Waxing rifles

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Johnson's Paste Wax, or Minwax for furniture and hardwood floors, works great on wood and polished blue of rifles and shotguns.
It can be easily taken off with a soft cotton rag dampened with turpentine, mineral spirits, or kerosene.
If you have an oil finished walnut stock, you need to treat it with some sort of proper ( compatible with your wood finish ) oil or wax periodically ( annually ).

These waxes are made of beeswax, carnuba wax, and some other solids, dissolved and blended in turpentine, to make them into a paste. After you rub them on and polish the stock, it will be very shiny, until the solvents evaporate off. Carnuba wax is very hard by itself, and is an ingredient in automobile waxes, especially for vintage cars with lacquer paint.
 
This has got me interested. I've been using neat linseed oil on my stock and its been OK, but am wondering if a beeswax based product that I have handy (sno-seal/ nikwax) might do a better job of water repellence and feed the wood.
Anyone used 'boot' waxes?
 
Beeswax is too soft to protect wood, too thick to penetrate as a finish. That is why it is blended with Carnuba wax, which is very hard, too hard to apply evenly.

A paste wax will protect wood which already has a good finish, like boiled linseed oil, tung oil, Danish oil ( a varnish and oil blend ), varnishes, and shellacs. It protects the finish from little scratches and mild wetting. And you can remove it gently with turpentine. So it is good on old furniture, and old gunstocks. It fills in the tiny cracks in the finish and can be hand buffed to a sheen. Then, when you have the time, you can remove it, and remove the old finish gently, and refinish the gunstock.

You can clean all the oil off your blued metal, wax it with a paste wax, and it will keep water off the metal, if you have to hunt in the rain with your shiny blue rifle or shotgun. Then you can clean off the wax later and oil the metal properly when you are done with that hunt.

Danish oil is thin blend of natural oils and varnish, and penetrates the wood, bringing out the grain and color. The varnish component dries harder and faster than oils like linseed, and makes for a tougher finish which will not discolor due to water standing on it, like the oils will do. Watco is a "Danish oil" and good stuff, and used for furniture like dining room tables. If you need something more resistant to foods and alcohol, and cleaners, a synthetic blend of polyurethane and varnish, like Behlen's can be brushed on with a proper hair brush, sanded, and several coats applied. This great for something like a bar, made of mahogany.
 
I have to say I'm a big fan of the "Hollywood" look on rifles. But I like to leave a little strip just above the rearsight.
 
To put down a non-glare surface, I use a sight blacking tool, which is like a cigarette lighter, but puts out a plume of soot which you can lay down on and around the front and rear sight. If you want the brass or ivory bead to show, you can just rub off the soot there with your finger tip.
 
Renaissance Wax as formulated for the British Museum works wonders on all firearms, metal as well as wood. I use it because I know it works (part of my work involves fine furniture wood finishing). It resists finger prints and is heat resistant making it ideal for the outside of barrels too.
 
Alantoo said:
I use Renaissance wax on my wood and metalwork pieces...well a home made version. It is a blend of microcrystalline and polythene waxes and has a higher melting point than beeswax so does not suffer from being sticky at room temperature and attracting dust like beeswax. It is tougher but still has some creep to repair scuffed/scraped areas. It does not have the organic inclusions that Beeswax or Lanolin do that can break down over time and the acids formed can attack metal.

It was developed at the British Museum for conservation...reassuringly expensive if you buy it from Picreator on eBay. Which is why I make it as I get through a lot. It goes a long way and well worth having a pot in the house as protector, great for curtain poles, drawer sides etc....much better than a silicone spray from the point of view of removal.

I also use shoe polish, and have used the pigmented versions to give a patina to the piece, I have used it on air rifle barrels to reduce the appearance of wear to the blueing.

Alan
Click to expand...

I second the use of Renaissance Wax. I use it everywhere. Guns, hand planes, swords, even on the beds of my woodworking machines as the high tannin in Aussie timber leads to rusting of the cast iron beds.
Ian Bottomley, the former Arms and Armour curator of the British Museum put me on to it. No endorsement could be better informed than his.
If it's good enough for the Armour of Henry the Eighth it's good enough for me.
 
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Don't use beeswax - too soft. See my posts above. You want a blend of soft and hard waxes, like Johnson's or Renaissance. And if the stock is somber oil finish - not a built up hard oil finish like Linspeed or Truoil - then you don't wax that; you just apply a top coat of oil depending on how much you take it outside. You can use Johnson's on the metal to protect it from water.
 
Although I use wax on stocks I haven't as yet tried it on barrels etc. I've seen plenty of antique firearms with a protective coating of Renaissance wax & jolly good it looks too; just wondering what happens if I apply it to the outside of my shotgun barrels & then quickly fire 50 shots? Does it melt, 'evaporate' or what?
 
McKenzie said:
Although I use wax on stocks I haven't as yet tried it on barrels etc. I've seen plenty of antique firearms with a protective coating of Renaissance wax & jolly good it looks too; just wondering what happens if I apply it to the outside of my shotgun barrels & then quickly fire 50 shots? Does it melt, 'evaporate' or what?
Click to expand...

Interesting question.

The polythene wax melts at 100˚C and the microcrystalline at 85˚C so combined it may be a bit lower...need a chemist.

Bees wax melts at 65˚C if that comparison is any help.

How hot do your barrels get? Actually smokin' hot? Hot enough to burn off any other oil or protective substance you use?

When I used to use hot bees wax to finish my work pieces I would get the metal hot enough to make the wax melt when the block was rubbed on. The old smith I worked with always liked to get it so hot it smoked and burned some of the wax to give a black colour.

I would imagine even if the barrels are too hot to touch they won't get up to wax burning temp.

On things like armour bright/burnished steel pokers where the wax on the tip gets burnt off, the rest of it does not appear to do anything awkward.

I will be interested to hear the outcome...

Alan
 
No, it won't melt. After the solvents evaporate off, the Carnuba wax leaves a hard finish which will require another solvent to remove, even with the bit of beeswax which is an ingredient. Carnuba wax is what gives such a great shine and protection in automobile wax, especially older cars painted with multiple coats of lacquer. It just does not have UV protection, so needs other synthetic wax ingredients with it. But sheet metal of a car where I live and drive can reach 250 degrees F. So your shotgun barrels are fine.
 
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