Manual stainless steel press for cappings and wax

01 · COLD, AND THEREFORE SLOW

What it gains and what it costs

The honey is separated by pressure, and the press has no element and no water jacket: there is no heat input anywhere in the process. That is why it is used with delicate or high-value honeys, where HMF — the marker that gives away a heated honey — is a figure you look after.

The cost is time. A thick honey drains slowly when cold: you press, you leave it, you press again. It is not a button, it is a while — so put the bucket underneath and get on with something else.

02 · PRESSING IS NOT SPINNING

Plan for the filtering

Pressing drags through more wax and pollen particles than an extractor does, because you are squeezing the comb instead of emptying it. The honey comes out fine, but it comes out with more solids in suspension.

So count on one more step: filtering and settling before you jar it. If your destination is a premium jar, that is the work that sits between the press and the label.

03 · THE FIVE THINGS IT PRESSES

What it is actually used for

The usual job is freshly cut cappings, to recover the honey they carry away; and those same cappings once drained, because drying them before melting is what gives you clean wax.

Then there are combs of honeys that will not spin — heather, strawberry tree — so thick the extractor cannot get them out; and the slumgum left in the solar wax melter, which still has wax in it.

And outside beekeeping it presses fruit: apple, grape, pear. If you use it for that, wash it thoroughly before going back to honey — fruit sugars ferment and the aroma clings.

04 · THE BASKET AND THE OUTLET HEIGHT

The figures that matter

The perforated basket is Ø 25 cm and lifts out for emptying and washing; the screw folds back for easy loading, and a side lever locks the basket in one movement.

The sloping Ø 35 cm tray has its outlet 24.5 cm off the floor: that is the figure that decides which bucket fits underneath, so measure yours. The arched legs keep the whole thing steady on uneven floors.

05 · CAREFUL WITH BROOD COMB

A warning worth giving

You often read that it will handle combs that are part capped or that mix brood and honey. Mechanically that is true, but pressing a comb with brood in it puts larvae into the honey.

That honey is not fit to jar and sell: it goes to feeding your own bees. If the comb carries brood, cut it away first or give it another destination.

06 · BEFORE YOU BUY

This is the press: