Sealing wax
Sealing wax is a resinous mass, which solidifies after heating ( over a candle / spirit lamp or as sealing-wax with wick, even with a melting spoon or a glue gun / Seal Machine ) and draining. It is used for ( inter) sealing of letters and parcels. The use of wax seals on envelopes, however, can lead to disturbances in modern automatic mail sorting.
Also attaching leather cushions on flaps of clarinets can be done with sealing wax.
The Portuguese brought the sealing wax from the East Indies to Europe; he was therefore formerly called "Spanish wax".
Sealing wax consists of shellac, and turpentine, often with the addition of benzoin, tolu balsam and Storaxharz or simply out of turpentine and rosin. Additions of chalk and zinc white to prevent the rapid draining. A cheap form of sealing wax is the so -called pack paint. Pack paints contain no shellac, but rosin and rosin. To their red coloration is only inferior material, often only clay used.
Recipe
To produce " finest " red sealing wax is recommended following recipe:
- Shellac 35 %
- Cinnabar 26%
- Larch turpentine 24%
- Magnesium oxide 6%
- Turpentine 9%.
Various colors is generally obtained by the addition of mineral pigments. Older recipes often viewed against the use of pigments based on lead, mercury or other heavy metals. Typical coloring substances are for example:
- Red: vermilion, red lead, red iron oxide
- Green verdigris, zinc green
- Yellow: chrome yellow, Neugelb
- Gold: bronze powder and " tinsel " (leaf Tombak )
- Blue: ultramarine
- Black: lampblack
- White: burnt ivory.
Is also referred to as sealing wax, a varnish in mechanical engineering, is applied to screws. By unscrewing the screw, the paint is broken, and the manipulation is subsequently identified.
Requirements
From good sealing wax is requested that produced thereby seal sharp and recognizable reflect the image of the signet, and that manipulation or removal of the seal is not possible without a trace.
Trivia
In the broadest sense sealing wax is to be among the hot-melt adhesives, since in addition to its function as a " safety lock " the adhesive effect is used for closures.