Sorry if I am writing a post that has already been done but does anyone here have or use a wax seal in their correspondence?

I *used* to, but no longer do. I imagine that wax seals would rather upset the post office machinery, but I suppose that they could hand cancel your letters. Sealing wax became more and more difficult to find (this was before the 'web hit the streets) so I stopped altogether when I ran out of wax. Interestingly enough, I've seen it in some art supply shops recently...

- R

I don't use it myself, but I receive letters from someone who uses the supple wax from J. Herbin. It usually comes through the mail just fine.

"We suggest you use Atelier Gargoyle’s flexible sealing wax on correspondence that goes through the world’s postal systems."

Thanks for posting that link - I never considered that anyone would formulate a new flexible wax seal.

- R

Yep I do. For the time being, I use Herbin sealing wax. There are a few other "brands" I'd like to test, but I'll wait I have burned up my stock of Herbin wax before that. I have sent several letters sealed via the french poste, and never had any problem with it.
Cya around,
Shinichiro.

I have some sealing wax and a seal, the wax is stamped "Chronicle" I think that is the name the Manuscript Pen Company uses but I'm not sure. I think if I seal my correspondence I may fold and seal the paper itself rather than the envelope, that is a traditional way of doing it and it avoids postal problems that may arise. Thanks for the replies.



That is a good link, there is good info on there about using seals, thanks.

I had to go a ways back, but this is a good link to a forum thread here: Wax seals!, and sealing wax

Thanks for the link there is a lot of interesting and useful stuff there

I am having a seal made by a small shop in the French Quarter of New Orleans on Royal Street, called Papier Plume. FPN member falika told me about it. I'd discovered the family tree from a distant cousin doing genealogical research, and then came the old family coat of arms (Switzerland, of all places), so the "field" is being embossed into a wax seal for family members to buy. The shop offers a flexible modern wax that does not crack in postal machinery.

I don't know how often I will use it before it gets to be silly, but (like pens) I wanted it so I ordered it.

Fred

I use wax seals on all of my correspondence. Currently, I have 15 different seals. The newest faux waxes are safe for the even fastest USPS sorters and look like tubes for mini hot glue guns! They are great. I love expressing myself & my politics on the outside of the envelope with these!

Becca

As well as using the conventional wax and seals, I found a sort of hot glue gun at a Cranes Paper store that uses its own version of sealing wax.

I can't get "real" sealing wax to blob properly. It either burns or won't drip -- too hot or too cold. I have seen some sealing wax sticks which have wicks down the middle of them. This makes more sense to me. Light it like a candle, drip a little bit, impress the seal. But the sticks I currently have are these red square things, and I stick them near a flame and either get them on fire -- in which case a sooty black mass of red wax kind of descends a bit and risks setting the letter on fire -- or they sort of soften up but not enough, leaving a hairy ragged pimple of a smear which isn't soft enough to be impressed by the seal, and instead the points of it break off when I push the seal into it.

Something I'm doing wrong? I've thought about trying to boil it so the hot water softens it, but then how would I get rid of the water? Microwave maybe? I dunno ... so elaborate ...

Click to view attachment I've been sealing things with this...A special gift from Maker's Mark Whiskey. Came with the wax and the seal. Everyone to whom I write thinks I am a sot.


edited for my drunken spelling

Click to view attachment

If you are having difficulty, here are the instructions for using a wax seal.

That seal looks very similar to my seal:

I haven't gotten into seals because I have yet to recieve one that made it through ok. The ones on the outside are either gone entirely or half missing. Even ones on the inside are often just crumbs.
Do y'all have any better way of protecting them? I'm going to look into the flexible ones.
skyp

I used to get the kind with the wick, but I recently read that a mini-torch is the best way to melt the wax bars without the wick.

http://www.jherbin.com/sealing_wax_tutorial.shtml

- R

It's going to depend upon the sealing wax that you use. "Traditional" sealing wax (some of J.Herbins, the stuff from Michael's, some others) is not necessarily postal machine friendly and there very well may be crumbles and grumbles. This is because some of these formulas were around long before postal sorting machines or are hand-canceled. They are better used inside with correspondence and protected by the envelope and letter/invitation. This doesn't mean it will get through the machines, it just has a better chance that way.

