All rights reserved. Waxes have many uses around the woodshop, including helping to prevent rust on machinery, lubricating screws and sliding surfaces, preventing glues from sticking to clamps or fixtures, and serving as finishes on many wooden articles. To reduce the risk of contaminating my wood projects from tools, I avoid the use of silicones altogether and, rather than buying premium wax preparations from specialty stores, I blend my own. Besides saving money, blending my own waxes allows me to control the consistency and composition to suit my needs. Although hundreds of different waxes exist, I mostly use carnauba, bees, and paraffin waxes.
Carnauba wax is one of the hardest natural waxes, and takes a hard, glossy shine with a slick feel.
By itself, it is brittle and very difficult to polish once it has dried. Beeswax is a moderately soft, sticky wax with a wonderful smell, and it buffs out to a mellow glow. Although it becomes slippery when it melts, at room temperature it is too sticky to use for machine surfaces like table saw tops. This stickiness, however, makes it ideal for floors or for surfaces that should not slip too easily. I use it primarily as an additive to make harder waxes buff more easily.