A bowstring needs to be waxed periodically to prevent fraying and keep it functioning well. I like to make my own bowstring wax. Start with beeswax from your local beekeeper or online beekeeping supply house. Melt it inside a clean tin can placed into a pot of boiling water (be careful, it is flammable) and add a little pine pitch or pine rosin to the liquid wax. Stir well. The more pitch you add the stickier the wax will be.
Tape some waxed paper over one end of a toilet paper roll. Place the tube onto a paper towel in case you drip a little. Pour the warm liquid into the tube and let it cool. Trim the excess cardboard tube with a sharp knife or scissors. Apply the wax mixture liberally to the string by rubbing the open end of the tube on the string. Take a small piece of leather and rub or burnish the wax into the string. A tongue from an old, worn out pair of shoes or boots works well. By working the string between your fingers with the leather, the wax warms and works into the string and acts as a lubricant and protection from abrasion.
You can use straight beeswax, but the pitch makes the wax more flexible in cooler weather, and it smells good to boot! If you want a little softer formula, add a little lanolin to the mixture.
Good Article, I use the little 2 ounce dixie cups to pour the wax in and it makes a perfect little shape for waxing a string!
That was very interesting. I have always made my own wax but I just use pure bee s wax. I am now a little bit to old to hunt anymore but still love to read about it. Most of my hunting was done in the Davis Mts. of west Texas.
Toilet bowl wax ring.
Pine Pitch, is not the same thing as Pine Rosin, but you use them interchangeably?
Where do you get your Pine Rosin and/or Pitch?
I believe you can buy pine rosin at a music store. It is used for violin bowstrings, oddly enough.
I mix beeswax with the wax from a toilet bowl ring (buy a new ring!). About 75% beeswax 25% ring wax makes a nice sticky blend.
Thank You! Good Info!
I heat my wax in a can in a pot of water and then pour into 3 OZ bathroom Dixie Cups! Makes a perfect size piece of wax.
Easy to use and store but your friends will confiscate them quickly so make a bunch!
I mix beeswax from a local bee keeper. I bought 3 pounds last fall. Came from bees that were placed near a buckwheat field. It’s light brown in color. I to mix it with wax from a toilet bowl gasket. Makes a great string wax and smells great too.
Great subject. I use bees wax as well but use a piece of folded aluminum foil to slide up and down the string to heat it and then clean excess off with a length of Dacron string material in a single hitch loop around the string and slide it one direction.
Sounds good, I will be trying it when my current wax is used up. I’m presently using a wax from the local Tandy leather craft shop.