Casting Wax Experiment (with Mastodons!)
Last year, walking down the street with my daughter, she picked up one of these big seed pods (initially thinking someone had dropped their wallet). When we cracked it open, we found these big seeds inside. We also found that the seeds were surrounded by a sticky, resinous gum. So it got me thinking... Maybe the gum could work as a substitute for the plant resin in our casting wax! It's always very interesting in the Fire craft to try to make the ingredients and elements yourself, to go as basic as possible, rather than buying stuff off the shelf. How cool would it be if this goo worked? Our normal casting wax recipe is, by weight: Bees wax 70% Solid paraffin 20% Plant resin 10% (e.g. damar gum) Now, these seed pods are from the Kentucky Coffee Tree ( Gymnocladus dioicus ). It's a lovely tree, and in the fall - even in winter - it really stands out because these giant pods tend to cling to the branches when the leaves are all down...