Carnauba Wax, has anyone tried...?

[MacS]

I know, there is more then one way of doing things in finishing, but it seems to me like you do somethings that are creating your own problems. I see this in some of your post.

If you don't have the "right" materials on hand, you will try using almost anything you do have on hand. This "give it a try" attitude always leads to problems, as I am sure you know yourself.

Learning by trial and error can be very costly in the long run, lucking out once in a while, may not work the next time. Being over anxious to get the work completed, and not allowing the materials to dry properly causes more finishing problems then the finishing materials.

Whenever your in doubt, ask first for an answer, not after you have the problems.

I mention this because I see your really trying to improve your finishing, chemicals can be very complexed, because they vary from one manufacturer to another. That's, why is best to stay with time tested products that work for you.

One of the keys to finishing, which I still do myself, is to first make up complete start to finish sample panels. One, it will tell me if all my the materials are compatible with each other, two, it will allow me to learn the right finishing process, and three it gives me a change to make corrections on the samples, and not on my customers pieces.

[astrid]

cruzi,
What sort of wax did you use on the little heart.
By the way is that one of your carvings?
Its very nice.
some furniture was finished only with wax, usually put on hot.
probably only work with a tight grained timber and requires a lot of hard rubbing (they used to have housemaids waxing weekly) but the wax permeates the timber
I used this on an old rough hewn french walnut bowl before christmas.
the original finish was done this way.(with wax only I mean) I needed to freshen it up a bit.
First i cleaned the dust and excess old wax from the surface with fine steel wool and a little turps.
Then i applied the wax, heating it with a hairdryer and buffing hard.
The end result was a beautful soft glow which was also quite hard.
This is a lovely finish for carvings that dont get wear or handling, and quite different from shellac or oil.
Dont give up on it because the first one didn'n turn (HA HA) out so well.
You can take off what you did and try this, or try heating the heart with a hairdryer and apply some of neils tinted wax. though Ive never tried heating Ubeaut Trad Wax.
We all learn by experiment.

Astrid

[mlhm5]

Break polystyrene foam (the rigid packing material) into small pieces and cover with lacquer thinner and let stand a few days.

[astrid]

Table came out really well,
By not using the grainfiller, the grain showed a lot more of the "flashy bits"
that you get in toonis australis
The wax filled it up a bit and hardened well.
The grain is still a bit open but the clarity of the grain makes up for it.
Client very happy

Cheers
Astrid