A Mad Scientist!

We inherited Bill's parents' dining room set, it is from the 1940's, and it looks like it has been well loved and used.  I decided that the combination of age and our climate have been conspiring against its beauty and it's about time I did something about it! 

I saw this article about making your own beeswax polish and I knew my weapon was about to be wielded!

I knew there was some beeswax from my candle making days somewhere in the storage garage-yup, found it without too much trouble.  I needed Bill for the second ingredient-turpentine.  No go.  Do you realize it is really hard to find in the store anymore!  Second choice was some paint thinner-this was in the garage so I used it instead.  I melted the beeswax over a pan of water in the kitchen and went out to the sidewalk to mix my 'highly flammable' paint thinner to the melted beeswax.  No problem.  Now to wait for it to harden to a usable paste overnight. 

This morning, the paste looked just right!  Yeah!  I spread it on the table top, rubbing it in like waxing a car.  It smells so good and feels good on my hands, too.

I let it dry and then began buffing.  It took a LOT of elbow grease but wow, what a finish.  The wood no longer looks dried and stressed. Beautiful, silky smooth and the dining room smells wonderful, too!  It is nice to join the ranks of thousands who have used beeswax for their furniture and woodwork!  Now on to the 6 chairs, buffet and china cabinet.  (Note to self:   find Bill's electric buffer to save on my sore arm muscles!)