Wax Basics

When I spend some time doing Internet research outside of my own comfort zone I find figuratively tons of interesting information. In the “old” days I would go to the library to learn new things but the internet brings it all to me. (I’ll expand on libraries and the Internet some other time.)

I continually do research into wax carving. More recently I studied additive wax sculpting.  Wax carving infers a subtractive process. That is, removal of wax until the finished item appears out of the original mass.

My instructor at the Craft Guild of Dallas was actually using the additive process herself (in class) while us newbies were flailing away with our files and cutting burs, carving wax. We learned from her a little bit about using the manual carving tools and an alcohol lamp to melt wax and add it to our project. Her process was the flame and steel dental tool method.  I do it all the time to “fix” a broken wax part that falls off or repair gouges. My main tool is currently a flame heated #11 Exacto blade. I keep one knife tool just for melting / repairing wax.

What I have seen is a whole troupe of people doing additive and subtractive wax sculpting using electrically heated wax pens actually melting rather than carving. Their finished creations vary in all sizes of creative art from large bronze casting to tiny figures. But their work looks superb. I was drooling on my keyboard.

Of course the hot pen is not the only tool they use but I could see it does a major portion of the work. What these heated pens do is skip the step of heating the tool in a flame, then working in the wax for a few seconds as it cools, then reheating in the flame.

Little battery versions of around $15 - $25 to dental lab units over $400 are available. Most are in the $50 - $200 range. There is a very tight bond to the dental tech industry with any form of wax modeling, especially the tools. Search “wax pen sculpting” on the Internet.

The benefit of the electrical pens is the accurate temperature control with continuous heat. I am sure there is a technique that must be mastered but it is literally like carving butter.

I am putting any further investment in expensive tools in my dream cloud for now. But I will be working and exploring the additive wax sculpting with my dental tools and alcohol lamp. But I have seen the light.

Ahh… yet another wax skill to master.