Silicon or Wax best to keep the rain out ?

Have an old wax jacket (not a Barbour but a similar type copy from Aldi bought many years ago).

Its done a good job for years, but needs re-proofing a bit on the shoulders and arms.

I have some silicon funiture polish in a spray can and some Waitrose Wax furniture polish in a tin.

Wondering if either of them could usefully be called into service as opposed to lashing out on a purpose made tin of wax or silicon spray. Which i'm guessing might not really be that different from the two items i have already? Grateful for advice, thanks.

Reply to
J Stone
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You stand the Barbour wax tin in hot water and work the wax into the cloth with a sponge. It is finished off with a hair dryer. You might get a similar effect doing the same with a tin of good wax furniture polish, but Barbour Thornproof dressing only costs £10 a tin and isn't scented, as many furniture polishes are.

Colin BIgnell

Reply to
Nightjar

Diy silicon re-proofing, or proofing from scratch, involves dissolving silicone mastic in white spirit and painting it on. Ultra-cheap if you have a tent to do.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

Anything in a tin is almost certainly paraffin wax, so a candle would cost even less. You might need to add a little white spirit

Reply to
stuart noble

And using your surplus earwax would cost nothing. Paraffin wax gets brittle at even cool temperatures, so is unsuitable, and most furniture waxes are relatively hard waxes softened by some agent such as white spirit. They are also likely to get brittle as that evaporates.

Any tent or similar reproofer should work but, as always, watch out with white spirit and anything that might be made of many plastics (which includes any materials based on polyethylene or polypropylene).

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren

J Stone scribbled...

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might be cheaper

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If you're lazy

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Reply to
Artic

But earwax has no such solvents in, so does that mean it's perfect for the job?

Reply to
GB

Candles contain a hardening agent, such as stearin. You can buy unblended wax for candle making, but, for the small price difference, I would still be inclined to buy the proper cloth dressing wax.

Colin Bignell

Reply to
Nightjar

Actually, most furniture waxes are at least 75% paraffin, with varying amounts of beeswax and carnauba, the latter being exceptionally brittle and virtually insoluble in anything at room temperature. The only natural wax which is more flexible than paraffin is microcrystalline, but this is too cloudy for a polish. Might well be used for tents etc though.

Reply to
stuart noble

Soft or hard? Yellow or grey?

Reply to
polygonum

On the subject of economic use of wax, I was somewhat pissed off to see a single tin of ordinary shoe polish at two quid in Tesco. OK - don't actually need to buy it that often, but it seemed a lot. So I bought one from an ebay seller at £1.39 including postage. Arrived in two or three days and is fine.

(I know - surely wasted more than 61p worth of time and juice ordering it, etc.)

Reply to
polygonum

En el artículo , stuart noble escribió:

I'd been thinking about rubbing a white candle lightly over the soft top on my car to waterproof it, anyone see any drawback in doing this?

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

It isn't transparent, so it may give a cloudy appearance. A hair dryer would help it penetrate

Reply to
stuart noble

Not greatly. It doesn't melt properly until rather above the temperature of well-regulated hair-dryers, and doesn't flow well into most synthetic fabrics. Also, its brittleness at low temperatures will cause it to flake off; you can remove candlewax from clothing by freezing and flexing (and you don't need more than

-5 Celsius).

Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren

Interesting. I wonder if they are synthetic fibres. Finding something to cope with the extremes of temperature on a car roof might be a challenge.

Reply to
stuart noble

Almost certainly, unless the car is very old. No, it's not a problem in the UK, because both nylon and polyester can handle boiling point, and we don't get enough sun for even a black roof to exceed that.

Unless you park in the wrong place in London :-)

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Regards, Nick Maclaren.

Reply to
Nick Maclaren

As the efficiency of tent waterproofers, they probably work well, but beware, I tried to waterproof a hat using a well known spray after which the hat stank to high heaven :-(

Bill

Reply to
Bill Grey

I opened a tin today to find it gone hard. Is paraffin suitable to soften i t?

NT

Reply to
meow2222

In article , snipped-for-privacy@care2.com writes

Put the tin on the hob on a low heat, heat gently until the polish melts. Let it cool, and it'll have recovered its softness.

Reply to
Mike Tomlinson

or will have caught fire, or will have set harder than ever as more solvent will have evaporated

Reply to
stuart noble

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