Sticking Salve

 As part of the Nessmuk ditty bag I created, there were two specific items I needed to create. Fixing wax, which I used as a substitute for shoemakers wax, and Sticking Salve. 

Sticking salve is was a slave used by Nessmuk, and presumably by others during his time, for minor scratches, scrapes, and skin irritations. During my research I found several recipes for Sticking Salve, however none really included ingredients that would have been readily available during the mid 1850’s Most included vitamin E oil, eucalyptus, and various other ingredients which seemed to me would have been out of reach for Nessmuk. So I was left to my own devices on this.

I knew that the base would have been beeswax, with a few other simple ingredients that would have been readily available. My first go to was simply honey. It has been used for centuries or longer because of its medicinal, and preservative properties. 

I ruled out essential oils simply because they wouldn’t have been something the common man would have had at his disposal at the time. Also Nessmuk never once mentioned anything more exotic than Pennyroyal oil. However knowing that Pennyroyal oil could be toxic to humans I ruled this out for use on potentially open, or slightly healed wounds. 

My next ingredient choice was olive oil. It would have been available, and inexpensive even during the 1850’s. This seemed like a good choice since it is good for skincare and is still used today for that purpose.

I found the best consistency came from mix equal parts of beeswax, honey, and olive oil. The hardest part I found was in the dissolving and reconstituting of the salve. Simply melting the ingredients, and letting them cool together resulted in the ingredients separating. After all honey, beeswax, and olive oil have vastly different thermal properties. 

The best answer seemed to come from an old family drawing salve recipe. I poured the boiling mixture into warm water, and pulled it like taffy, and worked out any lumps I cam across with my fingers. I found that putting a light coat of olive oil on my hands kept it from sticking too much. 

It has been roughly 2 weeks since I made the Sticking Salve, and I have had the opportunity to use on several small cuts, and scrapes. So far it has worked very well. I had two very similar cuts on my right hand, one I treated with the Sticking Salve, the other I left untreated. The one treated definitely healed faster, and with no sign of infection or irritation from the salve. 

All in all, I would definitely recommend making a small batch of this for any bushcraft first aid kit. It does well, and will last very nearly forever.