I think I am going to like this pitch. I had some casting wax that I had experimented with as a chasing pitch, a la David Huang, but I didn’t like it. It was not sticky enough to hold in a vessel and was too soft. So this morning I heated up some pine rosin, added some beeswax, and poured in the melted casting wax. To this I added about 5 cups of plaster of paris. The result is a deep red color pitch that seems to have the balance I like of stickiness and firmness. I have a couple vessels that are almost ready to chase and I will try it out. Here is the recipe:
2 lbs. red casting wax
2 oz. beeswax
4 oz. pine rosin
5 cups plaster of paris
I mixed this up in a pot that I had previously used to make a pitch with asphaltum, beeswax, pine rosin, and plaster of paris, so a little bit of asphaltum was melted in, but that’s OK with me since that would only help make it a little harder and stickier.
