Topic: Alternative to magicians' wax

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Posted by: thelearner (Jan 30, 2012 4:57pm)

Hi

Does anyone know of any cheaper alternatives to magicians' wax please?

Thanks for your help.

Tim

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Posted by: Bluesman (Jan 30, 2012 5:13pm)

I have used the wax donut that goes below your toilet. Go to home depot.

Greg

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Posted by: Dr_J_Ayala (Jan 30, 2012 6:50pm)

If transparency is not your goal and you just need a bit of tack to hold things together, Blu-Tack is a great alternative.

Where are you buying your wax that it is so expensive? Most shops here in the U.S. carry it for less than Ł2-Ł3 for a fair bit of wax.

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Posted by: MuleePete (Jan 30, 2012 9:11pm)

Pick up a wax bowl ring for $1.50, yeilds a large amount of soft beeswax in an amber color. You do not need the plastic flange some of the $3 - $5 rings have.

A great value and easy to work with, IMO.

Pete

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Posted by: thelearner (Jan 31, 2012 7:54am)

Hi

Thanks for your responses. I'm from England and unfortunately don't have those things at most shops, so any other suggestions would be great. Also, there's only one magic shop locally and I struggle to get there most of the time.

Thanks for you help.

Tim

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Posted by: Dr_J_Ayala (Jan 31, 2012 11:09am)

Check with your local hardware store and ask them if they can get it for you - you might be surprised. Check with craft stores in your area, sometimes they have different wax products that would be soft enough for your purposes. Check and see if you can find un-cured beeswax, cleaned and fresh off the hive.

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Posted by: Dale J. O'Neill (Jan 31, 2012 3:47pm)

I would suggest you go find a local orthodontist and ask him for the wax that is used to keep braces from rubbing.

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Posted by: Nala Nosmoht (Feb 12, 2012 9:00am)

I perform Martin Lewis's "Undivided" and tried, and used with great results a small piece of Scotch Double-sided tape from Walmart.

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Posted by: motown (Feb 12, 2012 9:45am)

Glue stick maybe.

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Posted by: Bob1Dog (Feb 14, 2012 11:33pm)

Quote:

On 2012-01-31 07:54, thelearner wrote:
Hi

Thanks for your responses. I'm from England and unfortunately don't have those things at most shops, so any other suggestions would be great. Also, there's only one magic shop locally and I struggle to get there most of the time.

Thanks for you help.

Tim

Tim,

You call yourself TheLearner, so perhaps you're younger than most of us that have to deal with toilet problems, so please indulge me as I try to help you out here. Don't you have home maintenance and improvement stores over there? You must. And I know they call it a WC across the pond, but a toilet is a toilet.

There's a wax ring that's used to make the seal between the toilet connection on the floor to the outflowing sewage pipe to keep things from getting, well, messy. Most home improvement/maintenance centers or other types of do-it-yourself hardware stores carry this product. It's a simple wax ring and that's what the folks above are referring to.

I hope this helps because it WILL save you some money. Harrods has EVERYTHING! (well, maybe not toilet products...) Don't know how close to London you are, but you could give them a call anyway? Maybe they can help you find what you're looking for. Good luck and don't be afraid to ask more questions!

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Posted by: magicians (Feb 15, 2012 9:06am)

Chapstick, lipstick, some soaps to name a few.

Beeswax, ski wax.

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Posted by: Craig Ousterling (Feb 15, 2012 4:28pm)

Almost every hobby shop or craft store has "doll house" wax. It is used to tack down the little furniture and stuff they stick in doll houses. The stuff I use says "mini-hold" on it. I think I paid $1.50 and have had it for 25 years.

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Posted by: Lefebure (Feb 17, 2012 3:51pm)

It depends on what you want to do, but personnally I use often removable glue by 3M (spray), instead of wax.
It works well too.

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Posted by: Fire Starter (Feb 19, 2012 6:49am)

Bostik sticky dots ,sticky on both sides and clear are quite good,hope this helps

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Posted by: AGMagic (Feb 19, 2012 9:31am)

See Howie Diddits, the first sticky under Secret Sessions for the answer to this and many other similar questions.

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Posted by: donrodrigo (Feb 21, 2012 5:37am)

In uk you may be able to find a cheese called filatello and or galbanino it's a pizza mozzarella cheese made in italy that's covered by a transparent wax wich I retain excellent, it will last a lifetime.

costume clown shops known as clown wax is white transparent, but softer.

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Posted by: DavidAusten (Oct 22, 2012 2:50am)

If the colour doesn't matter I use the wax from the mini Baybybel cheese, its ok for red backed cards

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Posted by: Gary T. (Oct 22, 2012 10:51pm)

Hmmm, you know I went to school for building and grounds maitenance, I've put down toilets and never once considered those wax rings as a sorce of wax for my magic, but yeah, they can be found pretty easy with a little effort, any hardware store would surely have them, just go in and ask for a wax toilet ring, they'll hook you up.

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Posted by: boctok (Oct 24, 2012 8:28am)

Hi Tim - just curious - are you building some device that requires an enormous amount of wax or developing a product for sale? I just ask cos I find that sometimes, though the "per gramme" price of some raw material from the dealers is high, unless you need large volumes it is often still cheaper to buy from them than source and buy alternatives. Granted it can be fun making one's own props but there are some things where the time spent outweigh the advantage. Not meant to discourage your investigation - just a personal observation. ;)

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Posted by: Quentin (Oct 24, 2012 11:11am)

http://www.cards4magic.co.uk/acatalog/Powders__Lotions__Waxes___Sprays.html

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Posted by: Philip Busk (Oct 27, 2012 2:40pm)

The orthodontist and bowl ring are great ideas. Don't know if this would be available in the UK but I've used surfboard wax. Great stuff.

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Posted by: donrodrigo (Nov 1, 2012 12:32pm)

Bees wax is exp. Clown wax is good. Transparent and crazy as it may sound go to your iternational store
or equivalent for example here I europe there is a soft mozzarella type cheese that is geerally covered by wax. It will last you a lifetime ad will blow the competition. O (sole as an example)baby bell cheese but that is colored.

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Posted by: AndyLuka (Nov 1, 2012 1:11pm)

Magicians wax is too expensive? I bought a very small container of magicians wax over 5 years ago, and the container is still over 3/4 full. And it was your basic cheap magicians wax, the container cost a whopping 2.99 it still has the price tag on it.

However if $3 is still out of your price range, you can go to your local grocery store or pharmacy and get the wax that is used to go on braces to prevent the braces from cutting your lips. When I have forgotten my wax, I have used this as an alternative. The container cost about $1.50. If that is still out of your price range then I have no other suggestions.

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Posted by: Felman (Nov 8, 2012 8:11am)

I would recommend ordering online Fearson's Master wax, 7 $ / package. Ok, it is expensive, but you can use the same piece for quite a long time and it will still work reliably. I either don't want to spend too much money on magic props, but sometimes I really feel that "Poor people can't afford cheap products" (translated from my language :) There is probably a similar proverb in English).

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Posted by: djurmann (Nov 14, 2012 10:23am)

You can buy a soft wax for holding candles in candlesticks - this reputedly works well too (Candle snug - recommended by Thom Peterson).

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Posted by: wafflesthemagician (Nov 15, 2012 5:26pm)

Yeah, I'd probably suggest using dental wax. It works great, and it's also useful for whenever my braces stab me in my mouth! (as a bonus, it's minty fresh!)

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Posted by: Andy Charlton (Nov 16, 2012 5:58pm)

Depends what you want it for.

Card on ceiling, Pritt stick.

Andy