Paste Wax, Multiple Coats?

[Stew Denton]

Hi All,

I am starting to put paste wax on a combination plane I am cleaning up. I have tried to put multiple coats of Johnson Paste Wax on plane totes, etc., in the past, and it seems like the 2nd application will strip off the first, but that might not have actually been happening, it may have only seemed that way and multiple layers may have actually been building up.

Do second and third applications actually strip off earlier coats? If not, how long do you wait between coats? I was thinking it would be good to build up a thickness of 2 or 3 coats if I could do that. I used metal polish prior to getting ready to put on the wax, but the metal polish was completed, except for a few small parts, several days ago.

Any experience with this and the resulting advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[William Fretwell]

Have used paste wax for many years. The first coat will dry slowly, a second coat gently applied will add more but if you intend to polish there is no real point if your initial application was even. Polishing to produce a coherent film will offer the best protection from oxygen and moisture. It makes sense that for a tool in use, a single thin coat applied more often will offer the most coherent film and the most effective protection.

[James Pallas]

Since any newly applied wax has solvent in it. It most likely will cut the first coat. You may get some build up if you apply it without buffing let it dry well. Add another coat with a light touch and than more the same way then buff the last coat after dry. I would think it would be a little like shellac applied with a rubber and a light touch. Each coat burns into the last because of the solvent.

[lowell holmes]

If the back of a plane iron need to be de-waxed A light sanding on sand paper will do the job. You can also put a tiny back bevel on the iron.

[Stew Denton]

Hi all,

One of the reasons I asked is that folks write about putting on 3 or 4 coats of Paste Wax after refinishing a plane tote and putting on a coat of finish. They put on a single coat of lacquer or shellac and then write about adding 3 or 4 coats of paste wax. I have tried that after refinishing a tote, and it seems like after one coat of Johnson Paste Wax that further coats make no difference.....the tote seems exactly the same as if I had only put on one coat.

Stew

[lowell holmes]

The rust on the iron is what I am concerned with. I do coat the plane and other tools as well since I live in Galveston County Texas.

[Jim Koepke]

Hi all,

One of the reasons I asked is that folks write about putting on 3 or 4 coats of Paste Wax after refinishing a plane tote and putting on a coat of finish. They put on a single coat of lacquer or shellac and then write about adding 3 or 4 coats of paste wax. I have tried that after refinishing a tote, and it seems like after one coat of Johnson Paste Wax that further coats make no difference.....the tote seems exactly the same as if I had only put on one coat.

Stew

One coat at a time seems to work fine for me. Some planes will be wiped with wax one day after use. They may get wiped again in a day or two if they are used again.

jtk

[Don Peters]

I used to work with contact molded epoxy parts. Mold release is critical. There are numerous systems, but the old bedrock is wax. Over the course of decades I developed a relationship with a guy who was the chemist and chief tech guy at Rexco, one of the big three in the industry. On the phone one day he told me about an interesting experiment he'd done.

He applied a coat of their best mold release wax to a standardized surface, then buffed it out. Using way more sophisticated equipment than I can even imagine, he measured the thickness (angstroms? ghost whiskers?). He then applied another nine coats at one hour intervals (allowing for solvent release and full cure). He measured each one of them. The final thickness of all ten coats of wax was only 1.25 times the thickness of the first coat.

Just sayin'
dp

[Frank Pratt]

I used to work with contact molded epoxy parts. Mold release is critical. There are numerous systems, but the old bedrock is wax. Over the course of decades I developed a relationship with a guy who was the chemist and chief tech guy at Rexco, one of the big three in the industry. On the phone one day he told me about an interesting experiment he'd done.

He applied a coat of their best mold release wax to a standardized surface, then buffed it out. Using way more sophisticated equipment than I can even imagine, he measured the thickness (angstroms? ghost whiskers?). He then applied another nine coats at one hour intervals (allowing for solvent release and full cure). He measured each one of them. The final thickness of all ten coats of wax was only 1.25 times the thickness of the first coat.

Just sayin'
dp

That confirms what I have read many years ago. One good coat of wax is pretty much as good as 10. The wax dissolves so quickly in the solvent from subsequent coats that it just smears the wax around.

I've brought up this issue before on forums when people talk about how important it is to apply multiple coats. But after being told I don't know what I'm talking about a couple of times, I just shut up on the subject.

[Stew Denton]

Lowell, good point about protection of things like plane irons in Galveston.

Question: Has something like the Johnson Paste Wax done the job as far as preventing rust pretty well, in your experience? I will be moving to a bit more humid climate than the Texas Panhandle when I retire, which will be in the Oklahoma City area. If the paste wax works in Galveston, it will certainly work where I am moving to.

Any advise you have will be much appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

[lowell holmes]

Dickinson Galveston County is very humid. Johnson wax works.

I went to Capitol Hill High School in Oklahoma City. It is not nearly as humid as Dickinson.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

Hi all,

One of the reasons I asked is that folks write about putting on 3 or 4 coats of Paste Wax after refinishing a plane tote and putting on a coat of finish. They put on a single coat of lacquer or shellac and then write about adding 3 or 4 coats of paste wax. I have tried that after refinishing a tote, and it seems like after one coat of Johnson Paste Wax that further coats make no difference.....the tote seems exactly the same as if I had only put on one coat.

Stew

A surprising amount of what you read is like that. Sounds good, but if you try it you wonder if the person who wrote it tried it before writing about it.

[Charles Guest]

Hi All,

I am starting to put paste wax on a combination plane I am cleaning up. I have tried to put multiple coats of Johnson Paste Wax on plane totes, etc., in the past, and it seems like the 2nd application will strip off the first, but that might not have actually been happening, it may have only seemed that way and multiple layers may have actually been building up.

Do second and third applications actually strip off earlier coats? If not, how long do you wait between coats? I was thinking it would be good to build up a thickness of 2 or 3 coats if I could do that. I used metal polish prior to getting ready to put on the wax, but the metal polish was completed, except for a few small parts, several days ago.

Any experience with this and the resulting advise would be much appreciated.

Thanks and regards,

Stew

If it has solvents, and Johnson's does, you don't really get build beyond the first application. Do two only to make sure you missed no spots. Beyond that you're wasting product.

[Prashun Patel]

There is solvent in the wax. That's what makes it pliable. When it evaporates on your surface, you're left with a harder film than the original paste. But it's not a polymerizing, or chemically hardening surface.

When you put on a second coat, it does redissolve the original layer. It's not so much that it will remove the first layer, as it will smear it around. If it's too much, some will stick on your applicator, and be taken off.

You notice this more when you buff the first coat. The second coat will streak up the first and eliminate the shine; it has to be rebuffed. However, for tool protection, you're not really concerned with buffing.

What I usually do on my tool surfaces is wipe on a thin coat in circles until the whole surface is hazy. Then I leave it. I usually do not apply a second or third coat because too thick a surface sticks to wood, and gunks up mating metal surfaces after a while.

I'm not in the most rust encouraging environment, though, so YMMV.

[lowell holmes]

I am in a rust environment and since I coat my tools with Johnson Floor Wax, no rust forms.