Windowsill finish - I don't think I wanted to do that...

[Adrian]

I've stripped about 37 layers of pink in assorted vile shades of "Little Old Lady" off the bedroom windowsill, and thought I'd wax it to match the rest of the woodwork in the room. Looked bloody great, until we left the window open for the cat to come and go the other weekend. Yes, the bank holiday weekend. Came back to a small lake on the sill - which, when mopped up, took all the wax with it from a localised area.

Oh. Back to the drawing board.

It's Liberon Black Bison wax, and I want a similar semi-sheen to the wood.

What's my best bet? Rewax that bit then something else to keep the water off? Somehow strip all the wax off and refinish alternatively?

Thoughts, Gentlemen, please!

[Stuart Noble]

Remove the wax with white spirit and coarse wire wool. Leave to dry, and apply polyurethane varnish. Lightly sand the varnish when dry and re-wax. Rustins Liquid Plastic instead of polyurethane if water is going to be an ongoing problem.

[Adrian]

Stuart Noble (stuart [e-mail]) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I shall be having a strong word with the cat, and encourage her to close the window if the weather turns manky.

[meow2222]

Wiping on more wax is the easy option, as nothing else sticks to wax.

NT

[The Natural Philosopher]

I've had good results in this sort of thing on at least French polish/beeswax by using surgical spirits and simply rubbing it all over.

The finish dissolves in the spirits, and resets evenly.

A final buff with more wax brings it up..

[Lobster]

Erm... buy a catflap?

(apart from anything else, isn't there a security risk?)

David

[Adrian]

Lobster ( [e-mail]) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I'd really rather not. The doors are too damn nice & thick & lovely old wood to want to cut a hole in. Besides, the cat's too gormless to use it in preference to the window.

It's a first floor window, not ground floor.

Yes, there is a risk, of a ladder being used, but it's minimal, imho - our place is about a third of the size of every other house, and the 2cvs in the drive (compared to the Mercs & big 4x4s in all the other local drives) certainly go a long way towards saying "Well, you _could_ break in here, but you'll do a damn sight better elsewhere..."