Support your wax

Bench peg wrapped in blue leatherette to protect the blue wax ring that's braced against it

Use the peg

There are loads of reasons why your wax piece can break while you’re working on it. Wax is fragile (especially compared to metal), it’s just susceptible to breaking.

The main reason wax breaks is when there is too much pressure on a small section of it. Most of the time it happens accidentally. I mean nobody sets out to break a piece they’ve been working on for hours!

The best way to prevent that type of break from happening is by supporting your piece. When you properly support your wax, the pressure of your tool on the wax gets distributed around the piece. If your wax is not supported, the pressure of your tool is just on the part of the wax you’re working on. And that’s when breaks happen!

The easiest support is of course your bench peg. The pressure of your tool gets distributed into the peg and it provides stability as well!

But also protect from the peg

Your bench peg is absolutely necessary for support, but the edges of your peg can dent and damage your wax.

To prevent that from happening you can wrap your bench peg in bubble wrap

Bench peg wrapped in bubblewrap

Or some scrap fabric.

Bench peg wrapped in blue leatherette

The edges are covered this way and your piece won’t dent that easily when you brace it against the peg.

Wrapping your peg is a great way to protect your wax, but I don’t like the way it feels.

That’s why I use my finger as a barrier between peg and wax.

Bench peg with forefinger of left hand braced against it

My finger is braced against the peg so I get the support and stability from it. And at the same time my finger protects the wax from getting dents from the peg.

Bench peg with forefinger of left hand braced against it. Forefinger and thumb are holding a blue wax ring. The ring is not touching teh benchpeg

Create more connection

You’re connecting your hand that holds the wax with the peg and getting stability. But you can always create more connection.

When you’re using carving tools or burrs, try to find a way to connect your hands together. With your hands connected, you create more stability for your wax piece. And with a stable setup, you have more control over your tools.

Close up of hands working at the bench. Both hands are touching each other and the peg.Left hand is holding a piece of green wax while the right hand is burring the wax

Slipping with your tools or any other unexpected movement with them is another big way to damage or break your wax. By connecting your hands you not only create greater stability, you also reduce the area that you can work on. With a small working area, you have more control over what you are doing. Reducing the chances of mistakes and slip-ups.

Close up of hands working at the bench. Both hands are touching each other. Left hand is holding a blue wax ring and left hand is using a carving tool on it

Support the part you’re working on

It doesn’t matter how intricate or substantial your piece is. The part you’re currently working on is always the most fragile and prone to breaking. You want to look for extra ways to support the part you’re working on.

For rings that means placing your finger inside the ring and supporting the part you’re working on from the inside.

Close up of hands working at the bench. Left hand is holding a green wax ring, the ring finger is inside the ring to support the part that the right hand is filing.

Without the support on the inside the ring flexes. It might not happen for chunky rings, but the thinner the ring the more obvious the flexing becomes. And when wax flexes it can easily result in breaking.

Close up of hands holding a blue wax ring. A file is pushing down on the ring to demonstrate how it flexes without support.

Don't think the ring is flexing? Focus on the inside of the ring and you can see it's no longer circular.

Close up of hands holding a blue wax ring. A file is pushing down on the ring to demonstrate how it flexes without support. A black circle is drawn on the inside of the ring to show that the inside of teh ring is no longer round.

When you’re supporting the exact part you’re working on, the wax can’t flex. The pressure of the tool gets distributed along the wax and gets absorbed by your finger. Less chance of your wax breaking this way!

Take your time

It’s easy to see how you can create extra support for a ring, but any piece you work on can benefit from extra support.

Sometimes you immediately know how to hold the piece you’re working on to support it.

Close up of hands holding a turquoise wax ring. Part of the ring sticks out, the middle finger is supporting the part that sticks out from underneath providing ectra support.

Other times you have no idea. Take your time to find the best setup! Try different ways of holding the piece, try supporting different parts of it, maybe try working from a different angle than you’re used to?

Close up of hands working at the bench.The left hand is holding a very small piece of turquoise wax between thumb and forefinger, resting part of it on the middlefinger. Right hand is using a carving tool to carve the part that is being supported on themiddle finger

You know when you’ve found the right way of holding and supporting your wax piece!

Comment below and let me know if these tips were helpful!