I’m always amazed at the price of beeswax furniture polish in hardware shops, and the vast range of complicated ingredients they contain. I use beeswax polish for a variety of tasks - furniture, leatherwork, even shoes - and wanted something simple and cheap to make, without too many odd ingredients.
The following recipe is an old one - probably dating back to medieval times. The ingredients are standard, only the quantities change, depending on what you want your polish to be like.
Ingredients
Linseed Oil - a waterproof, penetrating oil, which soaks into the wood and prevents denting and scratching.
Beeswax - a tough wax with high sheen and a high melting point.
Turpentine - distilled pine resin - a wood-based solvent in which to dissolve the wax and oil
Essential Oil (optional - add a scent other than turpentine)
Recipe
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Put 1 part beeswax and 2 parts linseed oil into a pan and place over a water bath.
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Bring the water to the boil and stir until the wax melts.
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Take off the heat (and turn off any heat sources - turpentine is flammable!)
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Add 1.5-2 parts turpentine (and essential oil, to scent, if using).
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Stir continually until the mixture begins to gel and turn a yellow-brown colour.
- Stir occasionally to spread out any clumps to make a smooth paste.
Use
The recipe below makes a soft paste which is applied sparingly and rubbed in with a cloth, left to ‘dry’ (overnight is best) and then polished to a shine with a soft lint-free cloth.
When first applying to raw wood, apply repeatedly 2 or 3 times over the course of a week, until freshly applied polish ‘sits’ on the surface, rather than soaking in. (A small drop of water should bead, rather than soaking in). After this point, you should only need to re-polish 2 or 3 times a year to maintain the wood in good quality.
Alternative Recipes
To make a hard polish, double the amount of beeswax, and slightly reduce the turpentine. For a very hard polish, halve the linseed oil.
