Carnauba/Beeswax DIY furniture paste - Help!

[Jarrahfrog]

Hi All,

While at the Sydney WWWS earlier this year I picked up a bag of Carnauba wax flakes and a bottle of Orange Essential Oil solvent from the Howards stand. The intention was to someday combine these with some beeswax I picked up in tassie a few years ago to make my own furniture paste. Anyway on Sunday afternoon I decided to finally make up the paste using the Howards recipe on the bag of wax.

The paste recipe states 200gms Carnauba wax, 100gms beeswax & 200mls warmed turps, in this case I used the orange oil solvent in place of turps as was suggested at the show stand. For my first attempt at furniture wax paste making I also decided to halve these quantities, just in case....

I accurately measured the waxes using a set of digital scales and used a graduated measuring cup for the solvent, which I then placed in boiled water to warm it. I melted the waxes together in a double boiler (SS bowl over boiling water on stove), added in the heated orange oil solvent, mixed together and then poured into a clean plastic food container to cool.

So this morning I woke up to check my home made furniture paste to find................. a big block of wax! Admittingly it smells nice due to the orange oil solvent but it is far from being a paste which can applied and rubbed on to furniture.

What have I done wrong? Should I just re-melt and add more solvent?

Any help, suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
Jarrahfrog

PS: I've broken the block in half and interestingly it turns white after it's been exposed to the air for a while. Not sure if this means anything.....

[ubeaut]

Really don't know why people bother making their own. Bit of fun I guess. They're usually more trouble than their worth and can be very dangerous.

Anyway, you need a heap more liquid than that if you want a paste wax.

What you have there is a proper wax polish. Wipe your rag on it then wipe what the rag picks up onto the timber and buff hard. That's the way it should be done. Paste was is made for lazy people who don't want to work at waxing their furniture.

The hard stuff should work well.

Cheers - Neil

[Jarrahfrog]

Hi Neil,

Thanks for the feedback. I was questioning myself why I bothered making my own when I saw the result in the morning! Sounds like I have done anything wrong though which is good, it just didn't turn out how I was expecting.

I shall give it go on the piece I had in mind.

Thanks again
Cheers
Jarrahfrog