Just made some with Kolofonium, the resin residue from terpentine making. That and bees wax gives a wonderfull Cobblers wax. Absolutely necessary when tying flies with gossamer tying silk.

Jim

I have read this article for years and finally decided to try it. I was happy to see a recent post. I may try mineral oil rather than olive oil though. Let me know how you batch works out. I got my rosin and wax off eBay.

I have a need to perform some "touch dubbing", and I found this post. As a formulation chemist, I would approach making dubbing wax a little differently. But I don't have prior experience with "Wonder Wax" to guide me, but here goes. For the stickiness, I'd start with liquid pine tar...the kind baseball players use. You can get a few ounces for $4. The toilet wax seems fine, but I might recommend thinning it with mineral oil (any drug store). Mineral oil is liquid paraffin. But maybe olive oil is just fine. Proportions? Well, I'd mix the wax and mineral oil to get the right consistency first. Then I'd add the pine tar a little at a time until I got the right tackiness. I just may do this...

teo you are missing the whole point..most shop sold stuff here in europe is too soft...making your own is a very viable idea, even more so if done as a group and shared..

Thanks for the info fellas..off to find some bow resin!

I have tried to melt the rosin in a s/s steel container sitting in a pot of boiling water it won`t melt may be this due to the particular type of rosin, any solutions to this. Ian M Paltridge, NSW Australia.

This is a fantastic recipe for making cobblers wax! works great and it makes tons, with a nice pine smell. You can make it super tacky. And touch dubbing is as good as wonder wax. Fantastic.

be VERY careful when heating bees wax..it DOES NOT boil, but will ignite to a very hot fire. you should use a double boiler. aluminum (and all metals except stainless steel) will darken the beeswax. I use a 2-dup glass measuring cup to melt the wax in a small pan of simmering water.

I have 5 new tubes + 1 that is in use of Overton's that I got back in 1997 (not selling BTW, my nephews are learning to tie and it will go to them when I am no longer able to). Long story short is that I was in the right place at the right time when a shop was reorganizing some older inventory. I got the whole lot for less than $10. There has been nothing that even comes close to this stuff (at least not the stuff that is commercially available). The smell of a new tube of Overton's has a slightly pine resin smell to it. Not at all overpowering but enough so that there is no doubt that at least one of the ingredients has some pine derivative. Prior to scoring the Overton’s I tried the toilet bowl rings melted down and that was not even close. It made a mess. My wife was not happy. This recipe looks very promising even though I have a couple lifetimes worth of wax. In a thread a read a while back someone mentioned castor oil as one of the parts to Overton's. I am surprised that no one has tried to crack Overton’s recipe by mass spec or GC.

thanks for the recipe. Apparently, no one here has had to make things for themselves in order to save costs! You can buy a small aluminium pan for less than a dollar at the grocery store to heat things in. I use old Old Spice stick deodardant tubes that were ready to be tossed in the garbage. I keep them all now, since they clean up nicely with hot soapy water, cost $0.00 . You can buy in bulk on the internet for the bees wax and bow rosin. My total cost was about $4.00 per tube which provides about 5 times the volume of tacky wax. I made enough for 4 tubes and gave three of them out to fly tying friends. That was 4 years ago and I still have about 60% in my tube, and I ty about 600 dubbed bodies per years. The friends I gave them to still have about 3/4 of their tubes left. Making your own wax may seem like overkill, but so does tying your own flies if that is the way you look at things!

What I found I like is a 1/3 each mix of the following: rosin, bee's wax, and toliet seal wax (very cheap, $1.24 for a big block, found at any hardware store). To vary the softness, just add more toliet seal wax, as it is a lot softer than bees wax. You can make a wax that is plenty tacky, but is not so soft like Overton's, which I felt was too soft.

I have a recipe which many call 'Overton's Wonder Wax formula.' I am still tetsing it out, but can anyone tell me if Overton's wax had a certain scent to it. Someone once told me that it kind of smelled like licorice or a faint root beer smell.
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Thanks for the instructions - I'm going to try the microwave, since I have to clean it out anyway from my last experiment with scrambled eggs this morning. I cannot wait to try this out - tight lines.

teo korihot wait to kill the mood and you woudnt need to go to the store after you have the matierials

It is about the joy of making it yourself. The feeling of being in touch with past traditions and learning a new aspect of the craft. We do it because we can. It is not about how much it costs or the time expended. It is about the pride you feel when you use it, knowing that you made it. You can not buy that feeling.

Glenn's wax or Overton's wonder wax ? this is a sticky subject. the best i've found to be close to this is Meredith Wax made in western New York. althought the wax is only made twice a year (in the fall and spring) as the rosin he uses is at it best at that time of year makes it harder to get. but well worth it... this is just a FYI..

This is not simply dubbing was, although it can be used for that. It is cobblers wax. There are so many more reasons to use this sort of wax. It is not applied like newer waxes, rather you apply it to the thread prior to attaching the thread to the hook. Excellent article, I will make some up this week. Cheers!!

I have found that the wax used on bow strings works quite well as any dubbing wax used previously.
The costs associated are less than $3.00 per tube which gives enough wax to last quite a long time.
I comes in a plastic push up tube with a cover.

who or what is Betts wax? I have heard of and ordered BT's tying wax. Where do you get Betts? Loon makes two takiness - which one fills the bill (no pun intended)? I am a new tyer and will try dubbing bodies this winter. - Thanks, Neil .

Thanks Steve. I made up a batch of cobblers wax last weekend.

What you're missing is the ability to re-create the best dubbing wax ever invented, instead of using the cheap, sticky, soft garbage other companies sell as dubbing "wax".

There are some things in life not worth the time and expense, this is one of them. The threads and fine dubbing materials I use require no wax.

Thanks for the primer
I’ve tried it using light colored rosin and bees wax I bought long ago to make a gun stock wax I once worked on.
I have 3 tubes of wonder wax I won’t use for normal every day use. And have been tying production for a number of years. I share the opinion of many tyers that wonder wax is the finest dubbing wax ever used with betts and loon coming second but still nothing like it
The first wax I had made turned out a little hard. I reheated it and added more rosin and a bit more olive oil. Very nice I like it I feel excited that I can recreate wonder wax if I use darker rosin.
Time will tell. But I like what I ‘v made now better than any store bought product.
Many tyers are still longing for wonder wax to come back.
I often wondered why someone never studied and recreated the recipe.
I guess it’s one of those things where it ‘s far easier to buy a tube of something and get to tying.

I disagree with the first comment. What lots of us want is to re-create
the old Overton's Wonder Wax, which is no longer manufactured, and which
was so much better than anything else for sale out there today.
If this recipe is the key to re-creating Wonderwax, then this is a great public
service. I will definately give it a try.

Thanks for this article, I'm trying to soften up a heap of old candles to be used as modeling wax. I might try it out with a dash of oil.....

Can't understand why you would go through all the bother of making your own dubbing wax! At only $3.99 for a large container/tube you certainly not saving any money. By your own estimates [not counting time] the cost of making one's own receipe $6-14.40 plus a pot that has to cost at the minimum $4. What am I missing seeing here?