Wax on wax off

[JB vintage]

Today I did my very first "WAX ON WAX OFF" training. I am not referring to to Karate kid 1 if anyone remember that film. Instead I made my very first wax seal! Excellent result I must say, following the advice posted on this forum half a year ago. I did buy proper bottle sealing wax when I was in the UK a few weeks ago and the result was perfect. I heated the wax on the stove- wax in a jar that I put in a pot of boiling water, but it took more than an hour to melt the wax. The result was good but 2 hours of work to wax two bottles of port is a bit too much.

One question for experienced waxers: Is it possible to heat and melt the wax in a micro wave oven? Or are there any other quicker ways to melt the wax?

[RAYC]

I used to melt Wax using a double boiler from a candle making supplies store - certainly did not take an hour and can be found on Amazon pretty cheap.

Not sure about the microwave....

[DRT]

I have an old pan that I use to melt the wax and just put it directly onto a gas ring at a low setting. It melts in about 15 minutes.

[JB vintage]

Ok thanks, I used water as a medium, not to get it too hot, but the melting point of the wax is probably too close to water, that way it took too long time. I'll try some of your methods instead.

[Miguel Simoes]

Why do people use wax altogether? Is it actually able to keep leaky corks from leaking? Or instead to protect the cork from bugs and other external threats?

[JB vintage]

I use wax to seal the bottle if the cork have a small seeping leakage or if I have a bottle were the cork is exposed. It is not perfect but it stops further leakage to a good extent. If I do nothing in these cases, the content will likely leak and the remainder oxidize. Perhaps it is wise also to use wax on new bottles to delay or stop future leakage? Would one of the more experienced waxers please advice? As a more simple and amateur way of sealing bottles with small initial leakage I have used cling film for may years with quite good results, but it does not feel sufficient, but I have never had a failure using cling film.

[MacAllan]

I waxed my first 3 bottles. First in a Can in boiling Walter, But it took to long. Then in an old pot directly in the oven 150 degrees Celsius. And after 10 min. the wax was like melted butter....

The result was ok, just now I have some funky looking Niepoorts
A colheita 1912 and the vintage from 1955 , both with redhot rewaxed capsules......

But they are back on the shelves again.
Looking gooood

[Alex Bridgeman]

Why do people use wax altogether? Is it actually able to keep leaky corks from leaking? Or instead to protect the cork from bugs and other external threats?

I think wax is used for both of these purposes. I have successfully used wax to seal a bottle, with the cork providing primary containment and keeping most of the contents in the bottle but the wax provides protection against seeping and minor leaks.

However, corks are prone to attack by cork weevil (also known as woodworm) and wax or a plastic capsule will protect the cork from being eaten and weakened.