Wax finishing

I

Iceman5000

Joined
May 29, 2013
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Hello,
I am fairly new to Blade forums but I have been looking at a lot of posts in the recent past looking for advice/techniques and I figured I'd go ahead and join your ranks.

So, I am in the final stages of making 4 knife handles, all as gifts to friends. There is a meat cleaver, mini-skinner, tanto style knife, and a bullnose skinner. Now for the first three of those I am using a 1:1:1 combo of paint thinner, BLO, and tung oil finish (didn't have mineral spirits on hand). Thus far I am really happy with this mix as it seems to do a better job than BLO alone (as far as I can tell) and is much easier to apply without over-doing it. I'll end up putting anywhere from 3-10 coats of this on depending on how they look and how much time I have.

So for the last one though, I'm having some troubles. This is going to go to a camper, probably one of two people that will actually use the four knives I am making. The thing is I used beech on this handle and it looks really nice, theres a nice color to it, a nice knot going through to break it up a little bit and I really don't want to put BLO on it and darken that beech way down.

So I was thinking about just using a wax-only finish, which I've read allusions too, but I can't seem to find any explination or process on how people normally do it. I'm afraid that if just hand rub it in, maybe buff it out with a loose piece of leather laying around than it'll just rub itself off after a camping trip or two leaving the wood pretty much bare again.

I'll post photos later today if I can figure out how, worse comes to worse I'll just put them up on my website.

Thanks
Josh
 
Sand sassafras, burnish beech or something like that. I believe the secret to a nice clear wax finish, is to burnish the beech before the wax is applied. Use a stiff leather of 8 oz, on edge to burnish when smooth switch to old Levi material and use it to burnish, this will make the grain and burl pop.
Bre" paste wax is the best wook wax on the market.
Its how I do it here, just a suggestion, Fred
 
I do it by taking the wood to as high a grit as it will stand, meaning hardwoods higher than soft woods... I buff it with a cloth . wheel and then give it a little heat. Not a lot of heat, I don't want to cook it or anything, but hot enough it will melt the wax. I then apply the wax liberally making sure it is melting when applied. I let this sit until cool, and then I take a damp cotton ball and wipe the surface down gently. Then I buff out the entire handle with the softest piece of cloth I can find.
On my site I have a rustic piece posted that I finished this way
 
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You need to know, however, that wax does next to nothing to protect the wood from any type of damage, such as scrapes, cuts or stains from water, sweat and blood. It does even less to stabilize the wood, and inhibit the passage of moisture in and out of the wood, so it has basically no stabilizing effect on the wood at all. This may not be a big deal, but the wood will be much more likely to split or crack over time.
 
Wax may offer less resistance to water penetration than a polymer or resin, but to say it offers no protection, is not proven out by testing. There have been numerous comparative test that proves the value of a quality wax such as Bre' wax. On steel itself, wax is superior to oil based protection. Nothing protects wood handles from scrapes and cuts more than non use.
Wax needs to be applied at intervals to keep its protective properties at work. Processing wood using a stabilizing process is the only measure that will come close to total stability of wooden handles.
 
Not to argue, but I said next to nothing. That is an accurate statement. When the wax is very fresh on the wood, it will do a relatively acceptable job at repelling water. However, the OP said it's a skinner, I believe, and going to someone he says will use the blade. If it's to be used for skinning, when it gets bloody, and that blood and other fluids get pressed into the handle during the skinning process, I can promise you that wax alone will come up far short of protecting the wood. The wood will get stained. I really doubt that the end user is going to want to put a fresh coat of wax on the handle every time it has to be used, which is what would be required to offer even a modicum of protection from blood and other fluids. Ask yourself why they don't use a wax finish for furniture. The first time a drink is set down on it, it would leave a ring. A wax finish never really cures, or gets hard the way other finishes do. Thus, not much protection.
 
At work I have improvised a few tools with beech handles. I've put hard wax on the wood to give it a finished look and have a better feel in the hand.
I used what I had on hand: a stick of hard wax and a buffer we use to apply wax on shoes.
Have the buffer spin and press the wax to it. Heat from the friction will let the textile absorbe some wax.
Then do the same with the wood. Friction and heat again and wax gets deposited on the wood.
It leaves a very clear coat.
I've used oil on beech and it yellows it. Wax didn't.

Carefull with the buffer. It the absolute top is 12 o clock hold the wax and wood between 4 and 5 o clock
 
so it sounds like if I really want to do this right I'm going to need a buffer or some way of buffing the wax in? Fred.Rowe, is this what you meant when you were talking about the leather and the denim - on a buffing system, or did you mean a loose piece of leather? I don't have a buffer, so I'm trying to figure out how to do this without.... maybe its not possible.

Here are photos of all four just in case your curious, and the beech one in particular.

_JM85271.JPG

_JM85276.JPG
_JM85277.JPG
 
Personally, I would use something a bit more durable if it is going out into the woods with a camper. At minimum, I would use a polymerized oil blend so that it will provide some protection for the wood.

TedP
 
You may try an acrylic polyurethane diluted 50% or more with water so it soaks in to the wood. The acrylics have less of a yellowing effect.
 
Hand held works great, using leather and then denim to burnish. Use pressure with both. You will see the grain pop as you work on it.
 
I also use a heat gun on low to help the wax permeate the wood (or leather) better. Most of my leatherwork is wax treated, which makes it stiff and water resistant. I use a similar technique to get the wax deeper into the wood grain. Basically, I'll keep applying wax and using the heat gun to keep it liquid so it can seep in deeper until I have a surface layer, and then I'll use the denim/cotton buffing to get a good polish.
 
Wax has been used for a very long time to weather proof items. For my leather work I use a mix of perafin/bees/neatsfoot oil. Its a blend of 50 percent each wax with a small amount of oil melted together. It makes a soft butter texture mixture. For the edges of my leather and for my linen thread when hand stitching I use a mixture of rosin and bees wax with a touch of oil melted together. This is poured into cool water and neaded into small balls. This is harder to apply to items but last much longer and is very water resistant.

Not sure how these would work with wood, I will have to give them a try and see how they do.

The burnishing or heat gun are two methods to get the wax to soften and penetrate whatever they are being used on. In the winter I will sat the item in front of the wood stove at a safe distance. Let it sat there over night then buff the following day.
 
I used the buffer because it was available to me.
You can improvise one with a drill or drillpress.
The wax I used is very hard, harder then a candle
 
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