Rendering Beeswax - 2nd filtering of brood-comb

Original plans of heading up North were way-laid this morning due to Candace not feeling the best.  By 11:00, I was certain we weren't going to be leaving, so I took measures to check on the initial filtering of the brood-comb beeswax for the next step.  Why not, right? ;)

Of the eight (or nine?  I can't believe I didn't pay attention to my final count from yesterday!) buckets from the first filtering, this wax cake was the nicest and thickest.  

The others were a bit thinner and were a bit of a challenge to clean; aka: scraping off the gunk from the back. However, I took my time with the thinner cakes, delicately scraping the backs.  Being my first time rendering, I wanted to get as much wax as possible, so after rinsing each bucket, all the sides were scraped with my knife.  Every last morsel of wax that I could scrap off was added to my load for the 2nd rendering.

A quart or two of water was added to my melting pot and the heat set to low.

The water/wax liquid was strained into ONE ice-cream pail today.  I also rinsed the gunk through the strainer with boiling hot water after seeing this on one of the recent YouTube videos I watched on the topic.  Again--I wanted to render and save as much wax as possible...

The second-filtering results!  I'm quite pleased....

Most likely, the third-filtering will be done tomorrow.  And then, mostly likely a fourth or fifth will be needed before I'll call it 'good.'

Reading up on beeswax use -- author Kim Flottum 'The Backyard Beekeeper' doesn't recommend using dark wax (wax rendered from brood-comb) for cosmetic or candle uses since tiny particles of propolis (bee-glue), nectar, and what-not may still remain after multiple filterings.  HOWEVER, she says "

...dark wax is good for making soaps because of the colors, for household uses such as lubricating drawers and the like, and for polishes and water proofing lotions."

FYI -- I stopped reading that sentence after "...making soaps..."

;)