Sample Board Partying – French Wax Polishing

Probably the simplest beautiful finish from a technological point of view is the French molten wax polish, which has but a few individual components yet yeilds a beautiful, lustrous presentation surface.

The first thing is a block of clean beeswax.  I render my own from raw wax straight from the beekeepers after the honey is harvested.

Next comes a source of heat to melt the wax onto the surface of the wood.  Historically something like a roofer’s soldering iron was used, these days I use an electric tacking iron.

I move the hot iron over the surface, spreading and melting the wax onto and into the surface until it is fully saturated.

Once the molten wax has been imbibed fully into the wood surface it is left to cool,

and once fully hardened it is scraped with a simple metal, wood, or bone scraper.  If the scraper has a nice clean edge (no burr!), the resulting surface can be mirror-like.  A little buffing with a piece of soft cloth like worn flannel or fine wool and you are done.  This might even be enhanced with some spit  polish.

The result is a high-sheen, non-toxic and easily repairable surface that is pretty robust against abrasion but utterly defenseless against heat or oily materials.  I’m working on some formulations to  make this finish a lot tougher, but it is increasingly one with which I am toying, and as I move forward with designing and fabrication parquetry panels, you can believe it is something I will employ.