In my experience, a brush (or roller) is considerably _more_ effective than hot-dipping.

Using a brush to apply beeswax at just barely above the melting temperature will cause most of the beeswax to build up on the rim of the foundation impression.  Done right, it looks like frosting on the rims.  The bees quickly draw that up into walls.

The prewaxed comb I bought one year (which had clearly been dipped) had a bit of wax on the rims (and top-bars, sides, etc) but most of the wax ends down in the bottom of the impressions.  When I scraped down one of those frames a year later, the wax at the bottom was basically untouched.

Note:  I don't think this was an issue of temperature or quality control.  I think it's inherent to the dipping process.  Surface tension will tend to pull the liquid wax away from where it's needed most.  With brushing, the wax hardens before it has a chance to move.

Mike Rossander

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