FLYMPH FORUM

As far as I remember, turpentine rosin and pine rosin (from the violin shop) are the same thing. The more refined it is the lighter the color, or so I've been told.

Leisenring actually had several wax recipes in his notebooks that I have .I have made wax both ways, the AoTWF version and the Keene Version. From my observations, the keene wax looses it's tackiness the more you mix your finger oils into it by softening it up when rolling it between your thumb and finger. The AoTWF recipe stays tacky till it's about time for a new bb sized piece. I also find that adding more wax also causes loss of tackiness as well. I don't think this loss of tackiness is readily apparent when you tie with a bobbin, but if you tie sans bobbin ala Leisenring and the Dettes it becomes very apparent, the "grip" is just not quite the same. On the other hand if you are going to pre wax your thread as the oldtimers did by transferring thread from one spool to another through a hot pot of wax, the 8 parts rosin 1 part wax 1 part lard/oil is works great, even without using a bobbin. FWIW Harry Darbee used the Keene recipe, I'm thinking the Dette's may have used used the Leisenring recipe, as my research seems to point in that direction , their recipe has changed over the years though.

Again, there is much about this topic by Mike Connor in our Reference Threads.

Wayneb ~
The rosin in a baseball pitcher's rosin bag (the large ones, not those little jobs) works pretty well. I pour my wax into the cups on a Teflon-coated mini-muffin tin, but still have to bang on the bottom of it to get the hardened wax to come out.

I was speaking with Mary and Joe last year about the wax they use on their thread. She told me it was a wax similar to the Keene wax. Although they now use oil or Crisco instead of lard.

wayneb wrote: I've always used dark violin resin, anyone know where to find terpentine resin?

Same thing, I believe. Turpentine and resin/rosin are both made from pine sap.