"sPoNiX" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 21:34:42 +0100, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

Does ayone still use it for lead work?

If so, what type and where do you acquire it?

Mary

From http://www.northwales.org.uk/g21/letters.htm


"It is possible to buy tallow in paper wrapped lumps from suppliers of
materials for making traditional paints, for example :-

....

Farrow and Ball,

I buy paint from F&B but I've never seen them offering tallow. One of the
colours in their range is 'tallow', we used it in one of our caravans.


[snip]

To make your own tallow, get some suet fat from the butcher. This is
the heavy thick white fat from inside the back bone of a bovine
carcass. It should be free. You then cut it up a bit to break down the
membranes, and melt it slowly in a large saucepan. A clear fat will
emerge, which can be strained to remove the fibres. You can refine the
fat, by adding a little water, and rendering it. Simply heat for a
while, then allow to cool. The mixture will separate into three
layers. The best tallow on the top, the stock in the middle, and the
solids at the bottom. Try it! - but don't blame me for the
smell......."

Look, forget all that about the smell. When you roast meat do you complain
about the smell? That's what tallow smells like.

And suet is the hard fat from round the kidneys of bovine or ovine animals.

And you don't get three layers and you don't need to ... oh heck, where did
you get this guff?

I've been processing tallow for years and make fine candles from it which
are in demand by museums all over UK. There's a lot of misinformation about.

Mary