Wot? Chemicals like acetic acid, sodium bicarbonate, citric acid? The term 'chemicals' doesn't equate with 'bad'. Unless its the deadly dihydrogen monoxide of course
No, just a qualification as an approved trainer for The British Institute of Cleaning Science.
And here is one recipe:
"To make wax polish melt 100 g of Purified Beeswax in a container. Remove from heat and stir in 100 ml of Liberon Pure Turpentine. Pour the liquid into a suitable sealable container (not plastic), seal and allow to cool before use. For a harder polish added 10 g of Liberon Carnauba Wax."
But you are talking about three different applications here. Surface finish, surface protection & surface maintenance.
Beeswax may well provide a pleasant finish, but it gives a very poor level of surface protection compared to a modern varnish or laquer. Try putting a hot cup of tea on a table with a wax finish.
Mr Sheen is a maintenance product, not a final finish. Beeswax is unsuitable for a quick wipe over to remove dust & isnt multi surface.
On a more practical note. If you don't have any silver dip handy, don't try to polish your silverware. Do something else instead - another day of tarnished silver won't kill you.
Beeswax does have unique properties visually (lustre I think they call it) but, used on its own, it's way too tacky . Normally combined with carnauba and paraffin wax to make the typical furniture wax
As others have remarked, you need a solvent. If you want to try a traditional recipe you might be interested in the following extract from the 1946 edition of "Charles Hayward's Carpentry Book". I make no claims for or against it's merits.
---8
Turpentine or white spirit IIRC.
Well after my wife ironed off the modern varnish on a table where the candle wax had ruined it, I prefer the old beeswax and french polish.
Every time she ruins that with watery coffee cups, I simply rub it hard with methylated spirits, and then add beeswax, and its perfect again.
exactly. Mr sheen simply is a dust grabber/mild solvent for a modern hard finish.
For trad, you need to use a wax. or if its shellac underneath, repair with ethyl alcohol (yes, I have used gin)
On the whole it's easier to buy this stuff ready made. It's not worth making your own unless you're doing a pound or two in a batch.
They're also highly damaging long-term. This electro-polishing hack is an abomination.
Silver Dip (thiourea inhibited with citric acid) has the great advantage of not being damaging to silver, even when you're cleaning considerable sulphide tarnish off it. OTOH, it's toxic. Sainsburys sell it, but not Tesco.
Funny thing is that my polishes (I can confidently claim to have a greater stock of assorted obscure polishes than most other posters, including Mary & Spouse) are made up by a "knowledgable & experienced chemist in a modern lab", and _he_ does them using ancient copies of the Chemical Formulary etc. out of beeswax and turpentine.
...and a dash of Ear of Bat, recycled toxic waste etc.
and pay the premium price because of its expensive advertising campaign on the telly.
Not everything you can buy in the supermarket is superior to the old fashioned way, some of it is snake oil (the problem is in telling which is which)
tim
That's horribly difficult to make up and really only worth it if you're making it by the ton and care about raw-material costs.
For home-made polishes, stick with beeswax as your main wax, hardened with carnauba or candelilla as necesary. But keep paraffin waxes and stearin well away, or the stuff will curdle and be impossible to apply smoothly.
Microwaxes can be useful too, but they're hard to obtain except in large quantities, hard to make up into an applyable polish, and you're better buying in Renaissance Wax ready made.
Andy Dingley coughed up some electrons that declared:
Most interesting - one for the archive :)
Pure Turpentine is the most appropriate solvent. Warm the wax up in a tin placed in hot water and add the turps once the wax has melted ( you don't want any naked flames about ). Aim for a 70% wax 30% turps mix initially. If, when cool, the wax is too runny just leave the tin open for a day or two - if too stiff, reheat and add a little more turps.
I make and use my own beeswax polish for use on instruments that require the use of only 'traditional' materials. To be honest it's not a very good polish. Sure, it comes up lovely with a good buffing but it's sticky and picks up fingerprints in no time at all. It will also pick up dust and grime and tends to sweat in the heat. A large part of my restoration work involves removing years of built-up beeswax polish that's full of trapped dirt - which typically results in a lovely bit of wood having its grain and colour masked by a grimy brown/black goo.
You can modify the mix slightly by blending in a little Carnuba wax ( which is rock hard when cool ) and a touch of non-drying oil - such as sweet almond. Bear in mind that these waxes are natural products and one lump of beeswax might be softer or harder than the next one ( and nearly always a different colour ). You will have to adjust your mixture appropriately.
A good beeswax finish requires a lot of time and effort, though you can speed things up a bit by applying it warm. You'll also need to top up the turps from time to time to keep the mixture supple.
If all that sounds like a lot of fuss and bother - it is. You'll get better and quicker results with a professionally made polish, such as those sold by Liberon or Renaissance. These polishes tend to be thinner ( they use better solvents and have additives that keep the mixture stable ) and are more accurately balanced in terms of wax and oil - and require a lot less elbow grease to apply. They also won't clog the wood quite so much, and can be easily applied to tricky areas such as corners and carvings.
Better still, remove any existing wax polish and replace it with an oil finish. Bare wood is an incredibly beautiful thing - even humble Pine has a grain that shimmers in the light, and a good bit of Oak is positively scintillating. Best of all, an oil finish allows you to touch the wood and feel its true texture.
Regards,
Dean Inge he say "There are two kinds of fool. One says 'This is old, and therefore good', and the other says 'this is new, and therefore better'."
....yet these ingredients are commonly used in "Modern polishes, hard surface cleaners & detergent sanitizers"
Almost all modern household cleaning products are pure spin and contain nothing new or improved. In many cases using products now banned by COSHH and other namby pamby legislation produce better results.
Even beeswax isn't what it used to be.
I'd agree with the recommendation to use these (esp. Liberon) for initial finishing work on new cabinetry. I still prefer beeswax for maintenance and cleaning use, particularly as most of my high-end work is repro in oak.
Renaissance (read Wikipedia) is an oddity though, as it is a different wax and not just a different solvent. I know there are people who swear by it on wood, but I can't say I've ever seen the point. Best thing for metals though.
For Briwax, there's also the issue that UK-spec wax uses toluene, whilst US-spec wax doesn't and isn't thought to be such a good wax.
Hmm. Despite all the ads showing grease etc on a cooker coming off with one wipe of a new magic product, I'd say they're much of a muchness. So all those chemists and labs don't actually seem to do a lot. The ad boys are more creative, though.
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