How do you apply Bee's Wax?

I have a friend that has bees and makes honey. He gave me some of the honey, and it made me ask what he does with his bee's wax. He said nothing, it gets melted down and that's about it. I asked him for some, so now I have a good amount of bee's wax, certainly more than I will use in the near future. What I am wondering is how does one apply it to scales? I have some horn scales, and I tried just rubbing it on, but it is very hard (like hard candle wax) so it doesn't rub in like I had pictured in my head. I could obviously soften it by heating it, but I have a feeling that once applied, it is going to harden again and not give the results I was looking for. Can I heat it, and mix in some neetsfoot oil to soften it, then cool and apply? Has anyone started with raw bee's wax and made it really usable? Any insight would be appreciated!

I've read that you can mix it into some turpentine, or boiled Linseed oil, and then apply it as a polish.

I would avoid turpentine, just because. I don't have linseed oil, but it does make me wonder how the neetsfoot oil route would work (or mineral oil for that matter). I may have to try it out and report back!

I read somewhere about mineral oil & bees wax mixture (equal parts) to protect blades as well

This is quite common in woodcraft - if you google "diy furniture polish" or something along those lines you will find a lot of recipes...

Basic idea is a mix of waxes (picked for their various qualities) with a carrier e.g. turpentine or paraffin.

Over a gentle heat you combine them together and once cool you can apply.

I like using a bit of carnauba in mine as this is a very hard wax - takes a lot more work to apply and polish up but rewards you with a harder/stronger finish.

I have been playing with using a mix of beeswax, carnauba and turps (can just leave the wax to melt in the turps if you don't want to use heat) over french polish on a couple of very amateurish furniture items i.e. I won't be posting pics

At the end of the day you just want to leave a thin layer of wax behind that you can then buff and offers some protection.

hope that helps some.

____________________________
Robin

I believe the bees wax furnished polish I have uses turps as the carrier. One is like a liquid which you shake up before buffing on. The other is a paste in a tin. It is about as thick as proraso soap. I just put some on a rag and rub it in, then buff, much like polishing shoes.

PapaFish said:

I have a friend that has bees and makes honey. He gave me some of the honey, and it made me ask what he does with his bee's wax. He said nothing, it gets melted down and that's about it. I asked him for some, so now I have a good amount of bee's wax, certainly more than I will use in the near future. What I am wondering is how does one apply it to scales? I have some horn scales, and I tried just rubbing it on, but it is very hard (like hard candle wax) so it doesn't rub in like I had pictured in my head. I could obviously soften it by heating it, but I have a feeling that once applied, it is going to harden again and not give the results I was looking for. Can I heat it, and mix in some neetsfoot oil to soften it, then cool and apply? Has anyone started with raw bee's wax and made it really usable? Any insight would be appreciated!

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Wonder if you could use it as a Moustache wax?

Johnson's Paste Wax. You can get it at Lowes Home Improvement Centers in the US.

Tillerman7 said:

Wonder if you could use it as a Moustache wax?

Click to expand...

'Stache wax is usually a mixture of vaselin (petroleum jelly) & beeswax.
How much of each is up to the user, climate, type of 'stache & so forth.

As for using beeswax as polish it does work very well on its own. Warm it in your hand a minute & then rub it on.
The little that sticks is plenty enough for creating both shine & protection.
Otherwise a mix with either turps or naphta is the way to go.
And it wont hurt horn or wood. Completely safe.

The way I do it is to grind the wax in smaller pieces & cover it in turps or naptha in a glass jar with a tight lid-
Leave overnight & presto, you have made yourself a paste wax.
Add some carnauba for extra shine & harder surface.

I warmed a bit of the wax over a candleand mixed in neetsfoot oil. I made it just playable enough that pressing firmly with the pad of my thumb would make some visible fingerprints at room temp. I rubbed it onto the horn scales and then rubbed it in good with my thumbs. This actually left a quite a bit getting pushed around, so I got a bit of paper towel and buffed the excess off and shined it the best I could that way. I am happy with the results, but not completely overwhelmed. Maybe the scales were just in better shape than I had thought (not complaining).

Stache wax? I could test this... Step one, grow a stache worthy of waxing. Step two, make and try out wax. Pretty simple really.

Im a beekeeper. It is an old practice to take beeswax melt it and add in mineral oil. The boards of thw wooden hives would then be soaked or painted with mixture. It works wonderfully to preserve the wood. The only problem is beeswax can be sold easily for about $4 a lbs. So nowdays everyone just paints the wood.

It's calles dubbin. My wife keeps bees, so I have a ready supply of beeswax. I melted a little into neatsfoot oil and made a thick paste to use on my natural scales as a protectant and to make it shiny. Traditionally, it's used in leather care.