Saturday, February 07, 2015

Assembly and Beeswax

   We've started to get into serious assembly mode at the Beez Neez. We're building lots of boxes and frames to try to meet the coming demand, I've also still got one little beeswax project going. We pour filtered beeswax into little 1 1/2 ounce molds for a company that makes immersion suits. I actually had an immersion suit in my seat pack when I flew on recon flights when I served in the Air Force.  We called them "poopy suits". The idea was that if you had to ditch the plane into the water, the immersion suit would help you remain conscience longer in the frigid water to increase the possibility of rescue. Considering the fact that we flew over polar ice pack and the Bering Sea that increased our chances of survival from none to very slim.  Still it was nice that the Air force would invest the money to give us even a slightly improved chance of survival.  Similar immersion suits are mandatory equipment on fishing boats and commercial shipping. The small beeswax bars are used to lubricate and waterproof the zippers on the immersion suits as well as on dry suits used by divers.

   We actually made a set of molds with the logo of the company making the immersion suits. I've made thousands of these little beeswax bars for this company over the past three or four years. I'm working on building up an inventory of the little beeswax bars now while I still have a little time. Otherwise they' ll decide to order some more beeswax bars while we are right in the middle of the package bee craziness.  This company's immersion suits literally travel all over the globe and our little beeswax bars go right along with them.  That makes me feel somewhat connected to the global economy. Beeswax produced and rendered in Western Washington ends up on ice breakers and crab boats in Alaska and on large container ships traveling the seven seas.


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