A new to me twist for Paste Waxing

[capncarl]

Most of my builds, Tiny Tables, Tiny Trees, Tiny Mushrooms and other period furniture is finished with hand rubbed paste wax. It’s not a finish for everyone and has a lot of limitations for household furniture, but it works for my applications. On my carved tress and mushrooms some of the hard waxes a pia to get a good gob on the rag and rub in the wood. I googled thinning techniques but was disappointed with he few actual results of the search. I did find a couple of notes about adding boiled linseed oil, I was searching for adding stain to wax though. Most of the search results were how to apply poly. I don’t like poly on my stuff.

I started experimenting with a can of Bowling Alley wax. It was as hard as a new candle, I don’t know how I had used 3/4 of the can. Mixing in several shot glasses of Boiled Linseed oil and mixing with a dinner fork I finally got the consistency to something a little soupier than creamy peanut butter. I like the way it applied using a rag dipped in the goo. It rubbed in well and I was able to polish it immediately. I re-buffed it again this morning and got a nice shine that was slightly less than the shine that regular paste wax gives. It doesn’t seem to show up the loss of shine after being picked up with bare hands, so I like it and hope it works out. Can’t wait to try it on a Tiny Table.

[leehljp]

Wax is a slippery slope! Sam Maloof and a few others created a concoction of 1/3 wax, 1/3 BLO and 1/3 "other". Some use 1/3 poly, some (I think) some used Tung Oil instead. Together each had a good finish.

I have tried the 1/3 before (years ago) and it did OK.

While not applicable with what you do, we often have some strong discussions on the pen forum as it pertains to wax on pens. Waxed wood really shows out the beauty of but 1. it wears off after a couple of days. 2. does not protect in the long run unless it is wiped cleaned and re-waxed at least weekly. There are a few fountain pen connoisseurs that will clean that regularly for their high priced pens, but most people will not.