Home made finishing wax for chalk painted furniture

[ChrissyMcD]

Hi All.....my thing is restoring small furniture items (mainly chairs and other small curbside pick up pieces). I mostly paint them with chalk paint which then needs to be waxed to seal (it can be sprayed with a sealer too, but I like natural wax better). I've been experimenting with making my own furniture wax as the prepared stuff is quite expensive (like almost $20 for a tiny 100g tin). I found a Youtube recipe that uses 2 parts mineral (baby) oil to one part pure beeswax, all melted together and mixed until cool and turns white and doesn't separate. All good except it's quite soft, takes quite a few days to set, and is still a tad tacky in places after buffing. Smells great and is nice to use (actually would make a great lip balm, but that's a story for another forum!) Has anyone here made their own furniture wax that dries off well and buffs out to a nice subdued sheen? I've also been looking at buying carnauba wax flakes to add to the beeswax and oil but would like to substitute a more organic oil for the mineral oil if possible. If nobody has done this, perhaps some advice as to what non-petrochemical oil I could use instead of mineral oil would be appreciated.....I don't want to waste the wax ingredients if something like olive oil isn't the go! Many Thanks, Chrissy 444054

[Bucky]

A beekeeper friend of mine makes me a wax using Limonene, Extra Virgin Olive Oil and beeswax. Works a treat.

Cheers Bucky

[PaintMan]

As Bucky mentioned I would use Lemonene (Orange Oil) which is the oil extracted from orange and lemon peel. To aid with a harder finish some tung Oil will also help. Beeswax is quite soft and owing to local issues with bees the price has gone very high in the last couple of years. I basically use 1:1 Tung/Orange Oil with 15-20% beeswax added. You need to melt the beeswax in a hot water bath and slowly stir into the mix. It works well especially for wood lathe finishing by buffing. All of these ingredients are available from local specialist suppliers. You can also experiment with blends of Canaubra wax but this is more difficult to incorporate. Whilst my formulation is in liquid form if you want to make a soft paste wax you will need to increase the beeswax content to at least 50% but this may also give a softer finish.
Cheers,
Paintman

[ChrissyMcD]

Many thanks to Bucky and Paintman......I was just about to research quantities for each ingredient but I'll start with Paintman's and see how I go. Since posting my query, I got the two little chairs out from where I'd been sitting them waiting for the finish to set and it's starting to buff out quite nicely, but still a bit tacky in places. Given these two pieces are meant for children to use, I was extra keen to not have anything toxic on them.......kids will chew anything, just like puppies!

[ubeaut]

For what it's worth....

U-Beaut Polishes Traditional Wax (http://www.ubeaut.com.au/trad.html) is $18.48 for a 250ml tub of Neutral.

It is extensively used on chalk paint finishes and recommended as the best for this purpose by at least one chalk paint manufacturer, who stocks it exclusively for use with their products.

:U

[ChrissyMcD]

Thanks ubeaut.....I'll check that out.