Sealing wax is easy to use and makes snail mail fun

It is also less brittle than real sealing wax and more likely to make it through USPS without shattering.

“Real” sealing wax, well, at least the kind I’ve bought in stick form, tends to be hard and breakable.

With both kinds you can do some nice mixing of colors when they are molten- the metallic gold or silver mixed slightly, like marbled paper, with a tooth pick goes nicely with dark colors.

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If you really want to see how secure one can make a traditional letter with the aid of wax, check out the cache of unopened letters found in the Netherlands that used “letter locking” folds and tucks and what not with a seal to make it impossible to open without having to deal with the wax seal.

(Also note this researcher claiming trademark on “Letterlocking™” and “Letterlock™” - which just rubs me the wrong way. Academic research and trying to trademark a descriptive term just don’t seem to go together and the attempt to secure the mark seems all kinds of wrong to me:

http://www.janadambrogio.com/letterlock/ )

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Tends towards very high melting temperature and sticks to your skin like napalm, too.

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Note to self: be sure to mark the sealing wax with wicks as “Not for BDSM”… :hushed:

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You mean way back in that era when we all used to regularly use sealing wax?

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Spot on.

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I still have a couple of seals and some wax kicking around from when sealing was a fad in the late 60s or early 70s. All my sealing wax needs were found at the local head shop. :upside_down_face:

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That’s 'cause traditionally sealing wax has rosin or shellac mixed into it, right?

We used a type of sealing wax back when I was into lapidary arts to securely adhere rough gemstones to dopping sticks. Once the stone was shaped and polished you could put the whole assembly into the freezer for a short time and the stone would pop right off.

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That’s by design, isn’t it? If it’s been opened the wax breaks in an obvious kind of way?

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Honestly I don’t know, although I know some people I could ask :).

I’m pretty sure that’s the traditional sealing wax. (Remember, when wax seals were being used as tamper-evident fastenings people didn’t have freezers).

Bulk-up your birdy!

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Am I alone in being slightly uncomfortable at reading this expression:

“Two beads is the right amount of wax for my ring.”

It might say a lot about my thought processes, but this is where it lead:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ringpiece

That’s exactly how I heard the song (and what I pictured). I didn’t even know why people in the old shows waxed their floors, except to cause other people to slip and fall down comically. Which didn’t really make sense either because wax isn’t slippery. Which would then lead to the thought that people wouldn’t have slipped if they’d had slippers on, because slippers aren’t slippery…

Also, it was used back then on materials that were more absorbent than the metal and stone that I used it on - though winter weather might have made the old wax a bit brittle even without freezers. :grinning:

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Obviously you tell one of your footmen to carry the message to its destination.

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Ah yes. I’m always forgetting about my footmen.

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It is easy to lose track of them against all the drapes, tapestries and other wallhangings, the occasional tables, statues, etc.

Maybe consider a more distinctive livery? To help them stand out more?

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I tried affixing dog toy squeakers to the bottoms of their boots, but the hounds wouldn’t leave them alone.

I may have to settle for flags stuck to the tops of their heads, and just stop taking them with me when I golf.

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A few years ago when I decided to design my own personal coat of arms, I made several rings, one of them a signet for sealing letters and greeting cards and such.