Velo Mule

I was thinking the same thing the other night when I was down in the basement going through my old ski equipment when I came across my old ski wax. Would we consult the weather before waxing to get the right temperature range wax? When I was a teen I discovered how good waxing skis was. Now I'm waxing my chain. Wax is good stuff. Just keep the cross-country grip wax away from the chain wax pot.

I just received my PTFE powder. It looks like contraband, and I am learning that the manufacture of this stuff is not good for the environment. Anyway, I'm looking forward to getting some mixed into my wax pot. I also add paraffin lamp oil to thin the viscosity of the wax. My first experience with wax was straight and it seemed to me not to penetrate between the plates as well as oil would and it flaked off. Mixing in paraffin lamp oil gets it to a thinner consistency and I believe it is working better and lasting longer than straight wax. I follow Oz Cycling's guide for waxing chains.

I am a fan of wax for many things. Of course, waxing the car helps to keep the clear coat from aging. I've switched from oiling tools to waxing tools. I've been waxing my chains for awhile and I am finding that I like wax and oil mix for furniture. On my folding Marlboro bike, after getting my cloths and hands greasy from the seat post that must be removed each time I fold and reassemble the bike, I've switched to wax. I don't know how well it will work long term but for now it is keeping the seat post from not getting too cozy with the seat tube.

I want to try waxing canvas. It looks nice and it seems it should be easy enough to hit it with a warm iron and a little more wax if it needs a refreshing. In fact, my old steamless iron that I used for my skis would work perfectly well for this too. No holes to gather wax into like a more modern steam iron.

Piff 

Yes, PTFE is one of those forever materials that is an environmental toxin. If every single person on earth swapped their car for a bicycle and used PTFE in their chain lube it would still be far, far less impactful than the cars...but it still isn't a great thing to use if you can avoid it. But really, anything that gets one using their bike more than their car is good enough.

MooneyBloke

My understanding is that amendments such as PTFE, MoS2, and WS2 are in the exceptionally marginal gains category. One might save 1/4W, and somehow I feel that there are few if any watt nerds in C&V. I just use plain old Gulf wax, and while my initial de-grease was a chore, the subsequent cleaning is a breeze. I basically boil things to take the old wax off with the exception of the jockey pulleys which I brush off with a stiff plastic shop brush. The chain goes into alcohol to reduce the water, and after drying, it goes into the wax pot. The only annoying thing is to get a nice even thin coat. My understanding is that if the wax is too warm, most of it just runs out. I let the wax drop to about 135°F, and use a heat gun on low to get the extra wax off. I do notice that even after flexing the chain, it still skips for about half a block before it settles in and just does its thing silently.