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Making Reed Wax


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Hi,

 

I have an old Hohner accordion with loose reed blocks. Any of you ever try to make reed wax? I read on the internet to mix beeswax and resin about 50-50 for reed wax. I tried to make the mix and found that the beeswax and the rock rosin don't mix. The beeswax gets like water but the rock rosin gets like taffy. Can I just use beeswax to seal the reeds?

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Try using the google advanced search; search for reed wax and limit the search to www.melodeon.net. I've seen the ingredients discussed several times but not the actual method of making it up. There is a third ingredient btw, linseed or olive oil as I recall.

 

It might be a lot easier to simply buy the reed wax from a repairer!

 

Pete.

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I've had that happen to me too. I'm not sure, but I suspect that there are different grades of rosin, some of which are more soluble that others in hot beeswax.

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If you are in the UK you can get Accordion wax from Charlie Marshall (CGM Musical Services PO Box 21676 Falkirk FK1 9AS) in Scotland <elchico47@hotmail.com>, I am sure he is still in business as he frequently goes on eBay selling all sorts of interesting bits from Melodeons and Accordions.

About 3 years ago sticks or blocks of Accordion Wax cost about £4 or £5. It really isn't worth trying to make your own. Some 50 years ago I used pure beeswax to attach reed plates that I had moved around in a Melodeon which worked all right until a very hot day on a Morris tour, these started to fall off!

Inventor.

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Well fellows, I tried it again. The first time I tried to make the mix I floated a cannin boiling water to melt the beeswax and then added the rosin. That made the gooie mess. This time I melted the rosin first direcly on the stove and added the beeswax to the melted rosin. It seems to have worked as I now have a homogenous mixture. I'm using rock rosin, the stuff dancers use on the floor to keep from falling on their tootoos. I used about 25 to 30% rosin. I neglected to add linseed oil, olive oil or glycerin to the mix as stated in the recepies. I haven't tried it yet. I'll post the resultes when I do.

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Guess I should add that I'm thinking the problem with the first mix was that boiling water is not hot enough to liquify the resin. It requires higher heat so I melted the rosin on the stove first then added the beeswax . That makes sense since what you're doing is raising the melting point of the beeswax so when you leave your concertina or accordion in the car in the summer it won't sound like a maraca when you pick it up and try to play it. I googled for the reedwax recipe.

Still a problem. I reheated the mixture and added a little linseed oil as Theo suggested. As the mixture cooled the rosin settled out and solidified before the beeswax does. Back to zero.

Edited by 3crows
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I neglected to add linseed oil, olive oil or glycerin to the mix as stated in the recepies. I haven't tried it yet. I'll post the resultes when I do.

 

 

The oil is important, without it the wax is brittle and liable to fail at low temperatures.

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Hi,

 

I have an old Hohner accordion with loose reed blocks. Any of you ever try to make reed wax? I read on the internet to mix beeswax and resin about 50-50 for reed wax. I tried to make the mix and found that the beeswax and the rock rosin don't mix. The beeswax gets like water but the rock rosin gets like taffy. Can I just use beeswax to seal the reeds?

 

ACCORDION WAX AND OR SCREWS

 

I am facing the same problem but thanks for the lower note about the source of spares which I had lost and failing to refind on the Web...old problem!.

 

But as I only have a few dropped out reeds rattling around in an old accordion with the rest looking secure I may try screws which I have seen mentioned somewhere and of course a few screws in the pocket anyway might be a good temporary solution if one was on the run and could not carry a pot of wax around.

It basically said something like:

 

Instead of wax (and much quicker and despite being slightly unorthodox)6-8mm common sphere head wood screws can be used at each end of each reed metal reed frame to fix them tightly. A washer on the screw can also help the screw sit even more securely as it 'hooks' more onto the frame to hold it in place.

It suggested that if the screw holes are made discreetly then they can be easily filled in and covered by waxing later on if it is a question of restoring to the "original" factory wax setup.

