stephen thomas
Diamond
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2001
I was reading a chinese book (translation, of course) that son got me and there was a page on the old methods of finishing with wax, a mix of beeswax and "white" wax or "insect wax". About that same time, Fine Tool Journal came out with Chris Schwarz's article on Roubo, Don Williams, and the French method of finishing with beeswax and perhaps sometimes added vegetable waxes like carnauba.
You can tell in the Chinese book that the government writer was not a woodworker, but the gist of the description seems to be that the ancient method was to put on more or less liquid melted wax, and then iron it in with hot irons before rubbing down and polishing. The French dipped a tightly bound small bundle of broomcorn (a "polissoir") into molten wax which saturated but quickly solidified. The wax was rubbed into the work, building it up gradually. Excess wax being scraped off with a wooden edge, and the finish rubbed out with coarse cloth.
I'm finishing a small QS white oak cabinet that is sort of deco-out-out-of-A&C (simple "medieval" single board construction with exposed joinery, but some finer lines and an off setting cascade of small brass coin pulls in the center section). The wax idea intrigues me. The case is immediately spec'd to contain the client's small audio equipment and CD's with the idea that since such are essentially obsolete it may be "repurposed" to general storage at some later date. Point being, it will not see wet or hard use.
I tried a sample board of QS w. oak and rather like the finish. It does mar, but polishes out with a hand or cloth nicely. It does have the effect of some "old" work & some old ecclesiastical work i have seen. My method (on the sample) was to brush on about a 1-1/2 or 2# cut of fresh super blonde shellac to saturate the pores. Then sand off the surface and wax over that more or less by the french method described by CS ( I cut up an old broom to make my polisher). We keep bees so theres lots of good hard white beeswax here. I don't have anything else to mix with it on hand.
As CS notes, it is a far different (better looking, harder) finish from what one get using "paste" wax.
Has anyone else used a similar finish? Pro's/cons? What is the long term service experience? Would you do it again for a similar application?
smt
You can tell in the Chinese book that the government writer was not a woodworker, but the gist of the description seems to be that the ancient method was to put on more or less liquid melted wax, and then iron it in with hot irons before rubbing down and polishing. The French dipped a tightly bound small bundle of broomcorn (a "polissoir") into molten wax which saturated but quickly solidified. The wax was rubbed into the work, building it up gradually. Excess wax being scraped off with a wooden edge, and the finish rubbed out with coarse cloth.
I'm finishing a small QS white oak cabinet that is sort of deco-out-out-of-A&C (simple "medieval" single board construction with exposed joinery, but some finer lines and an off setting cascade of small brass coin pulls in the center section). The wax idea intrigues me. The case is immediately spec'd to contain the client's small audio equipment and CD's with the idea that since such are essentially obsolete it may be "repurposed" to general storage at some later date. Point being, it will not see wet or hard use.
I tried a sample board of QS w. oak and rather like the finish. It does mar, but polishes out with a hand or cloth nicely. It does have the effect of some "old" work & some old ecclesiastical work i have seen. My method (on the sample) was to brush on about a 1-1/2 or 2# cut of fresh super blonde shellac to saturate the pores. Then sand off the surface and wax over that more or less by the french method described by CS ( I cut up an old broom to make my polisher). We keep bees so theres lots of good hard white beeswax here. I don't have anything else to mix with it on hand.
As CS notes, it is a far different (better looking, harder) finish from what one get using "paste" wax.
Has anyone else used a similar finish? Pro's/cons? What is the long term service experience? Would you do it again for a similar application?
smt