Originally Posted by
elcruxio
Silca doesn't use a surfactant but they do have a small amount of alcohol as carrier (that's one way to make the wax "small"). Rex doesn't disclose how they achieve the emulsion but I doubt they're using a surfactant. Otherwise they'd have a hard time making the claims they're making.
It doesn’t matter if Silca uses an alcohol as a carrier or water. Both have similar properties and wax is not very soluble in either. You might be able to get the wax to dissolve in one of the higher carbon count alcohols but volatility of the alcohol goes down very quickly with increasing carbon molecules. For example, methanol (a 1 carbon alcohol) has a vapor pressure…an indication of evaporation rate…of 12.5 kPa at 25°C. Water has a vapor pressure of 3.17 kPa and n-Butanol has a vapor pressure of 0.58 kPa at the same conditions. The higher the vapor pressure, the faster the material will evaporate. With a vapor pressure of about 5 times less than water, n-butanol will take a very long time to evaporate.
Silca is very cagey about what is in the wax with their SDS containing more “unknown” statements than any SDS I’ve ever seen. Rex is equally cagey. But both
have to be using something to modify the solubility of the wax and there are very few substances that can do that and any of them are not volatile. In other words, they solvent may evaporate but anything else…wax and emulsifier are still that.
Unfortunately you can't get those in the EU, so one either needs to make their own or go with water based. I've had a hard time finding solvents that can dissolve Rex chain wax
You can buy it from
Kunstform via mail from Germany. Or from
Holland Bike Shop. That’s just a couple of examples.
Yup. Which is why the flame of a stove would work just as well.
I’ve got better things to use a stove for than unnecessarily drying wax. Put it on at night and let it dry while you sleep. Keep it simple.