"Professor" Don teaches wax chemistry!

Just to get this out of the way- I didn't go to school and get a Master's degree and all that, and I am not seriously calling myself a professor. But, for the purposes of this blog, I AM a professor, and I went to college for 20 years and have doctorates in every field of study but Modern Tap.

Alright, let's get on with it...


There are rules when mixing waxes and oils. This is how I remember it:

Rock: Paraffin
Paper: Petrolatum
Scissors: Mineral oil

(arranged by molecular weight as well as functionality)

The main principle here is "like dissolves like". That means you can't smooth a firm wax with mineral oil. You have to use whatever it is made of, but a slightly softer grade. So, stikki wax ("paper") softens paraffin ("rock"), paraffin thickens and hardens oil ("scissors"), and mineral oil softens stikki wax ("paper")

To get a sculpting clay you have to first soften the paraffin with petroleum jelly, let it cool, and check its flexibility. Then you add oil to soften it and make it even more flexible. Then you add chalk to make it less sticky (I've seen glycerin used in some recipes as well-perfect lubrication for that sticky wax).

You could think of modeling clay like candy: You start with a lollipop, smash it into little pieces, and melt it. Then you combine that with taffy, then corn syrup, and finally white flour. That should actually work as an edible candy clay...In theory, at least; hard candy is sticky, taffy is sticky but softer than hard candy, corn syrup is sticky but softer than taffy, and flour is a thickener and removes tackiness. For people with Celiac disease, you can substitute the white flour with rice flour. It would be interesting to try this, I need to pick up some rice flour because it is needed in another clay recipe, in which the rice flour ads more volume and body to the mixture.I have some suckers I can sacrifice to this experiment... The only thing I don't have is taffy and corn syrup...If you guys want to try it, here is the ratio of ingredients:

(percentage of recipe by weight)

Hard: 40% ...purpose: holds shape
Sticky : 5% ...purpose: ductility, viscidity
Liquid: 5% ...purpose: softener, glidant
Powder: 50% ...purpose: filler, inadhesive

This ratio may differ depending on the type of recipe and molecular weight of the different ingredients within it. Not all consistencies between similar ingredients are created equal. For example, hard candy is going to be lighter weight than a big bag of flour. I guess that's the whole point, though- it takes a LOT of powder to counter the stickiness of three ingredients that bond together. Without the flour, it would be like glue.