Natural Beeswax Wood Polish

Intro: Natural Beeswax Wood Polish

I make a lot of wooden projects. There are a million different ways to finish a wood project but my favorite finish is a wax/oil blend. Otherwise known as a wax polish. This wood polish is a 1:3 ratio. I made a video to help explain the process.

If you dont feel like making this I also sell it in my etsy store.

https://www.etsy.com/shop/ChippedBuilds

STEP 1: Tools & Materials

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1. Pure Tung oil or Mineral Oil

2. Crock Pot

3. Beeswax

4. Tins or container for finshed product

STEP 2: Melting the Wax

This ratio will give you 8 oz of wood polish.

Measure out 2 oz of beeswax and pour it into the crock pot. My crock pot didnt have any heat setting so I assume it was on low. This took about a hour to melt but I would use a crock pot that you could put on high. Make sure you stay next to wax because beeswax is flammable.

STEP 3: Adding the Oil

Pour out 6 oz of oil.

Once the wax is melted slowly add in the oil. Since the oil is colder than the wax it will start to clump up. Just keep stirring it and it will melt back down in a few minutes. I used a small dowel to mix everything together.

STEP 4: Pouring the Wax Into Containers

I transferred the melted wax polish to a measuring cup to make it easier to pour into the cans. Make sure to wear oven mitts since the pot will be hot. I poured my wax into two 4 oz tins. Now wait a few hour for them to harden up before use.

STEP 5: Enjoy Your New Wax Polish

This is a good project for any level of skill. Use a dry cloth to rub some polish into the wood. Wait a few minutes and come back with a different section of the cloth and buff it out to a nice sheen. This wax polish makes the wood super soft to the touch. Its basically as soft a baby's bottom. Let me know in the comments if you make some or have any questions.

Comments

[PP01]

Can you use Olive Oil, Jojoba Oil or Sweet Almond Oil instead of Walnut Oil or Tung Oil? Will any of those go ransid?

[stillash]

I would go with tung oil. Im pretty sure the rest will go rancid over time.

[quilnib]

I made this a while ago and it worked great, but my leftovers have since hardened. Can I simply reheat the wax gently (in a water bath or the like), or is what I made unusable now? I can't get any to come off on a cloth anymore. Thanks for any insights!

[stillash]

You can either take a lighter and carefully heat up the top to soften it or try putting the container in a warm water bath. I have just used the lighter method.

[LisaM509]

How does this work when planning on staining wood? Best to do before? After?

[stillash]

I would say after. Make sure the stain is completely dry.

[saadland]

Thanx a lot, I love working with Wood, and always love to keep its natural texture, dont like at all painting wood! such a wast . But for sure wood project/creations must be proctected, as wood wax is perfect for that.
Those are my ratio, I made 2 cans:
Can 1: 50% BeesWax + 50% Wood Oil
Can 2: 70% BeesWax + 30% Wood Oil (for brighter touch)

[BobP121]

Thanks for your mixing ratio. I use mineral oil that you can buy at most pharmacies and wally world for a lot less than it costs from a dealer who puts a fancy name on it.

[stillash]

Very cool. Always happy to share information.

[tzny]

IKEA has the best price for mineral oil:)

Great idea to use Tung oil for the wax! I will definitely try this combination (I previously tried mineral oil and beeswax).

[stillash]

Ill have to check out IKEA thanks.

[hairhopper]

Can this be used on painted wood just to make it shine.The paint is matte finish and I would like it to shine without repainting

[feastfirst]

Good to use on vintage oil finished military gunstocks. It's a pretty authentic USGI treatment.

[GoFish]

The traditional gunstock finish was hand rubbed raw Linseed oil and warmed in front of a fire. The heat speeds up polymerisation, with gunstocks beeswax was often used after the oil. Tung oil 'dries' faster and harder, boiled Linseed oil has added driers and one is commonly Tung oil.

Oil finish is my preference on a gunstock as it looks and feels nice and is easy to repair dings.

[MarkKw]

Original gunstock finishes depend on the location as well as what
was available. In 18th century America, the premium was Chinawood oil,
but because of it's rarity and exceedingly high cost, the typical finish
was an oil varnish each individual gunmaker made themselves by cooking
raw linseed oil with rosin, KOH, white lead and limestone. Some
gunmakers used pine tar or spar varnish. Raw linseed was not really used
on gunstocks until the mass production of rifles for WWI and it has
since been used on military wood stocks precisely because it cures so
slowly and can be easily refreshed with a bit more raw oil without any
special preparation of finishing being required. There are no historical
records to even suggest that any waxes or wax-oil blends were ever used
on gunstocks. All such wax-oil blends were used as a cheap and fast
method of finishing furniture and needed to be refreshed quire
regularly. Linseed oil finish is inferior to a Chinawood oil finish.

[stillash]

Cool

[crcolin]

Can you use veg oil

[sphery]

Generally a very bad idea. The vegetable oil will go rancid as it is exposed to oxygen. Tung oil, cutting board oil (generally just mineral oil--without fragrances), boiled linseed oil, and other oils meant to be used as wood finishes will not go rancid.

If you want a food-safe finish, use mineral oil. It is inexpensive at drug stores--just make sure you get pure mineral oil with no fragrances, and definitely not "baby oil" (which is mineral oil with fragrance). And, if you use mineral oil, the polish makes a very good skin moisturizer (so feel free to get the polish all over your hands as you finish your cutting board, then rub it in to your hands for soft skin).

[bnaivar]

No. Veg oil will turn rancid over time.

[pemazzei]

Please, what is "tung oil". Thanks