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Liming Wax

Burt25

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Has anyone used liming wax?- Im thinking of using it on my bog oak pens to enhance the grain and assume it needs to go on after lacquer? Question is - will it eventually wear away or can it be sealed in with a final coat of lacquer?
 

Phil Dart

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It will only produce the desired effect in the short term Ian. It has next to no resilience and will wear off extremely quickly when the pen is handled. You can't put a lacquer over a wax I'm afraid.

However, Plasticote used to make a range of synthetic based colours, which you can paint on then take off the excess with a tissue soaked in the same stuff, or with thinners. You can put a seal over those. I've never experimented with pens, but I have used them on other things. Might be worth a look.
 

Burt25

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I found a few posts on the Wood Workers Institute forum form members who claim to be applying melamine lacquer over liming wax with good long lasting results. As I'm only really applying it into a hairs width grain I suspect the melamine may bridge it? May give it a try - worst case it will wear over time bot I think it may add something to the beauty of the bog oak.
 

Pierre---

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It is right that if you lay the wax on closed-grained wood, the wax doesn't hold. But on some occasions I scratched open-grained wood (I tried oak, chestnut and ash so far) with a wire brush to have a very visible grain, and then waxed it. The wax hold very well in the pores despite a constant use.
 

Phil Dart

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Great video, and a great effect, but despite anything the master himself may say, you cannot seal wax with an acrylic sanding sealer. It is a scientific impossibility. His sealer WILL wear off, and the remaining wax will stay in place dependent entirely on the depth to which it is in the grain, and therefore out of harms way by not being touched.

But it's in a Jimmy Clewes video so it must be true, right? As he says, try it for yourself, but when you do, bear in mind that the entire purpose of that particular video is to sell his waxing products, not to demonstrate the concept of applying a chemical sealer on top of wax.
 

Burt25

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Another option I'm thinking may be just to rub in a watered down coat of water based white emulsion paint, sand off top grain leaving the pigment in the recesses and then lacquer that?
 

Penpal

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Another option I'm thinking may be just to rub in a watered down coat of water based white emulsion paint, sand off top grain leaving the pigment in the recesses and then lacquer that?

When we built our Chapel by voluntary labour around 50 yrs ago we did the Mountain Ash pews this way, very effective then and still now.

Peter.
 

Phil Dart

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Another option I'm thinking may be just to rub in a watered down coat of water based white emulsion paint, sand off top grain leaving the pigment in the recesses and then lacquer that?
Could do - certainly worth a try. But as I said earlier have a look at Plastikote. They do a product called Odds 'n' Ends fast dry enable, which you can get in either a liquid or a spray, from diy shops, hobbycraft shops and even on amazon. It's brilliant stuff and may solve your problem.
 

21William

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I think if the wax is only in the open pores of the wood then it may very well be possible to seal it in with lacquer but I've yet to try it. I've bought some blue mica power to colour some plain wax so I'll give it a try when the right project comes up. I like Ash but never seem to see decent blanks at a reasonable cost.
 
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