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Wax Working
Properties of microcrystalline wax
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melts at temperatures ranging from 145° to 200° F
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grows softer and easier to model as it gets warmer. It can be heated up in warm water or in a warm space.
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grows harder and easier to carve as it gets colder. It can be cooled down in cold water or in a cold space.
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if heated and worked while it is soft will stay softer even when it cools down. It won't be as soft as it had been while warm, but it will be softer than it would have been if it hadn't been worked at all. This is because working the wax crushes its internal crystalline structure that makes it more rigid. IT will stay softer until it is melted to a liquid state and allowed to refreeze undisturbed.
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if burned, microcrystalline wax fumes are toxic and nauseous
The first step in the lost wax foundry process is to make a model out of wax. There are many different kinds of microcrystalline wax in different colors and consistencies. Brown microcrystalline wax, is a commercially available wax that is particularly well suited to both modeling and carving due to it's consistency and its color, which makes details easier to see than if the wax was white.
Wax Working Tools
Microcrystalline Wax
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