Wax writing tablets were very popular in Rome and Ancient Greece. Paper was extremely expensive so the Romans would write on wax tablets instead. The tablet is made of wood and has a thin layer of bees wax on which the Romans could write. The tablets were normally tied together by drilling two small holes in the side of the tablet and tying them together. I will include more on that in another post.
**Please note these instructions use sharpe implements, power tools and hot was so should not be completed unless an adult is present and safety precautions are taken.
**Please note these instructions use sharpe implements, power tools and hot was so should not be completed unless an adult is present and safety precautions are taken.
Making the Wooden Tablet
The tablet pictured above measures 12cm x 22cm. I used a piece of plywood that I already had going spare but you can use many types of wood. The wood is really a container for the molten wax so you need something that is not going to bend and something not to porous. The other thing to consider is that you only need a thin covering of wax, so you don't need a very deep piece of wood. My plywood is 1/2cm thick.
Finally sorry for any confusion as the hands you are going to see are male - I couldn't make the tablet and take photos at the same time so some of the hands you see will be more masculine than others!
Finally sorry for any confusion as the hands you are going to see are male - I couldn't make the tablet and take photos at the same time so some of the hands you see will be more masculine than others!
You need to measure a line inside the outer edge of the wood. This will give you a line to cut up to, allows the tablets to be connected and also allows you to handle the tablet without touching the wax. We drew a line 1cm in from the outer edge
There are a couple of ways to hollow out the wood inside the lines. Whichever way you use you should make sure the wood is clamped firmly to a sturdy surface. You can use a chisel to shave the wood away, you don't need to go very deep and ALWAYS cut away from yourself and your hands. The method we will be using will be a router which is a cutter with a spinning head.
The router will cut away the wood we don't want but it will create dust, so wear a mask and keep your hands on the router not on the wood
I think you can just about see from the detail of the hollowed wood that we only cut about 2mm into the wood. The surface was a little rough so we gave it a quick sand to remove any larger pieces of wood but you don't want to make the surface smooth as the wax needs to stick to it.
Preparing the Wax Surface
Once you have prepared the wooden tablet you need to fill it with hot wax. I used beeswax, which is traditional but I can't see a problem with you using old candles or wax crayons (just make sure they are wax and break them up a bit before you melt them).
I ordered a block of beeswax from the internet, which was readily available and not very expensive, you can buy it in granules but if you buy a block cut it up a bit prior to melting.
I ordered a block of beeswax from the internet, which was readily available and not very expensive, you can buy it in granules but if you buy a block cut it up a bit prior to melting.
A couple of years ago I picked up a double boiler in a charity shop which is very handy for melting the wax. If you don't have one you can use a bowl over a pan of water or, with careful supervision, the microwave. Whatever you use remember that the wax gets very hot, and makes a mess so you don't want your best saucepans and you do want something you can handle safely
If you are using a boiler remember that the water goes in the bottom section and the wax goes in the top
Once you have the water and wax in the boiler put it on your hob and apply a gentle heat, you want to melt the wax slowly.
There are many how to posts on the internet that tell you just to use beeswax, and you could do that. However, the Romans would colour their wax using soot, as this made the writing easier to see. You can, if you really want to be traditional, gather your own soot - I will be posting a how to on that soon. However, I used lamp black, which is soot and is used by artists as a pigment to make their own materials. Again its readily available on the the internet.
There are many how to posts on the internet that tell you just to use beeswax, and you could do that. However, the Romans would colour their wax using soot, as this made the writing easier to see. You can, if you really want to be traditional, gather your own soot - I will be posting a how to on that soon. However, I used lamp black, which is soot and is used by artists as a pigment to make their own materials. Again its readily available on the the internet.
Once all of the beeswax is melted I added a spoon of lampblack and gave it a good stir. You can test the colour by taking a small drop of the hot wax and putting it on a cold plate, it will set quickly and you can see if it is dark enough. Once you are happy you need to pour the wax into the tablet.
Pouring the wax was the most difficult thing for me. If you pour slowly, as I did, the wax goes hard and doesn't form and even surface. However, it is quite easy to scrape out and re-melt. I understand that the Romans had a knife that they used to scrape the surface of the wax to make it smooth, I did try something similar but it didn't help. In the end I found that the best way to achieve a smooth surface was to heat the tablet in a microwave, carefully, to melt the wax and then let it smooth itself out. But remember the wax is really hot and it will burn.
The Romans would use a special stylus to write on the wax, one end of which was used as an eraser, I will post a tutorial showing how to make these shortly. However, I wrote on my tablet using a pencil which worked very well.
I will look at other methods of making wax tablets and post any information over the course of the project.
I will look at other methods of making wax tablets and post any information over the course of the project.