beeswax

So, All these things taken in their proper place ;) what's a prefered substance for putting a high gloss on wood handles? Or any other crafty wood work for that matter? I've got a hand carved maple wood katana that I did one day that I'd like to shine up nice to hang on the wall. I don't think I could scape out enough earwax to do the job ;)

GA

Ugh. Please, no. As a reasonably experienced woodworker, beeswax is not a good choice for a high shine, and olive oil goes rancid when used as a finish. Beeswax on wood is relatively soft and sticky, giving a low-luster shine that tends to pick up dust.

If you want a high shine, carnuba is the wax of choice - putting it on with a buff gets the best shine, but if your blade is sharp this might require some degree of cleverness in keeping all your fingers while buffing the handle. And it would be quite unsuitable for handle use (non-display), since shiny=slippery.

Likewise, Danish oil is not a finish suited to shiny. Lacquer (Deft in a spray can is the easiest workable stuff for low volume use) is good at shiny, and lacquer which is buffed (rouge, white diamond and carnuba wax

- on separate buffs) is far up on the high end of shiny. Shellac can also do shiny quite well.

The "finish" (and I use the term loosely) I prefer on wooden handles for use (saws, planes, hammers, mallets) is about 1/3 each carnuba, turpentine, and boiled linseed oil. I cheat and get the first two already mixed as bowling alley wax (no grit in that, unlike some other floor waxes). It has a good feel, and is less prone to causing blisters than the shiny finishes that sometimes come on manufacturered wooden handles.

I've been looking for a good handle finish for a while, this sounds like just the one. I've been so close!

Do you heat up the wax then mix in the BLO?

Eide

I prefer for handles more exotic woods like coco bolo, ironwood, even purpleheart. These woods buff up to a good shine without any kind of substance. Dont want to breath in the dust as you work them though. For crafty woodthings like intarsia and scrollsaw stuff (dont laugh now) I like good old gloss clear polyureathane varnish. If I want to add some color I do a satin varnish and stain, then a coat of clear gloss over it.

Maybe a local beekeeper :-) They have to strip the hives from time to time. They also sell wax as well as honey. If you don't know a beekeeper, the local AG rep for the county does or a local farm that uses them from time to time.

Martin

A good handle wax is one that is a little harder than bee. Bee is often used to coat metal as a protection....

I use floor wax. It is tough. Car wax is good and often very liquid as well.

These are harder to wear off waxes and polish to a high sheen due to the hardeners. I did some file handles on my wood lathe and used floor wax. Found in good hardware stores in the flooring area.

Martin

Carnuba wax? Never heard of it but I'll see if I can find it. I'm not set on using any one thing, just wanted to find something that works. Thanks for the tip! As for suitable for knife handles... I'm out to do display kind of stuff too and geometry can often make up for a too smooth texture. Hell, it's done all the time in the industry.

GA

Sounds like everybody's got their own method of getting the desired result :) As is normal and right.

GA

There isn't. It's a handle - you don't want it slippery.

For tool handles, my general finish is a commercial danish oil. These are oil / varnish mixes that are easy to apply, give a non-gloss, non-slippery finish and don't build enough of a coating that it will flake off if abused.

A wooden katana? Surely that's a bokken?

For general shininess, it's hard to go wrong with blonde shellac. For maple you might like a coat of oil beforehand (commercial tung-oil based "finishing oil" that is ready thinned and dried). This highlight the grain and chattoyance.

Plain wax is also good on maple, so long as you buff it out well. Use a _finishing_ wax, based on paraffin wax and carnauba, not a soft or polishing wax like beeswax, I've posted a load on wax recipes to rec.knives or rec.woodworking.

The joy of using paste wax is that I don't have to heat, flake, scrape or otherwise fuss to get it to mix. I just put a dollop of paste wax (which is wax and turpentine, for the wax I buy - Butcher's bowling alley wax, clear) in a small jar or can, and guesstimate half a dollop of BLO, and stir - the paste wax is already workable enough that this goes pretty easily, and gets easier yet as the oil works in.

Heat or extreme patience is needed if starting from pure wax. Heating wax (and perhaps the oil) in a double boiler and then going away from the heat to add the oil (perhaps) and turps (definitely) would probably be the way to do that, but I don't make this mix that way.

GA,

I think he means "carnauba" wax. It's the primary ingredient in most car waxes. Go to somplace like O'Reilly's, Autozone or NAPA and check out the cans of paste wax. Read the label and it should tell you whether or not it's carnauba.

Scotty

GA wrote:

Not a squeeze tube, more of a stick - like a chapstick that pushes up. And yes, you can get "pure" bees wax in this form.

mark h

And if all else fails...go to your plumbing supply/home improvement store and pick up a wax toilet ring. It is the ring that seals a toilet to the drain pipe, and, is still made of beeswax. It is also dirt cheap. Regards Dave Mundt

Turtle wax (at least in the can) is (was) carnuba. It does work great for a show finish. One can I think will last me a lifetime. Talking about knife handles, I have a Gerber that I use to show how much better my blades are, but it has a fuzzy squeezable rubber type grip that I have to admit, may not be pretty but is great when field dressing an animal and your hands get all bloody.

Carnauba (sp?) wax. The more you buff it the more it shines.

However it is slippery. There's a reason for those tsuka ito and same handles on classic katanas and you'll notice that bokken usually aren't highly polished (at least not in Japan).

--RC

Projects expand to fill the clamps available -- plus 20 percent

No doubt. Probably a good idea for cleaning fish (for which I'm a lot more likely to do). I'm a big fan of making the tool suit the purpose. Comfortable and easy to hang onto for "using knives" but I also plan to do a lot of decorative stuff too. Did a wood sheath for my boys knife out of black walnut and it definately would have benifited from a nice shine up.

GA

OK, let me rephrase that - "decorative wood". Got lots of satisfactory suggestions at this point ;)

Not this one ;-) If I tried to hit anything with it, it would be a brokken. No - I carved it a bit closer to the actual dimensions of a true katana.

So if I was to use shellac, could I get that glassy wood grain look? Maybe with a base coat of Danish oil?

Tried straight paraphin on a clean cotton buffing wheel but was not impressed. Don't think it actually transferred to the wood.

GA

Ha! Whodathunkit? I've dealt with those. Yeah lots of material for dirt cheap. Sure its the straight stuff? It's pretty soft and sticky.

GA

Yes - shellac is the main material used in french polishing. For an "average" shine you'd be OK just painting the shellac on with a brush (1/2" filbert artist's synthetic bristle watercolour). For a super gloss, learn to french polish.

These are finished with coloured shellac, the stand with a plain shellac

No - Danish oil has varnish in it, to make it form a surface film. To bring the appearance of the timber out, just use a plain oil. You should use tung rather than linseed, to avoid yellowing with age.

Well it wouldn't do - you need to mix it with a solvent first, otherwise it's unworkably stiff.