homemade recipe for preparing liquid carnuba wax.

[paloma]

A little homemade recipe for preparing liquid carnuba wax. I use it a lot and especially for the finishing of the leather edges.

I reduce the wax flakes to a fine powder, to save time, and then I melt it in turpentine, and stir it regularly. The amount of turpentine I use depends on the viscosity I want to obtain.

and for people allergic to the smell of turpentine it can also work very well with citrus oil. citrus turpentine 

[paloma]

and there's even odorless turpentine.

[Spyros]

Thanks for that

If you use it as top finish does it come out glossy?  Or it depends on the buffing? 

[Spyros]

I guess for a top finish I'd probably need to mix it with some other wax or oil

Carnauba is really hard and it has a very high melting point, I didn't know you can just melt it in turps.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Spyros
typo

[paloma]

yes, with a good preparation of the edge, and with a soft cloth it remains very shiny but not mirrored.

4 hours ago, Spyros said:

I guess for a top finish I'd probably need to mix it with some other wax or oil

Carnauba is really hard and it has a very high melting point, I didn't know you can just melt it in turps.

with the time...!

yes, with a good preparation of the edge, and with a soft cloth it remains very shiny but not mirrored.

but for people who don't want to wait, we can also melt it in a bain-marie.

Edited June 13, 2020 by paloma

[Spyros]

so how is it as a top finishing coat?

not on edges.

[paloma]

I don't understand the meaning of your question.

I use it only for edges.

Edited June 13, 2020 by paloma

[Spyros]

I was wondering if maybe you had tried a few drops on a scrap to see what it looks like as a finish on the top as opposed to just for edging.

You know carnauba cream by fiebings?  that sort of thing.   Even some woodworkers use it as a finish.

[dikman]

I've experimented with melting various waxes, using pure gum turpentine as a thinning agent, but what I've found is that over time the turps appears to "come out" of the mix and leaves a fairly hard black deposit in the container.

[paloma]

ah but certainly quite exact I also use it to waterproof and shine wooden pieces, it's highly recommended.

And yes i know the carnuba cream of Fiebings which is an EXCELLENT product...but there is not only carnuba wax in...and i use it too.

 

59 minutes ago, dikman said:

I've experimented with melting various waxes, using pure gum turpentine as a thinning agent, but what I've found is that over time the turps appears to "come out" of the mix and leaves a fairly hard black deposit in the container.

Yes, and for this reason I never prepare very large quantities in advance.

Edited June 13, 2020 by paloma

[fredk]

My opinion on this.

Carnauba on its own might be fine for edge burnishing but not for surface polishing on flexible leather.

Carnauba is a very hard wax. Its used on wood furniture because of its hardness. Its used in the French Polishing technique, as a final coating polish because of its hardness.

On leather, the leather first absorbs the turps, but the leather does not absorb the wax which remains on the surface of the leather. The wax dries out and the wax continues to harden. As it hardens it will form cracks and eventually crack and break off the leather surface

That is why its usually mixed with beeswax. Beeswax is actually a bee reprocessed honey. A honey bee is fed honey and it processes it in its body and extrudes platelettes of wax. For every 6 to 7 pounds of honey 1 pound of wax is made. Beeswax has a lower melting temperature and also contains more moisture which helps it to be absorbed into leather. But beeswax on its own is a poor polish so carnauba, which is from a tree, is added for hardness

My qualifications on this are; Once upon a time I was a bee keeper. I used to make polishes for car-finishers, furniture polishers, leatherworkers and more. I attended certain instruction courses to learn about polishes so I could mix polishes to suit the end users. Some end users used to travel from all over this island to search me out for my polishes. I wasn't in the Turtlewax league but specialists preferred my polishes

[paloma]

wall paint and carnuba wax.

 

[johnv474]

Looks amazing.  What would you change in the process if you used citrus turpentine as a solvent?

 

Do you know of any product that would help preserve this product so it could last longer in storage?