carnauba polish finish

I have just completed a dining table top using recycled merbau. The top looks very good in its raw state, but impractical. I have stained the top with a wattyl craftsman stain (solvent based) and then a cost of organoil burnishing oil. To impart a hard finish I have used Gillie Stephenson carnauba polish and I cannot find out if it has a drying time. Two days later, I am still able to get a little colour on my polish cloth. Anyone have info on drying time for carnauba wax/polish and experience on this type of finish.

damm that suff is hard to buff...it may not actually dry completly being a wax, i think that's the idea, but give it a week and then check again, it should be hard enough by then to to wipe off....let me know how you go as i was thinking of using this more often myself...

canauba wax is one of the main waxes used in polishes for the protection of paint surfaces. Most of the top make car polishes and furnature polishes has canauba wax as its base.

The idea of the wax is to put a protective coating over the paint surface to waterproof and to prevent scratching of the surface. Its not a permanent coating its meant to be periodically washed off with solvent and replaced. If you want a permanent tough finish for the table you need to go to something better than oil or wax. If you check the wattyl instructions they would suggest a proper one or two pack clear over their stain for best results.

You have basically mixed different types of products together, once you oil you are pretty well locked into that finish. wax over it will just add another different finish which will find it hard to stick to the oil.

Well done durawood you pretty well nailed the problem.

Ingin - You have basically done everything wrong..... everything.

Carnauba wax dries in a matter of minutes, but you aren't allowing it to dry and will continue to get colour because you used oil (a solvent) over a solvent based stain then compounded the problem by putting the carnauba wax (which is softened by a solvent) over the top. Both the wax and oil will leach the stain and neither will offer much protection to the surface.

If and when it does eventually dry you will have taken most of the finish and probably a lot of the stain off in your buffing cloth and will be left with little if any protection.

Under normal everyday use, the top will most likely mark up and be a mess within no time at all.

You need to read manufacturers instruction very carefully and follow them to the letter, especially when using any of the Organoil products. They have put in many years of research and experimentation to get their products to work well. They give detailed instructions for their use and only work properly when these instructions are followed to the letter.

Durawood - Most of the top furniture polishes have beeswax or paraffin as their base and no carnauba some have a very, very small addition of carnauba because it looks good on the label. Car polishes (especially the modern ones) also only use a very, very small amount and are mainly based on microcrystaline waxes and silicone.

Cheers - Neil :)
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