I only have to re wax my water traps about every 5 years now.They have an extremely black hard blue on the metal that wont come off from years of hot blue in the tagalder soup.
I’ve used the regular black logwood die. Your alder soup, do you just chop up a bunch or do you take the ends with the stuff hanging off?
Haven’t tried waxing yet, my burner is only off on on full bore. I should really cut a regulator in line.
My 750s are just a couple light coats of some kind of non petroleum spay paint.
I cut off the tag alder branches about pinkie thickness in september with the leaves and catkins attached and make a pile beside the boiler.Then I chop them up into about 1 foot lengths as needed to fit in my boiling barrel which is a half a 205 liter (45 gal) drum with a lid.
I line the bottom with about 6 inches of alder then the traps,then cover traps with another 6 inches of alder and fill with water.
Light a good fire in the evening under the barrel so it gets to a good rolling boil,then let the fire burn out. Leave the traps soak overnight. In the morning light up the fire again so the traps boil again.Have your wax ready on an outdoor woodstove or heated with a propane burner to hotter than 212,just before it starts smoking is good.
Once your traps are boiling good in the morning take them out and wax right away.Replace more traps in the boiling drum,cover with fresh mat of alder and let them boil til the fire goes out,then let them sit all day and repeat in the evening.
I just keep adding alder on top of the traps until all the traps are done,then dump the barrel and use the old boiled up pile of alder for a bon fire starter when it is all dry.
I do this at camp in sept or early oct when I am out at camp doing all the other chores for the upcoming season,like cutting next year firewood,maintaining trails,getting trap locations ready working on stuff around camp etc.
Doing taps in the morning and evening by the fire is not really extra work.Its kind of relaxing actually after doing the more physical stuff during the day.