How To Make And Use Beeswax Furniture For Wood Finishing

Making your own beeswax is quite easy once you decided upon a recipe. Generally, for wood wax finishing, it requires beeswax, purchased in pellet or block from many places, and some oil. Variations are different oils; almond oil, coconut oil, olive oil, canola oil, linseed oil. Some add turpentine and alcohol for their interpretation of Wood wax. There may be more.

Many videos exist from furniture makers, craftspeople, and just people who make stuff. They each work with different ingredients to make their wax polish and decide for themselves which they like best.

Making and Using Beeswax

 

Then you may add a scent to your Wood wax mixes, like lemon or orange. That is completely a personal preference. They mix the ingredients by ratio, equal amounts of beeswax, whatever oil you are using, and Linseed oil. Mix a ratio of 1/1/1 or if you are using two ingredients, oil and beeswax, mix a ratio of 50/50. One recipe calls for ½ cup beeswax and 2 cups olive oil. This makes a lot of Wax polish for most of us, five or six years worth. You will not use a great amount of this wax soon, so don’t try to mix tons. Start small.

Have on hand a small jar to store the wax. Now, this wax is messy and not easy to clean up. Cover your counter space so drips and spills will not matter. Once you use a pan for this, you will not want to use the pan for anything else again. So it is best to use an old, small pan or go to a thrift store and buy one. Buy also a measuring cup. A Pyrex measuring cup will do nicely.

Beeswax is very flammable, so you will not heat this over a direct flame or heater. Put the beeswax in one container and set it in a pan of boiling water over medium heat. Heat until it has melted.

Scents tend to be destroyed by heat.

Now add whatever oil you are using and finally any extras. Scents should be added after the wax is finished. Linseed oil comes here. The beeswax pellets will begin to solidify at this point because the oil and other ingredients are not hot. There are two things you can do. Continue to heat the wax slowly until it is all one melted mass, or stir the wax to mix the heat and cause the pellets to melt. Continue to mix until the mixture is stable. The wax needs to be smooth and not have balls of beeswax pellets in the oil. The results are not pleasant on your wood.

If I had never made any wax and weren’t sure of what to do, I would use 50 ml of beeswax and 100 ML of olive oil, and when it was ready to go into a jar to solidify, I would add some lemon scent, about 1 Tbs.

Now to apply it to the wood.

It will deepen the natural color of the wood. Always rub with the grain, but to put on the wax, use a soft, smooth cloth. Use the wax sparingly. Just smear it on and let it dry. Wait 20 minutes. Do not buff until the wax is dry. The wax is done properly if you can run your finger along with the wood, and the wood feels smooth and is shiny. It will not be glossy. This wood wax finishing is on the surface and does not protect from water or staining, but it is a rich finish.