as regular wax and if you try to put it on that thick it will take work. But it rode great! My wife historically has problems with grip using traditional waxes, all but the very stickiest. She loves this stuff.
Did you use pure extra virgin coconut oil? And pure raw (unprocessed, unbleached) beeswax (the stuff with beeslegs and stuff in it)? I found both very important. And if you are making cool or cold water wax I highly recommend using freshly harvested sap, rather than the dried stuff. The hardest time I had making the cool/cold water stuff was with the commercial dried sap. If you have to buy the dried stuff buy rosin used for violins and stuff. It’s a poor second to fresh sap, IMO, but better than “dried sap”.
We were impressed enough with it that I tried selling it on eBay. And sold hundreds of lots! The cost:profit ratio wasn’t high enough to keep doing it that way on eBay tho. If I was selling in bulk at that price it would be a different story. I still get follow-up enquiries via email regularly and recently sold a batch of fifty bars to a repeat customer in WA.
Oh yeah, all waxes are flammable when molten and very, very hot. Take my word for it - they burn! So avoid open flames, handle carefully (thick gloves are a good idea) and have cold running water nearby.
And have fun!
Thanks for the about the sap. Yeah, we had the dried stuff.
We use the clean wax. We also have the dirty stuff, but it’ not so much cheaper so we prefer the clean. It’s cleaned only buy melting it and letting the unwanted stuff to form a layer you can then peel it of. No other processing. The oil and beeswax both work great, but the pine resin caused some trouble. The hardest single thing in the whole process was to find out what it was called here in Finland.
masa
Awesome! I was one of the guys chatting to Roy in that original thread, but never got around to making any. Still have my bees so wax is available. Of course I’m in tropical waters over here in HI. Anyone try making a warm water version yet? My board is getting slippery and I’d so much rather start making my own already!
Yes, I tried the warm water recipe and Roy said later that it was for warm waters in NZ. I guess that less coconut oil would be good.
Quote:
Crisco! LMAO! Man, you must have messed up real good!Maybe you use a wrong ingredient? Or maybe the wrong wax for your use environment?
Beeswax and virgin Tahitian coconut oil. My previous post explains it. I do prefer the hardest bumpiest wax on the market though and find the local favs sticky bumps and sex wax slippery too. I’m just a Bubble Gum man. I’m still open to the idea though.
Howzit masa, A double boiler might be the answer for melting the pine resin.Aloha,Kokua
wetsand makes ans sells eco-friendly wax
Quote:
Oh yeah, all waxes are flammable when molten and very, very hot. Take my word for it - they burn! So avoid open flames, handle carefully (thick gloves are a good idea) and have cold running water nearby.
And have fun!
i hope you are talking about cold running water for cooling burned fingers only…because creating huge fireballs by spilling water into boiling wax is one of my favourite campfirepyroshows. please use a wet towel for emergencymeasurements - it will spare you surprized looks and loss of hair.
cheers - d.
I’m not sure what double boiler is but I assume it’s two pot’s with water in between. We use it already because of more even heat distribution and supposedly reduced risk of fire. I’ve tried to melt the resin in normal pot too, but it just turns hard and smelly. I’ll try using fresh sap next.
I am wondering if I could use bee propolis as the resinous substance. Apparently this is a material that bees collect, composed primarily of tree sap, that they use to structurally enhance their nest. Moreover, Propolis is proven to have distinct antibacterial,antiviral and antifungal properties ·An excellent source of bioflavonoids. It is said to protect against staph infections…Can’t hurt to have that on the board after a big rain. Any thoughts would be great, but I think I’m going to give it a shot.
It looks to be quite expensive online, maybe it’ll be cheaper from the source
after much research i have come up with a list of ‘eco-friendly’ surf waxes.
Namiko’s ‘green+sticky’ wax
northern lights
muffin
matunas
funky puffin
tree hugger
calavera
wet woman
greensurf
natural striction
BT
green wave
terra wax
and hills organic
the question remains, has anyone on here had enough experience with any of these waxes to offer a review or opinion?
thanks again all. and next time a tree comes down around here i’ll be looking at collecting some sap for some of you.
LOL! Yes, I meant for burnt fingers!
For some reason I never thought to tip cold water onto molten wax… It sounds too dangerous!
If you are stuck with dried sap boil it with one of your ingredients until it melts and then add the other. With some dried sap you have to boil it with the coconut oil, with others the wax. And some won’t melt no matter what… And believe me I tried! There were a few where I ground it to a fine powder with a mortar and pestel and boiled the crap out of it. No matter what I tried I couldn’t get it to completely dissolve… Although most of the sticky stuff did come out of it and I filtered the rest.
Many of those brands listed above are clones of Roy’s wax.
I guess in terms of eco - and other friendliness, it should be tough to beat the roy stewart idea of custom made surfwax using locally available, bike-transportable ingredients or getting surfwax shipped ( as in “really shipped”, involving low energy - water transport) by someone custom making it.
the next step in the eco - direction could be to melt the ingredients inside a charcoal - dust blackened recycling cardboard box covered with glass. That will be my project for next years first really hot summerday. I hope the stuff will get hot enough to combine fully and from all i hear, it is most important to melt the wax first and resolve all of the resin before finally putting in the oil.
In music you would call it an ecowaxissimo.
cheers - d.
know what?
i just spent over an hour looking for roy’s wax post.
did i mention how slow my modem speed is out here in the woods?
would someone please help me find the link?
much thanks!