Thursday 14 May 2020

Furniture Polish recipe

The main purpose of this journal is jot down the comings and goings of life, things that amuse or irritate me and useful pieces of information that I want to note down for perpetuity.  Basically it's part diary, part scrapbook, part jotter.

It was a quiet day today, so I thought I'd note down a recipe for furniture polish that I had made at the back end of 2018.  I made a couple of jars, so have a plentiful supply.  Its likely to be years before I need to refer to the recipe again ... but at least I stand a chance of finding it in here.

I suppose I had better start with a warning. If you attempt to make this polish you will be working with highly flammable substances and you do so at your own risk. I'm not responsible if you set fire to yourself.

Ingredients
1/3 Beeswax
1/3 Boiled Linseed Oil
1/3 Pure Gum Turpentine (not the synthetic stuff)

Method
  1. Measure out the ingredients.
  2. Put the turps and linseed oil in sealed jars and put these in warm water to heat both the jars and the contents.  The aim of this stage is to pre-warm these substances safely.  If cold turps and linseed oil are added to the melted beeswax, it will solidify quickly unless it is kept over the heat.  By pre-warming these solvents it should be possible to blend them with the beeswax away from any source of ignition. Do not use a Bain-marie, double boiler or any other stove top device. Put the sealed jars in a washing up bowl and add hot water from the tap or kettle. As the water cools replace it with warmer water to keep the solvents nice and warm.
  3. Melt the bees wax in a Bain-marie or double boiler.
    Once melted remove from the heat and turn off any sources of ignition
  4. Add the warmed Linseed Oil to the melted beeswax and stir well
    If the wax starts to solidify it will be necessary to return the container to the Bain-marie, which should be warm enough to melt the contents without the need for the external heat sources.
  5. Finally add the heated Turpentine and stir well.
  6. Pour in to the warmed jars and leave to set
Note: test the polish on a concealed area of any item you plan to polish to ensure it is compatible with the wood finish.  

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