It tickles me to say that.
I ordered some neesfoot oil and two pounds of pure beeswax last week for a bellows & bag overhaul.
…now how many bees does it take to make an ounce of beeswax?..
Answers on a postcard to Dale Wisely or Peter Laban
Boyd 
[ This Message was edited by: boyd on 2003-02-04 19:16 ]
[ This Message was edited by: boyd on 2003-02-04 19:17 ]
Hey, Tony, someone mentioned olive oil too. Beeswax and olive oil… or is that iffy… better to use neesfoot?
I was the one who used beeswax and olive oil. Seems to work OK on a previously unseasoned bag.
I haven’t chanced using it in a bag that has already been seasoned with something else, so I don’t know if there’s any immunological incompatibility.
The latest recipe I heard was neetsfoot, beeswax AND olive oil.
My neetsfoot arrived today so I’ll probably do this project on the weekend.
On 2003-02-04 19:08, boyd wrote:
…now how many bees does it take to make an ounce of beeswax?..Answers on a postcard to Dale Wisely or Peter Laban
Boyd >
How did you know I keep bees? [or at least did until during the Willie week two years ago the then 7 year old son got stung when helping me catch a swarm and subsequently shot into an anaphylactic shock, the hives have moved a few miles away fro mthe house since obviously].
FYI I found a site on the web about NSP making that has bag making/sealing info which you may want to look at:
http://www.geocities.com/Paris/5701/smallpipes/bag.htm
Ted
Peter
Didn’t know you were a beekeeper…have met lots of interesting people who were into bees in my life!
I’m not a Bee expert, but I HAVE helped a keeper mark a juvenile queen [we used Tippex] some years back…he was a dermatologist in the hospital in Derry. [An interesting guy who grew exotic trees in his garden in Limavady.]
I failed to resuscitate a local beekeeper last week who had a heart attack. He was buried today. Ironically, there’s a pot of his honey in my fridge that he gave to my wife when he saw her recently…it’s a strangely intimate thing to be the country doctor!
Boyd
How do you get oil off a beesfoot? I bet tok knows!
Neetswax?
Ok, seriously, how is this stuff prepared and used, especially when coating hemp… is wax mixture melted or made soft and then applied?
elbogo,
I bought pre-waxed hemp from Song of the Sea. They have two types. Heavy (black) and regular (orange) I think it’s tallow (candle wax) and not beeswax.
I’ve seen different methods of ‘threaded joints’. Some use sewing thread (lots of it) and others use dentil ribbon. My Wooff set came wrapped with white PTFE. Childress uses an adhesive backed rubberized material that doesn’t need adjustment and holds well both winter and summer.
If you want some waxed hemp, send me your address and I’ll mail a few feet of each.
On 2003-02-05 18:49, boyd wrote:
Peter
Didn’t know you were a beekeeper…have met lots of interesting people who were into bees in my life!
I suppose the most famous of Irish musical beekeepers was Sean O Riada, I think I’ve read an interview somewhere where his son Peadar told the story of how he had to go out to tell the bees his father had died. Martin Rochford had a few hives and his exploits when collecting a new queen from Kilkenny were immortalised in the [hilarious] song about Martin Rochford’s queen bee, written by Eugene Lambe.
I was talking to Darech de Brun last year and he had too had a friend who kept bees, inspired he wrote a cycle of tunes centered around the bees, at the time he was looking for musicians to record the whole project
El , to get the oil off a bees foot , first you have to count them , I think it is six .
Then you have to go to the hive , well . might get stung .
lol easy answer , pull the foot off and r
un like hell , lol . other option , scwezze the beeze neeze and hope for bees oil , I have been in worse straits 
lol . lol . Oh , got pound of local bleached bees wax in me fist here , ready to make some reeds , . Well , 1/4 pound , but the point is the same . .
tok it ee tok tok tok , .
.
[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2003-02-06 20:42 ]
[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2003-02-06 20:44 ]
delete .
[ This Message was edited by: tok on 2003-02-06 22:59 ]
I also use cobbler’s wax or millright’s belt wax to get a hold started on wooden parts. The stuff kind’a looks like a stick of hard black tarry pitch. You can melt the top of it with a lighter (VERY GENTLY),and then pull the first foot or two through the material. This will coat enough to give a good hold without gumming up the rest of the pipe.
By the way, in what key do the bees usually buzz?
Marc
I also use cobbler’s wax or millright’s belt wax to get a hold started on wooden parts. The stuff kind’a looks like a stick of hard black tarry pitch. You can melt the top of it with a lighter (VERY GENTLY),and then pull the first foot or two through the material. This will coat enough to give a good hold without gumming up the rest of the pipe.
By the way, in what key do the bees usually buzz?
Marc
Status report:
When cutting the block of pure beeswax, don’t use a serrated knife. Do shave pieces off rather than chopping large chunks as they melt faster. Trying to soften wax in a microwave oven was/is a waste of time.
First test:
I mixed equal amounts of beeswax, neatsfoot and olive oil in a saucepan and warmed it until the wax melted. I allowed the mixture to cool in the pan and it hardened to something with the consistancy of shoe polish or automotive paste wax.
Second test:
I added one more part neatsfoot and re-heated the mixture. This time it cooled a bit softer but it still builds up on the knife like lard or margarine.
Third test:
More neatsfoot, it’s getting softer.
I jumped ahead and went 6 parts neetsfoot, 2 parts olive oil, one part beeswax. I ended up with a mixture that still hardens at room temperature and after stirring it’s smooth like stirred mayonaise.
I’m going for it!
I capped off the stocks and poured a cupfull of warm mixture into the bag. Sloshing the mixture around a bit (it pours when warm and gels at room temperature) I twisted the bag squeezing out the excess.
After waiting 2-3 minutes I pumped the bag up. With the other two stocks still capped off, the bag now holds pressure. I’ll leave it sit like this overnight and test it again in the morning.