Simple wood finishes

I was looking at old style  wood finishes, 
bee's wax polish  costs between 15 and 25 euros here for 300ml,
I set about getting the ingredients to make my own , I found linseed oil for horses, dietary stuff , 6.99 a liter,
Humble old turpentine , now a shocking 13.99 a liter , didnt find bee's wax yet appart from the  small amount I had on hand , looks like its at least 15 euros a pound , but maybe I can find some unprocessed stuff locally .

I set about making a test batch , 1/3 quantities of the three ingredients , including  a small amount of regular parafin wax  ,
I added some extra drops of  tea tree and clove oil essential oils I had lying around ,
I ended up with something golden, the consistancy of melted butter that has re-solidified , the turp's and essentials oils give it a wonderful old fashioned smell that my nostrils hadnt known in a long time .

So around 5 to make my own vs maybe 20 for 300grams off the shelf , so mixing 3kg of the stuff myself is worth a bloody good days work in cash money terms  :
For me its a no brainer , it may not be as tough as paint ,but the simplicity wins  .
Next I want to try and  figure out how to make  my own lime wax  and shellac based finishes .







 

Good work! That's proper diy.

What are you planning to use it on? It'd be great to see what your results are like when you try it.

I've been using oil a lot on the hardwoods I've been working with recently, but I'm curious about trying waxes too after seeing a lot of stuff written about them online.

Im gonna clad the ceiling in my garage with reclaimed timber , its well up out of the way so it doesnt have to be smooth to the touch . A quick sand down and a liberal coat of wood wax will do the job . Lower down on the walls where people are likely to touch I'll probably use a shellac based finish.
Im also staring up on a shed building project soon , oak framed with steel brackets holding it all together , It will use a large proportion of recycled materials , including plastic pallets to form a floor base .

I havent really tested out the batch I made yet , but it certainly smells good, a bit like tiger balm
the other great thing about turpentine and essential oils is it will naturally deter flies and insects from  landing there and its  probably at least  as effective as  pesticide without the toxicity and cancer risk associated  .

Shellac flakes n moonshine is the basic recipe for the other finish I need ,  I have used store bought French polish before on a turntable plinth I made from pine ,two or three coats applied by brush and it was job done , a gentle rub down with steel wool between coats helped as well . Of course you can get a finer result by using a rag to apply the polish ,but in the initial stages I found the brush builds it up better , then at the end after a gentle rub down with wire wool  , a quick final rub over with the French polish pad . Except in the case  of spillage of alcoholic beverages , shellac based finishes are rock solid and can  last a lifetime .

Before I got into electronics full-on, I spent every spare minute woodworking and metalworking. I really got into the custom finishes thing, especially for items I turned on the lathe. Wax based finishes very much like you describe were a big part of that. I still have 10 or so jars of various wax-based finishes I pull out for this or that that I made ages ago.

In addition to beeswax, I recommend you get some Carnauba was flakes on ebay or Amazon. Beeswax is soft and by itself can have a bit of gumminess that hold dirt and dust. Adding some carnauba hardens it up and buffs to a much deeper sheen.

Interestingly, carnauba is literally harder than concrete by itself. Melt some into a medallion in a crucible and see for yourself.  The combination of bees+carnauba is the best wax finish I found, including paraffin, microcrystalline, and fischer-troph (which is hard as a rock itself, but is a synthetic). Experiment with different percentages for your purposes. Too much carnauba makes the finish too difficult to spread, so keep it under 50% for sure. It also has a great smell - much nicer than bees in my opinion.

Shellac is fantastic, too. Terrible for table tops or anywhere you’d set a glass of liquid (leaves rings), but great for many items. Be sure to buy de-waxed shellac flakes or you’ll have a useless finish. Dissolve in alcohol.

have fun

Can you get darker colors with shellac, or other diy type mixtures?.  For example making maple or pine more of a cherry type color.

Shellac comes in a variety of different shades ,from light honey to dark like molasses.

I had read about the carnuba wax alright , it may be available from health food shops now ,so I might grab a pack to see how it works out.Its many times more expensive than even bee's wax . Id say 5-10% total carnuba  wax content is in  about the right ball park . 

I used Tung oil to refinish some teak mid century modern furniture. I understand that was the original finish.  Looked great. I then tried it on some yellow birch ply wood and also liked how it looks. When it dries it hardens so it makes a good finish.

Tubetec said:

.Id say 5-10% total carnuba  wax content is in  about the right ball park .

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You’re on the money there. I looked at the labels I put on my jars and my faves were a 10% blend and a 15% blend.

Gold said:

I used Tung oil to refinish some teak mid century modern furniture. I understand that was the original finish.  Looked great. I then tried it on some yellow birch ply wood and also liked how it looks. When it dries it hardens so it makes a good finish.

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Yes, Tung was often used and is another great, natural finish.  Linseed oil works well, too. 

