It was Palm Sunday and the palm frond crosses naturally led this
woodturner to musing about the "queen of waxes", carnauba. (not during
the sermon or liturgy, Darrell).

Being botanically deprived (aka ignorant), I wondered if the hard, shiny
waterproof fronds of the coconut, sabal, royal and palmetto palms
hereabout contained a cheap & dirty substitute for carnauba wax. Not
knowing any better, I gathered a few fronds, including some mother in
law tongues and sea grape leaves to boot.

I thought about trying to dissolve the 'wax', but the solvents are too
nasty, I planned to freeze some samples and try to scrape the 'wax' off,
but so far I'm too lazy. What I did was to cut 1 in. strips about 8 in
long. and press them hard enough against rotating mahogany and cherry
spindles to get them hot.

They did make a hard glossy surface that beaded water, but that may have
been due to simple burnishing. Anyway the strips didn't stain the wood,
but may have added naught to the finish that a Beall buff wouldn't do
better.

If any of you turners in the lands of the outstretched palm (the trees,
not the hands of waiters and car parkers hustling for a tip) have tried
'palm frond finishing' or are inclined to try it please respond. If the
fronds don't work, we can burn them for next year's Ash Wednesday. Waste
not, want not. eh?


Turn to Safety, Arch
Fortiter


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