-
Making
a wax seal is simple. Take a look at the PDF document on How
to make a perfect seal for illustrations and directions. Simply, you
melt the wax onto the document or item you want to seal, wait a few seconds,
and press the seal into the wax pool. Back
-
If
you've taken a look at the How To document above and still feel it's just
not you, the answer might be our Peel Seals. Using the same sealing wax
and seal you would, we make the seals for you. Instead of them being on
your invitation or envelope, they come to you with an adhesive backing.
Then all you do is peel off the protective paper and press the seal into
place. It looks just like you made it where it is.
Back
-
You
should be able to get 8 seals per stick from a 20mm (standard) seal, or
6 from a 25mm seal. Our small oval seal (17 x 22mm) would be about 7 seals
per stick, and our large oval (20 x 30mm) yields closer to 5½ seals
per stick.
To help select the right size box of extra wax for the standard 20mm seals,
a 5 stick box gives about 40 seals, the 10 stick box about 80, a 15 stick
box is good for about 120, and the 20 stick box should do 160 seals. Back
-
Please
DON'T use a match or cigarette lighter to melt the wax. It is hazardous
and yields very poor results. The melting process takes about 45 seconds,
which is much longer than a match burns. Similarly, a cigarette lighter
is not designed to be held on that long, and can get very hot.
As well, both methods mean you will be holding the flame UNDER the wax
stick, and that tends to burn the wax, dropping black soot into the seal.
Take
a look at the PDF document on How to make a perfect
seal for illustrations and directions.
Back
-
Wax
buttons are pre-measured discs of flexiwax just right for one seal. They
are intended to be melted using a hot air heat gun. This is a tool like
a very high-temperature hair drier, often used by craft workers with embossing
powder or similar applications. The area surrounding the seal being heated
gets quite hot while the wax is being softened, so make sure the paper
or other material is not harmed by the heat.
The hot air is about 180° C, and is painful to the hand after about
5 seconds, so care must be taken. For basic procedures, see Using Flexiwax
Buttons. Back
- Short
ends of wax sticks are actually easy to deal with... simply weld them onto
another new stick! Heat the square end of the stub and the end of the new
stick until they are softening, and press them together. Play the flame
over the join to help the two sticks melt together, and you can use up every
bit of the stub. Back
- If
you have more than a couple of dozen seals to make, you may want to pre-melt
the sealing wax in a small container, and either spoon it out or pour directly.
SAFETY
ADVISORY: The melted wax is HOT (app 160°C) and if dripped on skin can cause
a serious burn. Should you get molten wax on your skin, immediately wipe
off as much as possible while it is still molten, and then immerse the burned
area in cold water for 20-30 minutes. If the burn is more than a small spot,
consult a doctor for appropriate treatment. Keep children well away from
molten wax.
If
you go to Vinnies, you can probably find an old milk saucepan that is compact
and may even have a pouring lip. While you're there, get an old spoon as
well. You won't want to use either for anything else! We have found that
even a 70-100mm foil muffin tin can be used successfully - it's easy to
bend a pouring spout into one side. You'll need to handle it with pliers
or something similar. Break several sticks into the container and gently
heat it on a hotplate or stovetop until the wax softens to a liquid honey
consistency. Carefully pour or spoon the wax onto the envelope or document
until you form a pool about the size of the seal face, and carefully withdraw
the container or spoon, watching out for drips. (You may want a paper towel
nearby to catch any drips and wipe the excess off the outside of the container
or spoon.) After about 3-5 seconds, press the seal into the wax, hold it
a couple of seconds, and remove it. You will also find that chilling the
brass seal between applications will speed things. You can place it on a
plastic bag of ice or any cold object you may have, and this will minimise
the sticking that can occur when the seal has warmed up too much.
Back
- If
you have a hundred or more seals to make and time is getting away from you,
let Wax Seals Australia do most of the work for you with Peel Seals. We
make the seals from the same Flexiwax and the same brass seal you would
use, and then put a peelable adhesive backing on the seal. That way, you
simply peel off the protective paper and press the finished seal into place
anywhere you need it. Instead of one person using one seal and spending
up to 2 minutes per seal, you and all your friends or co-workers can all
pop each Peel Seal into place in seconds. You save time, the quality is
consistent, and there are no accidents melting a seal. Back
- Make
sure you are following the instructions on the Gas Torch box insert. You
must point both the torch and the filler DOWN, because you are actually
transferring a liquid, and it has to be ready to come out the filler nozzle.
