Next message: Bill: "Re: Tallow, was: Voyaging the traditional way"
Trevor-
http://www.missionpeaksoap.com/Base_Oils_Quick.htm
You can indeed buy beef tallow today, in this case from northern California
at $12.95/USgallon, or $44.95/5USG, which probably would last you for a
while.<G>
Since it still is beef fat, I'd expect it to still go rancid after a while.
There are adhesive waxes, used in graphic arts for "pasteup", that can be
thinned with mineral spirits to make a very tacky soft wax that is stable
and inert, if kept in a sealed jar so the solvent doesn't evaporate out.
That might be a simpler way to go, you could probably dice up white paraffin
and vaseline in mineral spirits to get somethign similar too. (It can take a
week or two for the parafin to thoroughly dissolve, bear in mind what we in
the US call "kerosene" is also called "paraffin oil", the paraffin wax is
quite compatible.)