You’ve probably read this, but cross-linking oils like those left on old rags can spontaneously ignite. That’s where the old “never leave oily rags lying around” comes from. The cross linking process generates heat, and a wadded up oily rag gets hot enough to ignite. So be careful with those.

I kept the rags in sealed glass jars when I was doing it.  I think I buried the rags in the dirt when I was done.

sounds like a fire hazard waiting to happen...

JR

> Tung was often used

The sign in the dance studios said: "keep out, tongue oil drying".

The oil-soaked rags won't burn spread-out so the heat of oxidation comes off. I throw them over bushes until hard.

The worst thing to do is to oil the whole floor, throw the rags in a pile in the corner, and go out for beer. The pile traps the heat, the center comes up to ignition temperature, burns the house down. Knew a guy did this twice before he figured it out.

A truly air-TIGHT container is an alternate. But it's got to let NO fresh air in. Even a small leak may feed the oxidation reaction.

..  lover of fine traditional finishes  ..  on  fine woods 

I'm no expert ... 

I like love  tung oil, lots of time to age,  and with  buffing (wiv a cheap electric  car-finish buffer,  in my case)

Apart from that, old style thin  'lacquer'  is good, again with aging and buffs.

I stripped the white paint from my rick bass decades ago (a 1976 rick james model  8))  and redid it natural in a simple thin lacquer ... and after 20 years it has a nice sheen from natural usage  and a vintage patina all over.  It plays superbly too.

Of course, shellac and spirit finishes are great if you can do them or know someone. Beeswax, beetle casings, volatile spirits and pom-poms.  What's not to love?

But for cost effective 'artisan',  I've really come aboot to thin skin or no  finishing  for tone ..  woods

Not that I have anything against thick, armoured coatings .. they can be really good for sure.

On acoustic instruments its a balance between protection and tone ,
One time Seagull guitars were very popular here ,very light finish,  they sounded great ,but unfortunately they werent really  road worthy enough to last in the longer term .

Its true, in my own [limited] experience,  that  guitar  finish is a difficult endevour.

I like 'thin' trad' old school  'usa'  finish  - nitro-c  thin skin to perfection'    .  but the first thing it does is 'crack' all over the place.

However, the sound is quite great. 

[cold climate with 5C [winter cold] to 28C [typical summer]  and peaks of  0C .. 40C  as 'out-riders'.

Better a cracked up top on a fine Guild acoustic played daily than a glossed thick finish on something never touched.

I had some fence panels ,used but still in reasonable shape ,
I decided to make a sort of mini tool shed , large enough to keep shovels,spades, pic axe etc ,
Doesnt need to be water tight appart from the roof ,as it will sit in  a very sheltered spot .
I didnt even use a tape measure ,just measured up by eye and used a bubble level to keep my lines horizontal .
By pure chance after I had made the initial framework ,I realised part of a stainless steel cooker hood I had lying around would be a perfect roof , a bangor grey roof slate completes the job .
I gave the pressure treated timber a quick sand  mainly to clean it down , then a liberal mix of pure food grade linseed and turpentine , applied with a small roller , goes on very easily.

I noticed a few wasps seemed interested in the smell , one landed on the freshly treated surface , it wasnt long before the creature became agitated and and irritated by the oil mix on its antennae and mouth parts and flew off .

pic to follow soon.

I'm wanting to do a 'kit guitar',    a small bodied acoustic that I want to set up for the 'nashville tuning' 

Apart from the new experience of the 'high-low'  nashville thing, it's a good excuse for me to try an interesting shellac finish, on the super cheap.

Just looking now at the options available ... I may well get one already done then 'customize' but I also have a hankering to try an actual acoustic  build of my own design. 

I have a neighbour with a nice band saw, and I think I can make my own body assembly 'jig'  ..  enough to have a first go at the whole biz. I mean you can get the hard bits already mostly done  ..

....

Of course, one of my fav vendors for luthier supplies is from the US  ..  the fabulous  StewMac.  I've always had good buying experiences with them, even way the way down here at the lower part of this wonderful planet.

...

What I'd  *really*  like to do, however, is make, and finish  .  ..  a 'bajo quinto'

And local bees' wax is quite affordable down here ...  I kept a bunch of it from some 'relocated' hives that pop up from time to time here.

You could put a 'wooden hive' here,  and it would get going  and fill up in no time at all.

The local bees are a couple of varieties,  but mostly the 'friendly honey bee'  and an  even  less scary large  'bumble bee',  which is more green and brown in the stripes. 

It makes a pleasant change from the ever present and dangerous wasps, snakes and spiders 

....

Also to be had here [and relevant to diy wood finishes],  genuine pine tree resin, from my little pine cones.

I have a now big radiata pine and also a norwegian blue.  Apparently it can be quite a useful material, so I started to collect some.  It's quite 'resin-ey' and with a real fine, fresh pine  aroma.

Could be useful for diy caulking (of one's long boat)  and such  ;D  Perhaps a component of a diy wood stain, preservative or 'patina' maker.