Originally Posted by cyccommute

You’d have to ask them. I’d take it to mean that the material feels waxy or, depending on the formulation, it feels tacky or greasy. Not all wax is as hard as canning or candle wax.



Because it has some plasticity. Being “semi-solid” doesn’t mean “semi-liquid”. When I say “wax doesn’t flow”, I mean that wax can be pushed out of the pressure points by pressure due to its plasticity. It doesn’t flow back however. Oil and other liquids get pushed out of the pressure points but as soon as the pressure is released, the oil flows back. Wax can’t do that.



While this may happen on a small scale, it would likely only work on the outflow of the wax from the pressure points. There is nothing that would drive inflow to the pressure points once pressure is reduced. And any melting would be extremely small in mass and highly localized. Bicycle chains don’t have enough friction to melt bulk amounts of wax. They simply don’t get that hot.




I’m not sure where you’d said that but it wasn’t here. I didn’t say that wax is a perfect solid. I have said (here and elsewhere) that small amounts of oil or soft wax could soften hard wax and make it less likely to flake off and/or make it slightly more mobile. The kind of phase change that is needed for capillary action to occur simply isn’t going to happen. There is no driving force for it to occur.



Glad to help but it doesn’t say what you think it says.