Wax seals

[Lozzic]

Sorry if I am writing a post that has already been done but does anyone here have or use a wax seal in their correspondence?

[RandyE]

I *used* to, but no longer do. I imagine that wax seals would rather upset the post office machinery, but I suppose that they could hand cancel your letters. Sealing wax became more and more difficult to find (this was before the 'web hit the streets) so I stopped altogether when I ran out of wax. Interestingly enough, I've seen it in some art supply shops recently...

 

- R

[succubus]

I don't use it myself, but I receive letters from someone who uses the supple wax from J. Herbin. It usually comes through the mail just fine.

[RandyE]

"We suggest you use Atelier Gargoyle’s flexible sealing wax on correspondence that goes through the world’s postal systems."

 

Thanks for posting that link - I never considered that anyone would formulate a new flexible wax seal.

 

- R

[Shinichiro]

does anyone here have or use a wax seal in their correspondence?

Yep I do. For the time being, I use Herbin sealing wax. There are a few other "brands" I'd like to test, but I'll wait I have burned up my stock of Herbin wax before that. I have sent several letters sealed via the french poste, and never had any problem with it.

Cya around,

Shinichiro.

Edited March 28, 2008 by Shinichiro

[Lozzic]

I have some sealing wax and a seal, the wax is stamped "Chronicle" I think that is the name the Manuscript Pen Company uses but I'm not sure. I think if I seal my correspondence I may fold and seal the paper itself rather than the envelope, that is a traditional way of doing it and it avoids postal problems that may arise. Thanks for the replies.

 

 

I don't use it myself, but I receive letters from someone who uses the supple wax from J. Herbin. It usually comes through the mail just fine.

That is a good link, there is good info on there about using seals, thanks.

 

[kiavonne]

I had to go a ways back, but this is a good link to a forum thread here: Wax seals!, and sealing wax

Edited March 28, 2008 by kiavonne

[Lozzic]

I had to go a ways back, but this is a good link to a forum thread here: Wax seals!, and sealing wax

 

Thanks for the link there is a lot of interesting and useful stuff there

[FredRydr]

I am having a seal made by a small shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Royal Street, called Papier Plume. FPN member falika told me about it. I'd discovered the family tree from a distant cousin doing genealogical research, and then came the old family coat of arms (Switzerland, of all places), so the "field" is being embossed into a wax seal for family members to buy. The shop offers a flexible modern wax that does not crack in postal machinery.

 

I don't know how often I will use it before it gets to be silly, but (like pens) I wanted it so I ordered it.

 

Fred

[Ridgepeach]

I use wax seals on all of my correspondence. Currently, I have 15 different seals. The newest faux waxes are safe for the even fastest USPS sorters and look like tubes for mini hot glue guns! They are great. I love expressing myself & my politics on the outside of the envelope with these!

 

Becca

[hardyb]

As well as using the conventional wax and seals, I found a sort of hot glue gun at a Cranes Paper store that uses its own version of sealing wax.

Edited March 30, 2008 by hardyb

[finalidid]

I can't get "real" sealing wax to blob properly. It either burns or won't drip -- too hot or too cold. I have seen some sealing wax sticks which have wicks down the middle of them. This makes more sense to me. Light it like a candle, drip a little bit, impress the seal. But the sticks I currently have are these red square things, and I stick them near a flame and either get them on fire -- in which case a sooty black mass of red wax kind of descends a bit and risks setting the letter on fire -- or they sort of soften up but not enough, leaving a hairy ragged pimple of a smear which isn't soft enough to be impressed by the seal, and instead the points of it break off when I push the seal into it.

 

Something I'm doing wrong? I've thought about trying to boil it so the hot water softens it, but then how would I get rid of the water? Microwave maybe? I dunno ... so elaborate ...

 

[djh1031]

I've been sealing things with this...A special gift from Maker's Mark Whiskey. Came with the wax and the seal. Everyone to whom I write thinks I am a sot.

 

 

edited for my drunken spelling

Edited March 30, 2008 by djh1031

[djh1031]

 

 

If you are having difficulty, here are the instructions for using a wax seal.

