If he was pointing out the moisture to you, he was putting you on.
Other posters have told you why.
I use beeswax regularly to finish "traditional" products that I have
when I demonstrate to the public. There are at least two ways to do it:
1. Heat the metal just enough to melt the beeswax and cause it to flow
evenly onto the work. I'd usually rub it with a rag during this
process. It leaves the finish pretty much the same color as it was
before I started.
2. Heat the metal up to soemwhere between 300° and 500° or so, F.
Then rub the piece of beeswax onto the part. At this temp, some of the
volatiles in the beewax start to vaporize. This is really evident if
the part is hot enough so the beeswax ignites when applied. Anyway,
this "richens" the carbon content of the beeswax. That raw carbon is
"baked on" to the part along with the liqufied components of the beeswax
that didn't volatilize and produces what I call "black blacksmith paint".

Pete Stanaitis
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Jay Pique wrote:

I saw a guy going over some hot-rolled steel bar with a blow torch
recently. When I asked what he was doing he said he was evaporating
the moisture from it. Sure enough - I watched it myself. The process
is that he'll fabricate the chair, blow torch the whole thing, then
rub beeswax all over it. Seems pretty labor intensive. I'm wondering
if we couldn't just put the whole dozen chairs in our wood kiln for a
few days and achieve the same effect. Any thoughts?

(Note: our kiln has a dehumidifying unit, but only reaches temps of
maybe 100F.)

JP
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Also posted to rec.woodworking.