Hey guys I have a few questions about waxing my traps, is 1lb of wax enough for a dozen or so traps? Also do I mix the wax with water or what is the best way? I'm new at all this so any help is appreciated.

Do not mix the wax with water. Put the wax in a container and put that container in boiling h20, like a double broiler system.

I used to float the wax on top of hot water and after letting the trap get hot in the boiling water below, slowly raise the trap through the layer of molten wax on top. Worked OK sometimes, but usually not so well. Sometimes I ended up with water under the wax. This keeps the wax from sticking and the water trapped under wax leads to rust.

It seems that most guys have an entire pot full of wax so they can dip the entire trap under the wax, let it sit a minute to heat up, and then slowly pull it out. But that takes a lot of wax.

I don't have that much wax. My pot is only about an inch or two deep in wax. So, I put my trap in the melted wax, let it sit a minute, and then turn it over. When the whole trap is good and hot, I take a brush and brush the liquid wax over the spots that didn't get submerged. Works fine for me. I don't have a double boiler. I just put my wax pot right on the burner - low heat.

1 lb of wax will be enough to coat a dozen traps.

I do several traps at a time I just set up a new wax pot and it took 15 pounds of wax to cover 4-6 traps at a time then I had to add some more near the end. If your just doing a few dozen traps then look into a smaller taller pot and do a trap at a time maybe.

That is what I did. I can fit 2-3 traps in mine. I think it took around 10#s to cover the traps. I may have added a bit more. That was two years ago. This year I added another 5#s to it and they were well under the top of the wax. I could have gotten through this years traps without a problem. I did 3-4 dozen. About 1-1.5 dozen of them were 1.5 coils springs. The rest were bridger 2 or mb 550 traps.

The worst part is getting the 10-15#s of wax to start. I will probably go another 5 years before having to add any more to my pot.

The big thing I learned was that you needed to get the wax hot. I was also shown to drop the traps on a piece of plywood and then hang them. They turned out way better than the last ones that I did. The ones I did in years past had a heavy layer of wax on them. This years had a nice thin coat. And it seemed to be stuck to the traps better.

I have a 3 gallon galvanized pail that I use. I put about 10 lbs of wax in the pail and that is enough to cover about 3 1.75 size traps or smaller. I put over a fire after the flames are down and the coals are very hot. By stirring and putting traps in and out I have never had the wax burn. Many times are clean the traps in say lye or Saniflush and pull them out. When hot they dry very quickly. While still warm I put them in the was. Wait until the wax quits boiling or bubbling on the traps and you know the trap is as warm as the wax and thus you will get a nice thin coat. I bring the traps out and shake them a couple times and hang to dry. I go through each trap with an exact knife and file to clean the dogs and pan slot. I want those areas to rust a bit so they don't spring too easy. I used to do all my traps water and land but now my water traps I dip so this is not a big our even a yearly task anymore.

For skunked traps I put in the stream for a couple weeks or a month and then I wash with the same solution we use to get skunk odor off it works well. I do that with the body grippers too.

Bryce