Adam_GA

Hey all! I'm kinda new to candle-making, but still have a few dozen under my belt. Mostly I've been working on votives, but have made a few pillars (with varying degrees of success). Now that I'm getting into making more, I'm trying to figure out a good way to break up these 10-lb slabs of wax. What I'd like to do is find some way to easily measure out 1-lb or 2-lb sections; I've thought of shredding it, but standing there with a grater for hours just isn't appealing. Melting it and pouring it into a glass measuring cup is another idea I had, but I'm not sure the volume-to-weight ratio would be consistent. (Note: I am a bit of a nerd. You may have already figured this out.) What I'm doing now is, I think, the traditional method; breaking it up into chunks with a hammer and putting bits on a scale and taking them off until you get close enough to 1 lb. It makes a bit of a mess, though, and I can't help but think there must be a more efficient way. Am I overthinking it? Am I completely off-base? Am I asking the same questions that thousands of other newbies have asked through the millenia? Anyway, thanks for reading my little rant/question/introduction.