Paragon Wax

Welcome bytor. That runny consistency doesn't sound right to me. The folks at Iwan Ries are very helpful, and one of the few companies that sell Paragon Wax, so they should know. In any event, please come back with whatever you learn. I'm keen to know about it myself. (You might just experiment with the wax on a old pipe.)

I know this is a bit of an old topic, but I have just received 2 x 1oz jars of both Paragon and Halcyon II.
I used a Peterson SS 313 smooth to try the Paragon and a Peterson SS 364 to try the Halcyon II.
Putting the Paragon onto a smooth finish pipe is a dream. You do not need to use very much at all to give the whole pipe, including the stem and nickel mount. Be very very sparing. I left it to dry off for 5 minutes and then it polised by hand with a normal household duster cloth. The results are as good as buffing with Carnauba Wax, but with a lot less time and effort.
The Halcyon II was a little more difficult to apply, but no more than I expected since the problem lay in the rusticated finish and how to apply it evenly. I overcame this by using an old soft bristled toothbrush. Again, be very very sparing. After leaving it to dry for 5 minutes I then used a very soft natural bristled boot brush, making sure I brushed into all the nooks and crannies. I then finished off with a soft cloth. As with the Paragon, the results were very good indeed and infact better than using Carnauba wax and a mechanical buffer.
Remember:

Paragon - smooth pipes

Halcyon II - rustic/sandblast pipes
Overall impressions.

For speed and ease of use they are remarkable. Whilst the finish on the smooth pipes are similar, you don't get quite the same depth of shine as you do with Carnauba. As for Halcyon II, it far outstrips any mechanical methods of putting a shine on a pipe. You can get the wax onto the whole surface and you get no residual build up of wax as you do when you use Carnauba.

I will definitely use Halcyon II on all non-smooth pipe finishes from now on. As for the Paragon, well, if I have the time I will use Carnauba wax and mechanical buffers, however, if I have a quick job to do I'll use Paragon.
If you have no means of mechanically buffing your pipes, you can do no better than these two waxes. They are so easy to use and produce a very good finish.

I wonder if this stuff puts a protective coating on the pipe like carnauba boes or is it just for shine

Thanks for the report, Mark. I've been promising to try the Paragon for a long time and never got around to it.
Jim, if one can believe the advertising hype...

Paragon has a melting point of 228 degree F., 36% higher than carnauba alone and 11% higher even than Halcyon II. Thus it is highly resistant to heat. It forms a thin, flexible yet tough coating on the surface of the wood, a coating that is just under 30% harder than carnauba. Thus it resists abrasion from handling, repels moisture, and is far more effective in preventing oxidation, especially important for stems. It gives a deep, rich shine that is equal or superior to carnauba without a buffing wheel.

Click to expand...

I shall repost here once I have smoked my two pipes and let you have the results.

I bought both the Paragon and HalcyonII and thought the same thing about the consistency being a bit on the oozy side when I was expecting a "hard" wax. I just stirred it up on rubbed it on, buffed up nice on both types of finishes. I like the old soft toothbrush for the rough finishes. My only thought on the formulation is to allow an easy application by hand, as opposed to hard waxes applied to a buff wheel and then transfered to the pipe using friction to melt the wax on.

I just ordered some of both off ebay. I got the Halcyon II for less than $8 shipped and the Paragon for less than $10 shipped. I saw some flannel cloths at the dollar store and plan on picking those up to buff the pipes. I will let you guys know how it goes and please any tips would be most helpful.

I had bought a bench grinder to convert but it was too high of RPMs and the adjustable router I bought to control the speed did not work. I hope this works out better for me. Also, how do you guys suggest cleaning the pipe before waxing? I have some pipes that have crud on the outside and such.

Dang if it is that easy, I should have gotten this stuff along time ago!

Actually if you buy both from the guy on Ebay you can get them for less than $16 for each. He refunded $1.50 off shipping on one of them as I bought both.

The consistency of the of the wax in the package is due to volatile carriers. Simply put, it's some kind of solvent that flashes off after you apply the wax to the pipe leaving behind the nice hard, hard to melt wax.

wallbright, the "guy" in question, Sam, is actually the owner of finepipes.com, the creators of these waxes. Nice guy, too. I ordered one small jar of each off ebay and he sent 2 of the paragon by mistake. I emailed him through ebay, explained the problem, offered to send the other jar of Paragon back to him, and he just sent the Halcyon 2 free of charge. So I basically got a free jar of PAragon out of the deal. When my jar get low, though, I'll be buying from finepipes.com...
-Jason

Wallbright, all the articles I've read about buffing suggest a very low speed. Even the variable speed buffer/grinder on ebay turns 2000rpm which everyone seems to say is too fast. Most suggest a Foredom that can be turned way down. I tell you this now because I just bought a little Foredom off ebay last week. It came in Sat and is the cutest little addition to the workbench. Now I'll get some old beatups cheap to practice on, before I ruin a good piece of wood.

So what is a Foredom jcsnaps? I am curious
I was thinking of getting somethingLIKE THIS.

Well if you buy a adjustable speed bench grinder you can add a speed router control device and get the RPMs down. The problem I had is it was an induction motor so the router speed control device does not work. I would rather get this wax as I would have to buy waxes to buff anyways so in the long run this seems to be cheaper.

That one is a little high Jeremiah but I suppose it would still work. I think you want between 1000-1500 RPMs.