If you have pointed UP, only gas will be transferred, and only enough for
a brief use.
Press the filler nozzle firmly into the fill hole of the torch, hold for
2-3 seconds, and release. Repeat this once or twice. In the gas torches
in use after March 2004, there is a level gauge that shows how much butane
you have.
Back
- Black
bits in the wax are burnt wax. Generally, they are caused by overheating
the wax stick in one of two ways. Either you are using a torch with a flame
more intense than required, or you are heating the wax stick from underneath.
Both situations lead to burning, and the overheated, discoloured wax drops
into the pool as black spots. Back
- It's
simple to get your seal consistently right. Take the seal and hold it just
above a mirror so you can see the monogram correctly. With a marking pen,
put a small mark at the 6 o'clock point on the seal ferrule to indicate
the bottom centre of the monogram. Then, very little practise will see your
seals properly oriented every time! Back
- Your
seal is sticking to the wax because it has heated up from use. The brass
seal has to be cool enough to harden the surface of the wax pool on contact.
Otherwise, the wax tries to seal itself to the brass seal as well as the
paper, and that can be pretty sticky.
To avoid this, chill the seal down between impressions. Put it on a plastic
bag of ice, or a frozen cooler block if you have one. You can even put it
on a block of ice or in a shallow dish of ice water, but make sure you dry
the moisture off the seal face before making the seal. Back
- You
can generally remove most of the wax with a fingernail or a toothpick. Avoid
using a sharp metal object, because it is very easy to slip and scratch
the surface of the seal. If there is still some residual wax left, it can
normally be removed with nail polish remover.
WARNING: Don't get the nail polish remover on the wooden handle, as it
will remove the lacquer finish! Back
- We
developed Flexiwax to allow our seals to survive mailing. Traditional or
standard wax would be reduced to crumbs by postal handling, but Flexiwax
will normally survive mailing. To improve your chances, we recommend handing
your sealed mail over the counter, and asking your post office to put it
in the "Non-machinable" bin. (Australia Post reference - other
postal systems should have an equivalent process.) Unfortunately, nothing
can be guaranteed, but years of use with very few negative comments reassures
us. Back
- If
an embosser is designed to impress heavier card stock, its dies are engraved
deeper. Unfortunately, if these dies are used on lighter weight paper, they
will tend to cut through the thinner material. If you find this happening,
simply put another sheet of paper under the sheet you want to emboss, and
make the seal. The sacrificial sheet will allow a good quality seal to be
made without cutting through the lighter paper. Back
- The
maximum reach from the edge of the page to the centre of the embossed seal
is:
Hand-held Seal Press, 40mm round die - 40mm
Hand-held
Seal Press, 25 x 50mm rectangular die - 42mm
Desk Seal Press, 40mm round die - 42mm
Desk Seal Press, 25 x 50mm rectangular die - 45mm
Large
Desk Embosser, 50mm round die - 55mm
Long
Reach Embosser, 50mm round or 25 x 75mm rectangular dies - 112mm
Back
- We
recommend that the Hand-held Seal Press be used with no more than 200-220gsm
light card. The machine is not designed for heavy paper weight use, as it
relies purely on hand strength to work.
The Desk Seal Press can be used for limited heavier card stock, up to about
260gsm, because the operator can use body weight rather than pure strength
to make the seal. However, it is not designed for heavy use on material
greater than 260gsm.
For heavy stock and heavy usage, we recommend either the Large Desk Embosser
or the Long Reach Embosser, depending on your reach requirements. Both machines
are more heavily built, and with correctly-specified dies, can be used on
soft stock up to 300gsm, such as watercolour art paper. Back
- It
depends. If the lettering is small, narrow, and close together, probably
not. Unlike printing, both engraving and embossing can't do fine, closely-spaced
lines very well. When paper is being embossed, the fibres of the stock are
being displaced, and they can't conform precisely to the hills and valleys
of the design because the paper has thickness. If the lines are too close
together, they will merge into one, making the letters unreadable. The holes
in a, e, o, b, d and so on will close.
The rule of thumb for an embosser is, Bolder is Better. A simple logo jumps
off the page; a complicated one loses definition and impact. Back
