U will have to experiment as to the ratio, I would say start with 10% paraffin.

I filled the cracks with butter ... we’ll see how it turns out. It’s certainly a handsome thing

butter will go rancid, I would recommend pushing lots of salt into the butter/cracks.

I am new to cheesemaking, but I have read on a few sites (Rikki Carrol’s for one) that paraffin is way to soft to use for cheesemaking and the cracks allow mold and moisture into your cheese.  Not something that you want to happen.  They do say that beeswax can be used with no worries.

Quote from her website “Our cheese wax is a special microcrystalline wax that will resist cracking and hold up to the daily bumps and bruises of aging cheese. The color of the wax makes no difference, but our “yellow” wax contains no colorant. Paraffin is much too soft and will readily crack during aging, allowing molds to enter and grow on the cheese surface. Bees wax is nice but does not have the strength to survive aging unless handled carefully.”

I personally have used her wax many times over with no issues, yet.

Welcome Highlandmom.
Wax cracks not because its soft, but because its hard, paraffin is a hard wax.
best to buy the proper wax then recycle it, as long as its strained and pasteurized its fine to reuse.

Yes, I think it’s the brittleness of paraffin wax that makes it less than ideal. I have taken Neil’s advice and rubbed salt into the cracks ... they are hairline but obvious. I’m going to try and find the formula for cheese wax ... what, for instance, is crystalline wax ... i.e. how is it made?

crystalline wax

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcrystalline_wax

Interesting article, Neil. I contacted IGI in Toronto ... their minimum supply is 4,000 lbs at a time and they need a contract for 24,000 lbs per year to do business. That’s a lot of wax ...

LOL, like I said, better to just buy it and recycle. Still cheaper then Bees wax.