# Crystalline Vs Wax Paper (Packaging)



## donniej (Aug 3, 2009)

I can find perfect sized crystalline bags, but they're no different from paper and I worry about them sitting in humid environments (like steamy bathrooms).  Wax paper is of course very easy to find but wax paper bags of the correct size (1/4 pound) don't seem to exist.  Today I spent a few hours comparing the properties of (cheap store brand) wax paper and crystalline paper.  

First I took a small sheet of both and ran some water over it, a slow stream of cool tap water...  same flow rate and same duration.  The wax paper beaded the water right off, the crystalline turned to mush.  I repeated this a few times with the same results.  Later I "scrunched up" the wax paper into a ball and flatened it back out.  The previously-crinkled wax paper acter like the crystalline.

It's interesting that in the early 1900's a house wife revolutionized the potato chip (and other) industry when she found that with a typical iron you can make wax paper into a water-tight bag by simply melting the outside perimiter together.  Knowing this from the History Channel (    ) I decided to try the same with my packaging.  After some trial and error I had 2 nicely fused wax-paper packages with a bar of soap inside each.  I also had one in a crystalline bag.  I dunked the crystalling bag sample into a pale of water for about 1 second and it immediately soaked through.  The wax paper bag, though not completely water-tight, did not deteriorate and only let a couple drops of water in... no doubt from my amatuer melted seams.  BTW, to melt the wax paper I found a frying pan of about 200*F worked well.  Keep the wax paper on it for ~5 seconds and then put it on a countertop to resolidify.  

Next was my humidity test.  I have a tank which is always 100% humidity inside for just such tests.  I put the other wax paper packaged soap into the tank and left it there at 100% humidity and ~90*F for about an hour.  After which some small spots at the creased edges had began to leak.  

I think it's pretty conclusive that wax paper works great as long as you don't crease it, which is a problem with a square bar of soap.  I'm hoping I can find "heavier" wax paper to experiment with, I hope it creases better.  

Lastly, I put samples of wax paper, crystalline and plain-old printer paper under my microscope.  Unfortunately my micrometer (measures thickness) was packed away and I couldn't find it.  I'm guessing that the crystalline paper is ~.001" to .002" (thousandths of an inch) thick where the wax paper is ~.003" to .004".  Both let much more light through than the printer paper but otherwise they all looked nearly identical at 40x and 400x... but at 100x there was a very distinct difference.  At 100x you could clearly see a layer of wax over the wax paper that was full of small air holes, which explains why it's hazy to try to look through.  These holes could not be seen at 40x or 400x.


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## carillon (Aug 4, 2009)

Love your insight.


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## xyxoxy (Aug 4, 2009)

I just bought a used vacuum sealer and I think I'm now going to HAVE to use it to try and make a wax paper soap bag.


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## donniej (Aug 4, 2009)

xyxoxy said:
			
		

> I just bought a used vacuum sealer and I think I'm now going to HAVE to use it to try and make a wax paper soap bag.



Great idea, let me know how you make out.


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## xyxoxy (Aug 5, 2009)

No dice...
The vacuum sealer barely stuck the wax paper together and it peeled right apart. I guess you would have to use a proper iron.


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## dandelion (Aug 6, 2009)

xyxoxy said:
			
		

> No dice...
> The vacuum sealer barely stuck the wax paper together and it peeled right apart. I guess you would have to use a proper iron.



There was an ideal posted as a tutorial on another forum, where someone used a simple $10 crimper from a craft store to create sealed edges on packaging similar to a potato chip bag.


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## xyxoxy (Aug 6, 2009)

I was planning to look into a crimper if I could get it to seal. I wonder if the crimper would actually seal the wax paper... I suspect not but I don't know.

I saw that tutorial and I believe she used one of those craft tapers to actually make it seal.


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## carebear (Aug 10, 2009)

try an impulse sealer?

what is crystalline paper?  is that the same as glassine?
cuz glassine is just that - paper, no wax or plastic.


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