DIY beeswax carnauba was too hard, ideas to soften?

[Patrick Irish]

I’m trying to make a food safe wax. First batch I made was 8oz walnut oil, 1/3 cup beeswax and 1/3 cup carnauba. Came out great. Needs to be scraped out of can but spreads good. Haven’t used on raw wood yet. Did not dry after 24 hours on top of shellac.

2nd smaller batch was more a buffing was. Mixed 50/50 carnauba and beeswax. Came out hard as a rock. I remelted and added 8 Table spoons of beeswax. Still flakes. Then added 2 table spoons of parafin and 2 more beeswax and tiny walnut oil. It’s drying but I’m not optimistic.

What can I add to that batch above that will soften it up but also be food safe? Suppose mineral oil but I worry it was haze or buff out.

[Bill McCarthy]

Last summer I messed around with some recipes for a home made shoe polish. They also called for bee's wax and carnauba wax. The recipes also called for oils. It was the oils that made the final product softer, walnut was one that was mentioned, but I never tried it. I read that castor oil was used to enhance the gloss shine. My shoe polish didn't work so good, so I gave up on it. You may want to try some castor oil. Also if you google home made shoe polish you should be able to find the various recipes.

[Stan Calow]

I've never done it, but saw recent episode of one of the TV woodworking shows where they mixed beeswax and mineral oil to make the wax.

[Prashun Patel]

If you want it to buff out hard, then you want to minimize the mineral oil; that will not evaporate.

You can use mineral SPIRITS or naphtha instead. This will make the wax softer to apply, but will flash off, leaving you with the harder wax. This will make it easier to buff.

That being said, when I apply wax to a cutting or edible surface, I don't want a sheen; so I DO use a less volatile oil like tung or mineral oil mixed with the wax.

Paraffin is the hardest of all waxes; it's pure, hard wax. Every other kind of wax is intentionally or unintentionally impurified to achieve softness.

[Patrick Irish]

I'll try some mineral spirits. Was reading about the 'traditional' beeswax carnauba blend that used gum turpentine. Apparently it's be swopped for the less $$ white spirit/mineral spirits and furniture makers don't like how the mineral spirits evaporate quicker and don't soak in the wood. I'd rather have it evap faster anyway.

I'll have to do the math but think I'm 13 table spoons of beeswax to 5 table spoons of carnauba and 4 tbs of paraffin. I shouldn't need much mineral spirits to make it playable I'm hoping. Painstaking process as carnauba takes a while to heat and melt. Don't want to have to add anymore wax of either kind at this point, the amount will last me forever right now.

[Ted Phillips]

Naptha is going to flash off very quickly from these mixtures and can create problems when you buff - especially if you wait for a few minutes between application and buffing. I would urge you to use mineral spirits or possibly gum turpentine. Both will make a nice paste wax that stays soft in the jar. Don't use "turpentine" from the big box store - it isn't real turp. Only use "pure gum turpentine" which is distilled from pine trees. Smells great on finished products.