 

 

[Lozzic]

I've been sealing things with this...A special gift from Maker's Mark Whiskey. Came with the wax and the seal. Everyone to whom I write thinks I am a sot.

 

edited for my drunken spelling

 

That seal looks very similar to my seal:

 

http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/6817/desk027hg8.jpg

 

[Skyppere]

I haven't gotten into seals because I have yet to recieve one that made it through ok. The ones on the outside are either gone entirely or half missing. Even ones on the inside are often just crumbs.

Do y'all have any better way of protecting them? I'm going to look into the flexible ones.

skyp

[RandyE]

I can't get "real" sealing wax to blob properly. It either burns or won't drip -- too hot or too cold. I have seen some sealing wax sticks which have wicks down the middle of them. This makes more sense to me. Light it like a candle, drip a little bit, impress the seal. But the sticks I currently have are these red square things, and I stick them near a flame and either get them on fire -- in which case a sooty black mass of red wax kind of descends a bit and risks setting the letter on fire -- or they sort of soften up but not enough, leaving a hairy ragged pimple of a smear which isn't soft enough to be impressed by the seal, and instead the points of it break off when I push the seal into it.

 

Something I'm doing wrong? I've thought about trying to boil it so the hot water softens it, but then how would I get rid of the water? Microwave maybe? I dunno ... so elaborate ...

 

I used to get the kind with the wick, but I recently read that a mini-torch is the best way to melt the wax bars without the wick.

 

http://www.jherbin.com/sealing_wax_tutorial.shtml

 

- R

[kiavonne]

I haven't gotten into seals because I have yet to recieve one that made it through ok. The ones on the outside are either gone entirely or half missing. Even ones on the inside are often just crumbs.

Do y'all have any better way of protecting them? I'm going to look into the flexible ones.

skyp

 

 

It's going to depend upon the sealing wax that you use. "Traditional" sealing wax (some of J.Herbins, the stuff from Michael's, some others) is not necessarily postal machine friendly and there very well may be crumbles and grumbles. This is because some of these formulas were around long before postal sorting machines or are hand-canceled. They are better used inside with correspondence and protected by the envelope and letter/invitation. This doesn't mean it will get through the machines, it just has a better chance that way.

 

Use a wax that is specifically designed to hold up through the postal system - flexible waxes - and they may or may not be "faux" wax. Atelier Gargoyle is one of these flexible waxes. There was a review of this wax some time ago in the review forums. I use Atelier Gargoyle all the time. J.Herbin also makes a flexible wax, you just need to make sure you are selecting the correct wax from them, as they have several formulas and not all are postal machine friendly. (Altelier Gargoyle is an authorized vendor for J.Herbin waxes.) Just a note here, that some of these flexible waxes (Atelier Gargoyle) adhere to the paper so well, that you aren't likely to break the seal or separate it from an envelope when opening it. Letter openers are our friends.

 

And here is a link at Atelier Gargoyle that goes into a little more explanation about how to use sealing wax: sealing wax FAQs and How To's

Edited March 31, 2008 by kiavonne

[WhosYerBob]

...does anyone here have or use a wax seal in their correspondence?

Yes, every letter I send out is accompanied by a wax seal.

[chud]

I use the Atelier Gargoyle flexible wax, and it seems generally to make it through the mail intact.

 

Traditional wax often does not fare well, even when the seal is on the paper inside the envelope - it can get crushed, and the recipient gets a letter with a red (or whatever) stain on it and a bunch of wax crumbs in the bottom of the envelope.

 

This is by design - traditional wax is a tamper-proofing mechanism; it is designed to be brittle and break if manhandled, so that any measure capable of opening a letter would also damage the seal, and the recipient knows the letter has been opened.

 

(Flexible wax, incidentally, still serves this purpose to some extent -- it's not difficult to steam open most envelope glues and then re-seal them, but I'll bet it's still considerably more difficult to open and reseal the wax seal (or bypass it somehow) without the tampering being evident.)