{{unreferenced, date=April 2012 Wax carving is the shaping of wax using tools usually associated with machining: rotary tools, saws, files and burins or gravers. Actual knives can be used and most certainly are, but the hardness of the material is such that they are not the ideal tool, generally. To carve wax, the proper size and shape of block or tube is chosen, in the preferred hardness, and cut to a rough size, as needed. Then the design is generally drawn or laid out on that, and saws, files or machine tools are used to work the wax into a finished product. The wax is easily taken to a fine finish in the end using a bit of

nylon stocking Stockings (also known as hose, especially in a historical context) are close-fitting, variously elastic garments covering the leg from the foot up to the knee or possibly part or all of the thigh. Stockings vary in color, design, and transparen ...

or steel wool. After the wax product is finished, it may be molded or used in the

lost wax casting Lost-wax casting (also called "investment casting", "precision casting", or ''cire perdue'' which has been adopted into English from the French, ) is the process by which a duplicate metal sculpture (often silver, gold, brass, or bronze) is ...

process to create a final cast product.

Casting waxes

There are a wide variety of wax types used in the

process. Generally they fall into three main types, soft, hard and injection waxes. Injection waxes are made and intended to be used for injecting wax under pressure into rubber or other types of molds. They can be carved and worked otherwise, but they are not specifically designed for that use. Their properties more often target good injection properties: flow, low shrinkage, pot life etc. Soft waxes are sometimes called sculpting waxes, and generally have a consistency resembling clay. Generally the techniques used in working soft waxes are similar to those used with clay and involve the use of wooden or metal spatulas, direct molding with the fingers and the like.

Carving wax

Carving wax is a smooth, non-brittle

wax Waxes are a diverse class of organic compounds that are lipophilic, malleable solids near ambient temperatures. They include higher alkanes and lipids, typically with melting points above about 40 °C (104 °F), melting to giv ...

designed for carving and/or machining. Although the formulas for most commercial

es are proprietary, most suppliers will state that hard

es are some blend of

es and

plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adaptab ...

s. This family of

es has a hardness and consistency of

or softer

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

. They can be cut or carved with knives, files and rotary or machine tools. To illustrate the usefulness of this type of wax, if one were to get a candle, mount it on a lathe and feed a tool into it, the wax would slough off like butter, stick to the tool and make a mess. Hard wax, on the other hand, will machine more like soft aluminum, giving fine edges and a fine finish if worked properly. Waxes come in a wide variety of shapes: blocks, sheets, rods and tubes, and in recent times there are even extruded shapes available. The rods are useful for lathe turning, among other things, and the tubes are useful for making rings in jewelry work. The tubes are available in various sizes, and also with a flat top, which is useful for signet rings. Waxes Sculpture materials Casting (manufacturing)