Use a wax that is specifically designed to hold up through the postal system - flexible waxes - and they may or may not be "faux" wax. Atelier Gargoyle is one of these flexible waxes. There was a review of this wax some time ago in the review forums. I use Atelier Gargoyle all the time. J.Herbin also makes a flexible wax, you just need to make sure you are selecting the correct wax from them, as they have several formulas and not all are postal machine friendly. (Altelier Gargoyle is an authorized vendor for J.Herbin waxes.) Just a note here, that some of these flexible waxes (Atelier Gargoyle) adhere to the paper so well, that you aren't likely to break the seal or separate it from an envelope when opening it. Letter openers are our friends.

And here is a link at Atelier Gargoyle that goes into a little more explanation about how to use sealing wax: sealing wax FAQs and How To's

Yes, every letter I send out is accompanied by a wax seal.

I use the Atelier Gargoyle flexible wax, and it seems generally to make it through the mail intact.

Traditional wax often does not fare well, even when the seal is on the paper inside the envelope - it can get crushed, and the recipient gets a letter with a red (or whatever) stain on it and a bunch of wax crumbs in the bottom of the envelope.

This is by design - traditional wax is a tamper-proofing mechanism; it is designed to be brittle and break if manhandled, so that any measure capable of opening a letter would also damage the seal, and the recipient knows the letter has been opened.

(Flexible wax, incidentally, still serves this purpose to some extent -- it's not difficult to steam open most envelope glues and then re-seal them, but I'll bet it's still considerably more difficult to open and reseal the wax seal (or bypass it somehow) without the tampering being evident.)

Yeah, those presume that you CAN "light the taper." Mine don't have a wick ...

Check my post above - it's got a link to instructions on how to use the non-wick variety...

- R

Yeah I saw that. But I've tried it and it doesn't seem to work as handily as they report. You're supposed to just "hold over flame" and let the softened wax "drip through the flame." This causes flaming fireballs of death. I don't think that's what they had in mind.

May I ask something of the more knowledgeable in this field?

But may standard candle-wax be used for seals? Light a candlestick, drip a few blobs onto some paper and then slap on a seal at an appropriate time. Does that work?

It's very brittle when dry and will likely only leave a stain on the paper and crumbs of wax. The postal process bends letters quite a bit and standard candle wax won't fair well.

- R

I found that standard sealing wax doesn't fare any better ... I think the "flexible" stuff is essentially the only thing that will run through the postal machines on a standard flat letter envelope any more.

A fellow Ambassador here on FPN?? Who'd have thought! Well, I guess when one likes the finer things in life, they like ALL the finer things. Good to see you, brother. If you happen to come to Redheads and Thoroughbreds sometime, or your barrel opening, give me a yell. [/OT]

Well what do you know. I guess it really is no surprise to have a fellow Ambassador on FPN. Trust me, if I make the trip I'll look you up. (I will of course expect some of that hospitality for which you southern folks are known) Since we've already hijacked the thread, have you tried Four Roses? Someone gifted me some of the single barrel 100. Superb. Probably more superb since you can't get it anywhere but Kentucky, and more importantly, it was a gift.

Here's my method. Use a lighter or candle flame or minitorch but hold the wax above the heat and let it soften but not bubble or burn. when it starts to drip remove heat and let it drip onto the paper. Repeat a s necessary but the more time the better change of hardening of the wax on the paper. I sometime freshen the wax on the paper with a lighter.

Kurt

And I'm waiting for my barrel opening as well. Don't know if I will be able to attend

"Authentic Models" makes a brass spoon & alcohol burner set designed specifically to melt sealing wax. I agree about the sticks with the wicks, I'm not very fond of them either, which is why I like the "faux" was so much. I've also found that, to keep the seal from sticking to the wax - no matter what kind, if you sort-of "paint" the end of the seal with a colored marker (NOT a Sharpie or indelible ink type), it comes loose very easily. It also adds a depth to the pattern of the seal.

So am I right in assuming that I can use standard melted candle-wax as sealing-wax for letters & etc?

If you mean the kind of candles you light around the house, no, those won't work. They are a different kid of wax.

I have been using sealing wax on and off for years. The technique I use I got off of a movie of all places (a man for all seasons). What I do is hold the stick of wax over a candle and rotate it slowly so it doesn’t drip into the candle. When it seems to be starting to get liquidy I bring it over to the item to be sealed and rather than let it just drip I actually push it lightly down into the paper and twist it when I remove it. This way I get a good blob of wax on the spot. Then it is just a matter of a quick press from the seal and voila.

With this method you don't have to let the wax burn or get smokey nor do you have to go back and forth a lot and risk getting wax where you dont want it. I don't know how it works with every wax out ther, but with what I am using (it says "Aladine" on it) the process seems to work flawlessly.