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Instead of wax (and much quicker and despite being slightly unorthodox)6-8mm common sphere head wood screws can be used at each end of each reed metal reed frame to fix them tightly. A washer on the screw can also help the screw sit even more securely as it 'hooks' more onto the frame to hold it in place.

It suggested that if the screw holes are made discreetly then they can be easily filled in and covered by waxing later on if it is a question of restoring to the "original" factory wax setup.

 

The reed plates won't seal against bare wood, you will need to fit a gasket before screwing the plates down. Leather is commonly used but there are modern alternatives. Reed blocks for screwed in reeds are made of hardwood, waxed in reeds are generally on softwood blocks; if your blocks are softwood be cautious of over tightening the screws.

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Instead of wax (and much quicker and despite being slightly unorthodox)6-8mm common sphere head wood screws can be used at each end of each reed metal reed frame to fix them tightly. A washer on the screw can also help the screw sit even more securely as it 'hooks' more onto the frame to hold it in place.

It suggested that if the screw holes are made discreetly then they can be easily filled in and covered by waxing later on if it is a question of restoring to the "original" factory wax setup.

 

The reed plates won't seal against bare wood, you will need to fit a gasket before screwing the plates down. Leather is commonly used but there are modern alternatives. Reed blocks for screwed in reeds are made of hardwood, waxed in reeds are generally on softwood blocks; if your blocks are softwood be cautious of over tightening the screws.

 

Righteeho tks for tightening tip.

I had wondered about leaking and though of using plumber's tape which is thin thin and seals gas and water joints tho i hear masking tape can do the same business and easier to cut and place than leather. I will have to learn the difference hardwoods and soft woods as I only know lignum vitae and MFI pine == from one extreme to the other!

tks

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Righteeho tks for tightening tip.

I had wondered about leaking and though of using plumber's tape which is thin thin and seals gas and water joints tho i hear masking tape can do the same business and easier to cut and place than leather. I will have to learn the difference hardwoods and soft woods as I only know lignum vitae and MFI pine == from one extreme to the other!

tks

 

PTFE as a gasket material? :unsure: It's a bit thin mate. And how would you hold it in place while you piled on twenty or thirty layers - it's Teflon coated don't ya know? Wood is rough stuff and needs a gasket thick enough and rough enough to mould in place and produce a pretty gas tight seal between timber and metal. I doubt masking tape would fair much better.

 

Go back to the drawing board and consult an accordion repairer otherwise you're going to be very disappointed ... :rolleyes:

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How about that green slime that they put in tires to seal punctures? Just squirt it in, swish it around and PRESTO! no leaks!

Anybody ever tried microcrystaline wax? I used to use it to cast bronze sculpture. It's kind of hard and kind of sticky.You can buy it with different melting points too. Think that will be my next experiment. Oh, I'm in Washington state, USA. That might explain my sense of humor and my willingness to destroy something in the attempt at fixing it.

Edited by 3crows
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How about that green slime that they put in tires to seal punctures? Just squirt it in, swish it around and PRESTO! no leaks!

Anybody ever tried microcrystaline wax? I used to use it to cast bronze sculpture. It's kind of hard and kind of sticky.You can buy it with different melting points too. Think that will be my next experiment. Oh, I'm in Washington state, USA. That might explain my sense of humor and my willingness to destroy something in the attempt at fixing it.

 

Experimentation is all very well but you now have the reed wax almost there, why not just heat it through and stick a bit of oil in it? Re-inventing the wheel is a tedious process! :unsure:

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  • 2 weeks later...
Hi,

 

I have an old Hohner accordion with loose reed blocks. Any of you ever try to make reed wax? I read on the internet to mix beeswax and resin about 50-50 for reed wax. I tried to make the mix and found that the beeswax and the rock rosin don't mix. The beeswax gets like water but the rock rosin gets like taffy. Can I just use beeswax to seal the reeds?

 

REED WAX FOR SALE

Finally found this again in UK

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Accordion-Reed-Wax-S...%3A1|240%3A1318

 

and they sell many other bits.

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