On Tue, 20 Jan 2009 23:44:40 +0000
Tim S wrote:

Samantha Booth coughed up some electrons that declared:

I have been watching "How Clean Is Your House". In the programme they
melted in the microwave some Beeswax to polish some old furniture. It can
be heated over a pan of hot water too they said.

I ordered some from eBay and have a problem.

When I do that and leave it to go cool it goes rock hard. What do I need
to add to it to make sure the beeswax stays soft so I can use it. I am
sure they added some kind of oil to it?? Maybe wrong but they said it was
the best way to polish old furniture.


Thanks Sam

The stuff I got was a blend of beeswax and canauba wax which seems to work
quite well from the tin (being sold as furniture polish). Given the pungent
odour, I suspect it has some solvent in it as well to keep it soft. It
certainly goes on as a paste, and then becomes harder and harder as it's
polished, which suggests to me a solvent is evaporating off.

It sounds like Sheila's turps suggestion might be on the money.

Cheers

Tim


Carnuba wax is even harder tha beeswax when the solvents have gone.
Don't get taken in by all this 'feeding the wood' crap, what a wax
does is to seal the pores so that the wood doesn't dry out. Despite
being hard it still wears away.

The best commercial waxes that I know are Liberon's Black Bison range. I
use a lot of this in my workshop. The one you'd want is the 'natural'.
The smell of the solvent goes in four or five days, some love it, some
hate it.

R.