The wax, butter and oil calculator
Updated
Three percentages summing to one hundred, with everything else taken out of that hundred rather than added to it.
The arithmetic
Decide the batch weight in grams. Decide wax, butter and oil as percentages summing to 100.
Multiply each by the batch weight and divide by 100. Those are your three weights.
Flavor, color and vitamin E come out of the oil share, not on top, or the ratio you tested is not the ratio you made.
Worked example
A 300 g batch at 35 percent wax, 30 percent butter, 35 percent liquid oil, with flavor at 1 percent and vitamin E at 0.5 percent.
Wax: 105 g. Butter: 90 g. Flavor: 3 g. Vitamin E: 1.5 g. Liquid oil: 105 g minus 4.5 g = 100.5 g.
Total 300 g. The oil is the balancing line because it is the most forgiving.
At a standard tube this fills roughly 60 to 70 units depending on the tube, which is a number to establish by filling rather than by calculating.
Adjusting one number
Too soft: wax up 2 to 3 points, oil down the same. Too hard: the reverse.
Drag: hold the wax, move 3 to 5 points of the oil to castor or jojoba.
Graining: this is not a ratio problem. Fix the melt and the cooling first, and change the butter second.
One change per remake, written down, or you will not know which one worked.
Substituting a wax
Not by weight. Candelilla for beeswax usually needs about half to two-thirds the amount, carnauba less again.
Make a 100 g test batch at the substituted level, pour four tubes, and check hardness next day and graining in two weeks before committing a production batch.