Back in June of 2011, my friend Matt and I worked up a batch of shoemaker’s wax, often called “coad” in the medieval jargon. We started with pine pitch, pine rosin, and a bit of beeswax to make some nice little balls of coad that were perfect for shoemaking. Fast forward to today, and unfortunately, our source for excellent pine pitch has dried up (pun intended). What is commonly available today is pine tar, a similar formulation, but with a great deal more volatiles still embedded, which makes it into a thick, viscous liquid rather than a gummy, solid substance. Below is experimentation to come up with some shoemaker’s wax using what we have available today. As always, if you find a source for solid, but slightly soft, gummy pine pitch, please let us know!

There are two primary sources for pine tar that I’ve used. One is the Auson Kiln-Burned Pine Tar, and the other is “The Real Stuff” pine tar, with sources in the links.

Both tars have about the same viscosity (very thick, like very thick honey) but they have slightly different aromas. I have a slight preference to the Auson Pine tar as it doesn’t smell quite so “creosote-y” as The Real Stuff, but both definitely have the potent odor of campfires and barbeque.

I’ve read a few posts on the Crispin Colloquy about making shoemaker’s wax, and some people like to boil their tar down to make it thicker before mixing it with rosin, but some have had good success with just mixing it with enough rosin. I opted to try the latter. I first aimed for a ratio of 1:1:0.2 of rosin to tar to beeswax. This mixture came out far too soft and sticky for my tastes.

I then upped the rosin, making it 2:1:0.2. This had the right firmness and consistency, but was incredibly sticky. I ended up with a final ratio of 2:1:0.666 for rosin to tar to wax. I found that added the extra beeswax resulted in a shoemaker’s wax that was sticky, but not so, and firm, but not overwhelmingly so. I would classify this as a good spring/winter wax, as I suspect it would be rather wet in very hot summers. Fortunately, living in California and using my basement as a workshop, it works just perfectly.

The final quantities used were 2.3oz rosin : 1.15oz tar : 0.75oz wax (2:1:0.666). This was enough wax to make about five small balls of shoemaker’s wax, which should keep me going for another year or so.

Just as in the previous coad experiment, the ingredients were mixed together under *very* low flame until they were a completely homogenous mixture. Note that I use a non-stick mini-spatula to mix things around, since the coad will peel right off of it when it has cooled. Once completely liquid in the pan, I pool all of the liquid wax into the tilted pan (still over heat), then as before, quickly but steadily pour it all into the bucket of water, getting out as much of the liquid as I can with the spatula.

There may be some bits that float to the top of the water – move those to the side, and do not incorporate them into the main mass of wax. They will end up crunchy and are lesser bits of wax which won’t work very well. Being careful, massage the mass of liquid wax until it’s cool enough to handle and there aren’t any liquid parts left. Then, as shown in the top image, taffy-pull the wax to incorporate all of the mixture together. If you’ve got enough wax, you might want to separate it into several balls after it starts to get difficult to taffy-pull. Be sure to wait at least ten minutes until it has reached room temperature. Make up a waxed end and see how you like it – it should be sticky, but not too sticky, and should get on the threads easily without flaking but also without getting your fingers all goop-y with wax!