Is it even required cleaning/stripping a new chain at all. I tried hot waxing with some old school castrol MC hot melt wax. Worked perfectly fine, just dumping in a new chain direct from the package. Im betting simply swishing a new chain in what ever mixture of paraffin, or what ever is used for bikes, would make it adhere just fine, just like the castrol wax did. Cant see why it wouldn't. Its all hydrocarbons anyway, - but of course Im not a chemist and at this point Im just guessing. Did anyone ever try, or did you go straight to the ten step plan .. ;-)