Originally Posted by timtak

Thank you. I was completely unaware of the difference.

But at the same time, while some candles are made out of other types of wax such as beeswax and soy wax, I am under the impression that the cheap 100 yen shop candles that I am using are made out of paraffin wax. I thought that they might contain stearin (which may be waste meat and vegetable wax but I am not sure) but hey are sold as altar candles and the manufacturer and they manufacturer says that paraffin wax is the "main ingredient." Since they are used on Buddhist altars, I think that meat based wax is very unlikely to be used but their might be some vegetable wax in there. I have contacted the company.

I be a liI may be hijacking ttle
Paraffin wax is used to make candles, but other waxes may be used

I see I can get paraffin wax for making candles from Amazon Japan for almost exactly the same price.

I find that there is a tendency (perhaps due to the importance of safety, and other reasons) for cyclists to use 'the right thing' on their bicycles. I don't know why, iconoclasm perhaps, but I like to codge/botch/bricole things together out of what I have to hand. Plus I like the idea of having altar wax on my chain.