Sealing bearing edges with any kind of wax

bermuda said:

Agree about maiking the edges smoother for tuning, but not necessarily for any sealing properties. Howard's Feed-N-Wax Wood Polish & Conditioner is ideal and easy to find, $6 or 7 buys a lifetime supply.

Bermuda

Click to expand...

Bermuda, do you this to polish on the whole shell including the bearing edge for cleaning as well? thanks. Is this the stuff?

I treated my whole drumset with multiple coat of tung oil and it does a wonderful job for protecting wood shell against humidity. I covered my bearing edge with tung oil too after after a 48 hours drying time I used a thin layer of simple candle wax on the bearing edge before fitting all my new heads. IMO, it did improve the overall sound of my kit (more open & resonant).

Here's a post about the procedure I used for the tung oil treatment.

http://drummerworld.com/forums/showpost.php?p=409749&postcount=20

keep it simple said:

We don't use wax to "glue" the head to the edge. Doing so would be counter productive to the drum's performance. The amount of wax left on the edges is minute, & dries to a hard shiny finish. The only sealing action it has with relation to the heads is filling in any tiny indentations that naturally occur in wood, especially if end grain is exposed. When we apply the wax, it's buffed off again within moments.

Click to expand...

Ah ok. Yeah that's my mind hard at work picturing how things would work in real time lmao!

I guess "bond or adhere" the head to the edge would a bit better of a term to describe what I'm thinking or seeing in my mind. I'm thinking with the head being in contact with the edge better you may get a better result in tone with less overtones but with as much movement as there is with a drum head, especially on 13" toms and bigger I don't think it would stay in contact with the bearing edge as much as I am thinking it WOULD with a substance that helps to adhere it to the bearing edge. You obviously don't want to glue a head onto the bearing edge with actual glue but with wax or something like that it would help to hold it against the edge if enough was applied.

Enough rambling for me haha!

Has anyone tried Minwax polishing wax? That was the only thing available between Walmart and Lowes ...I tried it on a few of my renown drums. I did notice they were easier to tune. I also noticed the g plus heads on top are shitty.hm

I have never bothered to use any type of wax on the edges of my drums to seat new heads because I see no need for it. When a drum has been played for a while the bearing edge begins to wear in. During this process the wood absorbs polymers from the Mylar drum heads that have been constantly running back and forth over the bearing edges. This residue of polymers provides the needed lubrication for the next set of drumheads that are installed, and so on. and so on...
During the days of calf skin heads things were different and wax was needed to help seat heads, but that is not the case today.

bobdadruma said:

I have never bothered to use any type of wax on the edges of my drums to seat new heads because I see no need for it. When a drum has been played for a while the bearing edge begins to wear in. During this process the wood absorbs polymers from the Mylar drum heads that have been constantly running back and forth over the bearing edges. This residue of polymers provides the needed lubrication for the next set of drumheads that are installed, and so on. and so on...
During the days of calf skin heads things were different and wax was needed to help seat heads, but that is not the case today.

Click to expand...

Bob's correct. If the edge is good, there's no need to use anything to seat the head. Remember, we apply a very thin layer of wax to new edges, then buff it all off again. What's left behind is a micro thin coating & hard surface, not some seating goo who's purpose is to deform sufficiently to make up for a bad edge. It's benefits are to aid initial movement of the head over the edge during tuning, & to smooth out the tiny pores/indentations most commonly in end grain. If it didn't have a benefit on our drums, we wouldn't use it.