Try breathing on the seal just before you press it into the wax. Similar to how you'd clean a set of glasses. You just need a vapor barrier (not much moisture is needed at all) to prevent the metal from binding to the wax. I do this with all my seals and it works great.

You can Pam the seal-head too. That lasts ten or twenty impressions, roughly.

Yup, cooking spray works if you are doing a lot (i.e. holiday cards or invitations) though it can leave an oily residue on the wax which can transfer to the paper. I usually set the seal on an ice cube when I have a lot of impressions to make. It cools seal, which can get hot depending on the metal and temperature of the wax, and it provides a vapor barrier without any additional effort.

Are you allowed to use any coat of arms in the US?
I think coats of arms only belong to a single person in Scotland so what's often called a family/clan coat of arms often really belongs to a single lord. Well, it's a bit more complicated wrt sons or other close family members, iirc, but that's the basic idea.

Yes, the U.S. has no heraldry rules per se. There is a federal agency that generates them for official uses, but they do not regulate use by non-governmental bodies. You are free to use family arms or any non-copyrighted design you desire for yourself or your business.

My goodness. I'm not the only one to use a seal! Now that's a turn up for the books.
I use a plain Stuart & Houghton 'R'.

Regards

Richard.

In the USA, I would not be able to use a coat of arms or other emblem that represents a foreign head of state (e.g., kings, queens, princes, presidents etc), but beyond that, I could use whatever I want. However, a claimant owning a recognizable right to a coat of arms might seek to stop me through trademark (or possibly even copyright) infringement depending on what I was doing with it and what he was doing with it. But personal use is pretty much fair game.

I submit that a claimant to certain heraldry originally granted by the College of Arms to his ancestral family in Colonial Virginia would fail in the USA to enforce an exclusive right of use today. General Motors would have a better chance to defend their Cadillac coat of arms! (If the claimant's Tory ancestors fled Virginia for England and the claimant now makes his claim in the UK for use in the UK, that's a different question altogether).

Fred

Thank you.
I don't suppose many people would bother taking you to court in this country if you only used their arms in personal correspondence either, even if they did happen to see it.

Where does one get a seal? And more to the point, where does one get a seal made?

Depends what you are looking for specifically:

If you just want your initial(s) or a clip art design (bell, heart, xmas tree, &c), do a quick Google search. You'll get results from places like Scribes Delight, who can order you a 1, 2 or 3 initial seal for around $50.

If you want your arms, you can get a fairly low detail single relief one done up by places like Design Studio Ltd for in the neighborhood of $75-200.

If you want a detailed rendering of your arms: variable relief, intricate detail, modified to your requirements, you should check out Dexter Engraving. They'll be happy to call you from the UK and render your seal in the precious metal of your choice as either a signet ring, seal, earrings, or pretty much whatever you like. Their low end work starts around $300 and high end work done in solid titanium can run you over $2000 pretty quickly.

eBay also has a fairly broad set of seals at any one time. Clip art ones are usually pretty reasonable, signets and such less so and old official seals like Third Reich government seals go for astronomical prices.

It all really depends on your use for your seal and if you want it to be an heirloom or just a fun touch for your Christmas cards.

Now you're talking! I have one, my initial, that I bought about 20 years ago (cough, cough). I believe that J. Herbin sell them new, but only stock designs. If you want one made to order I have no idea where to go - but would be very interested to find out where it can be done if anyone knows.

- R

EDIT: Concurent message there, thanks for the info!

- R

I was actually thinking about having my website logo produced as a seal. It's a pretty low-detail image, so it would work well.

For now I will probably just get a Gothic E or something.

-Eric.

I was wondering if anyone uses them in the UK? And is it possible to have a wax seal that is too thick, and would cost extra postage on your letter?

Thanks.

It is possible, at least in the U.S., to have a seal get you the letter surcharge (currently $0.17). If the seal is either too thick or too broad and inflexible, either of which will render it non-machinable and get you charged. In practice though, I've never had any of mine awarded a surcharge or returned. I haven't heard of my UK correspondents receiving flack for my seal either, though I guess they could if the Royal Mail wanted to make an issue of it.

In response to your questions: Yep & Yep.
If the seal takes the overall letter thickness to more than 5mm it becomes a large letter & therefore attracts a large letter postage fee.
I have to confess I have no idea how intact the seal is when it arrives, as I don't feel the need to post the notes I write to myself, for some reason.

Regards,

Richard.

And at £1 handling plus the postage excess you don't want to try it out.