Accordion Reed Wax Recipe

[Andrew Porter]

I recently tried to repair a dead note on my accordion. Here's a pic of the reed block.



Here's what happens when you drop a reed block.

The reeds are held in place with a beeswax rosin mixture. Being impatient and not wanting send of for reed wax, I tried to make my own. I found a recipe that called for 50% rosin, 50% beeswax and another 5% mineral oil. The only rosin I could get my hands on quickly was from a baseball pitchers rosin bag. That gave my concoction a grey/green tint. Obviously there was something else in there. Anyway the wax held and the accordion is back together. I've ordered some pure rosin I'm going to make up a new batch of reed wax and would like a more accurate recipe. The one's I found do say if the portions are by weight or volume. If by volume they don't say whether they mean solid rosin or powdered. Does anyone have a tried recipe.

[Ike Milligan]

The recipe is not critical. I save the old wax I scrape off the blocks and use it instead of rosin. The last rosin I bought from China had turpentine in it and caused respiratory issues in spite of my using a good mask. I keep some pure beeswax around and throw an arbitrary amount in the pot, when the wax gets too stiff. Just a 1/2 or less teaspoon of boiled linseed oil in a quart of wax can help.
The wax needs to be very hot when applied. I use an alcohol flame and spoons made from bronze tubing slit at the end and pointed to pour it.
Some of the factories like Excelsior used much longer lasting wax, but I don't know the exact formula. It's not just the ingredients but method, like tempurature to fuse the beeswax and rosin, time frame, etc.