[Speedslug]

From what I have read here on LE, graphite can cause some glass to go muddy. I forget which ones or which thread I found that in.

My little bit of research on graphite turned up various qualities of it from right out of the ground to super high quality stuff that is made by vapor deposition. I take it the range covers uses from making homemade smelting pots to carbon arc electrodes to science equipment. I have read that new graphite should be washed with soap and water and towel dried. If it will leave a mark on your hands it will leave traces on your work.

I read that brass can be a little more "graby" and this lends it to moving the molten glass around. Also brass sucks the heat out of the glass and this can kick start crystal formation in some of the silver glasses like raku and such that leads to the wonderful color changes.

Glass that goes muddy with graphite can be worked with brass instead.

I think the bees wax runs a spectrum as well from food quality down to stuff that has twigs in it. For glass work I would go with the least expensive I could find. I would even look up local bee keepers as a source.