About Paste Wax
A good quality paste wax is a very simple mixture of ingredients: wax and solvent. Familiarize yourself with MSDS or SDS (material safety data sheets or safety data sheets) and you can glean not only the safety information about the paste wax you are buying, but also about its performance. The principal of using paste wax to polish antique furniture is also simple: remember the often repeated line, “wax on, wax off” from the movie “The Karate Kid”? It’s that simple really: the wax is applied sparingly (but thoroughly), allowed to “dry” and then buffed with soft cloth. One of the many benefits of paste wax is that it is easy to remove if you do not like the result. Good quality odorless mineral spirits will remove it. After over 30 years of using paste wax, there are some tips that I would like to share:
Choose a colored paste wax for darker woods like mahogany, walnut, or dark cherry. Choose a clear paste wax for light or blonde woods like maple or light cherry. Colored paste waxes also help to minimize the appearance of scratches and other imperfections. Colored paste waxes come in a variety of browns. Don’t worry about choosing the wax color that matches. I generally use the darker colors tending to almost black. Avoid paste waxes that contain oils. This type of paste wax is formulated for raw wood finishing, not for use as a polish. The oils in these waxes can polymerize and cause all sorts of negative issues with an existing finish.
Typically, the solvent in paste wax is odorless mineral spirits. While this solvent is relatively less toxic than others, it is still a hazardous solvent. It is dangerous to your health and it is flammable. So it is still a good idea to protect yourself. This means wearing nitrile gloves, using an organic solvent respirator and/or some kind of solvent extraction. This can be as simple as having good ventilation (like opening windows) or waxing your furniture outside on a covered porch or carport. I try to avoid paste waxes that contain toluene due to it being more toxic. (toluene is the chemical that people ‘huff’ or sniff to get high, it is one of the chemicals in model airplane glue, hence the term ‘glue sniffers.) Also, dispose of all rags, cloths, etc. outside away from your home or business.
Apply the paste wax with cheese cloth, the more porous nature of this kind of cloth allows the wax to be applied more evenly and sparingly. Cheescloth can easily catch and pull up splinters or loose veneer, so pay attention and proceed with caution.
Allow the wax to ‘dry’. Drying means that you need to allow sufficient time for the solvent to evaporate. Depending on temperature/humidity, this can be from 10 minutes to a few hours. The surface should look dull and feel dry to the touch.
Remove as much wax as possible by buffing with clean cheesecloth, stockinette, surgical huck towels, old bath towels or similar open weave cotton textile. Make sure the cloth you choose is soft and does not have anything on it that might scratch your furniture. The open weave will pick up the wax better than a tightly woven cloth like most t—shirt material. While buffing, keep flipping and re-folding your cloth so that you are always removing wax and not simply smearing it around. Use a fair bit of pressure. No matter how hard you buff, there will remain a very thin layer of wax on the surface that will give not only more lustre, but also a small amount of protection from liquids and scratches. If you are using a colored paste wax, you MUST buff until your cloth no longer picks up color. pay special attention to edges and recesses. If you do not remove the colored wax with your cloth, then the colored wax WILL permanently stain the clothing of anyone who brushes up against it.
Flat surfaces are generally easier to wax than carved surfaces. Carved surfaces require much more time and effort to wax. You might consider consulting a professional if you have lots of carving that need waxing.
When you are finished buffing, I recommend going over everything once again with a clean cloth to verify that there is no more colored wax on the surface. Pay special attention to the feet of your furniture as excess colored wax will stain your carpet or other flooring material. It pays to be vigilant!
The resulting surface should be what I call a “dry shine”. It should feel dry and silky smooth. This is different from using a liquid polish like lemon oil that typically leaves a ‘wet look’ and can feel somewhat greasy to the touch. A waxed surface will show fingerprints, this is a drawback to using wax, but fingerprints are easily buffed away with your chosen buffing cloth. I feel that having to remove the occasional fingerprint is a small trade-off when you consider the luster and protection that paste wax provides.
If you don’t like the results, you can remove paste wax by wiping the surface with a cloth or paper towel wetted out (not totally soaked) with odorless mineral spirits. Keep flipping your cloth to a clean surface so that you are picking up wax rather just smearing it around. You will need to repeat this process 2 or 3 more times to remove all the wax. Wipe the surface with dry cloths to remove all the solvent. Do not worry if a white haze appears. Simply wipe this away with a clean dry cloth. The better quality odorless mineral spirits you use, the less haze you’ll see. I use Sherwin Williams mineral spirits, but if you want to purchase odorless mineral spirits in smaller quantities you might consider buying artist grade mineral spirits. Yes, it is more expensive, but it sure is convenient to not have to store gallon size containers of hazardous solvent.
If you ever find that your paste wax has hardened in the can, this means that the solvent has evaporated. Simply add mineral spirits to it (slowly at first) until you can get it to soften. Sometimes this takes a few days depending on how much solvent loss there has been. I generally have to add a few drops of mineral spirits to my can of paste wax to keep it soft and easy to apply.
Here are some brands of paste wax that I recommend. Note: I don’t get paid for these recommendations, nor do I get free samples. I buy them, just like anyone else and have used them on a daily basis for over 30 years.
American Custom Paste Wax - https://www.kingdomrestorations.com/ecommerce/furniture-wax/american-custom-paste-wax.html
Harrell’s Wax (Antique Color) - http://www.harrellswax.com/product_p/w009.htm
Liberon Black Bison Wax - https://toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/LB-0300.XX
Kiwi Shoe Polish (brown color) - from most grocery stores. Kiwi shoe polish is almost identical in formulation to paste waxes marketed to the wood finishing industry, in fact, KIWI once marketed and packaged a wax specifically intended for furniture. Kiwi shoe polish is a high quality product and a because it is sold in small cans, it is great way to experiment with paste wax and not have to buy the larger quantities that some of the other waxes are sold in.
