How to Clean a Wax Seal Spoon
Using a wax seal melting spoon is therapeutic and fun, but cleaning up the mess can be a little intimidating if you have never done it before! In this video I'm going to share a few different techniques you can use to clean your wax seal spoon for simple and challenging wax problems. You can use these techniques to clean your wax seal stamp too!
Supplies:
GRACE Melting Spoon: https://bit.ly/3u7l9NG
Chinoiserie Bird Stamper: https://bit.ly/3HtNkxu
Prosecco (gold) Wax: https://bit.ly/3uStrcy
Browse my exclusive designs: https://bit.ly/3Ixk6wy
The Standard Clean:
For most of your wax seal cleaning needs, a simple re-heat and wipe with a soft, disposable tissue or paper towel will clean your spoon up as good as new. Of course, you want to be extremely careful as you wipe because the entire spoon and the wax will need to be hot in order for the wax residue to be pursued to come off of the spoon (or stamp). I have burned myself a few times, but thankfully nothing bad—just a little jump away and a mental note to take greater care when working with hot objects!
I have found that I usually have to re-heat and wipe my spoon off 2 times to get it clean enough to use again. A third time is often required for darker waxes or if it’s after my last pour of the day and I want my spoon to be squeaky clean before I put it away.
An Agressive Clean:
Now let’s say that you (like Katrina of a few years ago) have come across a particularly difficult wax and not only that… it’s been baked onto your spoon and vows never to let go again. This is why I emphasize the importance of quality wax so much—please, PLEASE, learn from my mistake!
This happened to me a few years ago and I honestly thought my wax seal spoon would never recover. I was devastated and tried many things to finally clean my beloved spoon to my standards.
A Gentle Abrasive:
I started with a gentle abrasive that I had in house: baking soda! Long praised for it’s cleaning wonders, I decided to start with a mixture of baking soda and dish soap. After mixing it into a paste, I applied the concoction to the spoon and vigorously massaged it into the unwelcome wax on my spoon. I had to repeat this process several times before I was able to get a significant portion of the wax off.
I have since discovered “Bar Keeper’s Friend” and have used it several times to polish my spoon and remove unwanted residue from my wax seal melting spoon and recommend the powder or the paste for use on your wax seal spoons. It’s not what I originally used to clean my own spoon, which is why I didn’t mention it first—but it’s what I would reach for first if I was to have a problem with wax build up again.
Some Elbow Grease:
Still not enough? It wasn’t for my spoon either in this instance. I eventually grabbed some aluminum foil and crumpled that into a ball before I used it to buff the stubborn areas of my spoon. Please use this (and/or a chisel, which I also used on one or two areas) as a last resort as it will scratch the surface of your spoon, which can cause other problems down the road. But this was the final trick that I needed to completely clean the well of my spoon to a beautiful, brassy shine.
You can see in the video and pictures that I still have some residue left on the bottom of the spoon—the interior of the spoon looked very similar before I tried these different cleaning tricks. But the wax build up was thicker and harder on the bottom and, frankly, I decided that it wasn’t worth my time to worry about the beauty of the bottom of my spoon. Maybe when my kids are grown and out of the house it will bother me enough to claim my energies.
I hope that this blog post / video tutorial was helpful and that you were able to pick up a few tips and tricks to use for your wax seal melting spoon (or stamper). It’s really not as hard as it looks most of the time! If you have any of your own tips to add or tricks that you have discovered along your wax seal journey, I would love to hear about them in the comments section!
Until next time, happy Stamping!
