Years ago my
Years ago my Grandfather (and, later, an uncle) had a handle factory and some of their small hammer handles were finished by tumbleing them in a large wooden tumbler to which were added very hard wax rock-like chunks and some permanently retained wood blocks to act as a polishing medium. The wax and very mild abrasive action of the blocks and other handles imparted a very smooth and durable finish on the handles after several hours of tumbling. I am looking for a source for(or at least the name or composition of) the wax. It was round after use much as a rounded river cobblestone might be and VERY hard. It was of mottled brown in color – two or three toned which makes me think it was a mixtureof solids rather than being homogeneous in make-up. I do still have a sample, but I am reluctant to give it up as it is all I have. We are talking of a piece from more than fifty years ago. Can anyone help?
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MY guess: bee's wax mixed with carnubra wax/
WHAT'S THE PRIZE? Stein.
You may be right. The mottled colors would suggest beeswax as one of the components. And my (very old ) recolection of the smell would suggest so, too. As to the other components, I am not sure what carnuba wax is like in the solid state having only seen it as a component in blends. I say it was browns and greyish browns. The wax was very hard and resembled stone. The piece I have is fist sized and almost without odor after all those years. I don't recall seeing it ever befored it was tumbled so I cannot say what form it came in or anything else.
There's places that can probably test your sample. Call some wax companies for their ideas. Probably some modern counter part that would work as well or better.
Yeah, you are probably right about that. I do know of a not-too-distant petroleum wax manufacturer that migh just be willing to run an analysis for me. I was just hopeing someone in the business would still be doing something like this today. It has the great advantage of providing a strong, durable and smooth finish on smallish parts and there is no drying racks or time involved and no fumes or odor to amount to much from the process. And the time involved for an operator isonly that required to load and unload the tumbler. After the sanding there was no other prep work involved. And the parts can be handled imediately after you stop the tumbling. I seem to recall tha there was a day's tumbling or so involved. The tumbler was three plus feet in diameter and of multi-sided hardwood and about 8 feet long. Needless to say the inside was polished smooth by the several years of use - a fascinating thing to rub your hand over when you are a young boy interested in everything and how things were done. Of course the energy costs of running a tumbler can be offsetting to some of the advantages, but I find I have a perfect application for a project I am contemplating (or so it seems to me now.)
As an interesting aside: they also made some of their own sandpaper applying garnet of various grit sizes to the paper backing with a glue, sometimes forming belts twenty feet long and over a foot wide for use in sanding handles held in fixtures that let the handle turn against the running belts. Everything was run from overhead line shafts via flat belts. All was powered by a central large electric motor. When I say large I mean five or more feet in diameter. There was auxillery deisel power to run a generator should the electric company-supplied power fail, as was not uncommon in those days. Times have changed, havent they? It was all a great education I have never forgotten.
I've given this some thought, at least to the point of thinking about converting a clothes dryer into a tumbler. Hut turners wax may be worth a try.
John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
There are some aspects of the clothes dryer that I have thought about as being useful. However there is one problem in that you do not need the holes. They could act to let pieces escape. Also the paddles inside should be removed. Unloading would be a problem only if you plan to do it a lot. The tumbler to which I refered in my original message and a smaller one that was used to finish bone for bone handled knives hwere long multisided cylinders. The ends were wood and so were the walls, being made up of heavy hardwood planks. In the case of the larger wood- use one I believe they were hard maple mitred-edge planks. As it was between three and four feet in diameter and the planks were about 10/4 by 10 or 12 inch wide the opening was accomplished by having three of them act as a horizontal door that hinged upwards. It could be locked open then the drum turned by hand to dump the whole load into a hand truck box wheeled under. Then the wax and medium (old blocks of wood) were thrown back in for the next job. The wooden sides served to apply a coat of wax to the pieces as the whole inside was constantly getting a fresh layer along with the handles being tumbled.
The sound of a metal drum would be a bit much to bear. (Have you ever dried a pair of sneakers?) The heavy wooden sides muffled the noise a lot. That said, I would consider using dryer idyller wheels on a smaller unit, rather than suspending from axels attached at the center of each end. They have to be strong and heavy to do the job. I would consider making babbit bearings for that purpose rather than the expense of pillow blocks for a size I need. Speed is slow and babbit works very well. Besides, years ago I did some of repouring of babbit bearings in some oil field equipment as a small part of one of my many jobs. Kinda fun! Besides, that is what tinkering and inventing (or re-inventing as is this case) is all about: the FUN. I believe in being creatively lazy. That is spending two hours figuring a way to save twenty minutes on a one hour job. Worthwhile if that one hour job is one that repeats often, but I find it worthwhile just for the FUN of it. Guess that is why I am not now retired rich. Just retired.
By all means have fun. What got me going on this was the article in FWW about the guy that polished boards for blanket chests in the chute of the grain silo he operated. My initial plan for the dryer trial is to use a drywall mud bucket. Packed into the drum with styrofoam blocking. For sanding and polishing I'd experiment with various media (sand, glass bead, walnut shells, grain?) and/or scraps of sandpaper and Scotchbrite. For final polishing and waxing I thought that with the heat of the dryer that chunks of pure carnuba may even work. Being a part time woodworker large commisssions are hard to come by and harder to execute. So I've been thinking about making a serious run at the small item craft market hence my interest in greatly reducing the finishing time. I'd be real interested to hear of your progress. John O'Connell - JKO Handcrafted Woodworking
Life is tough. It's tougher if you're stupid - John Wayne
Rest assured Iwill let you know. Another polishing medium would be dry corn cobs. That brings to mind an aspect of my misspent youth: One favorite hangout was a bar owned by the father of a classmate. In the upstairs bar (or, perhaps the downstairs, I don't remember which) unshelled peanuts were a regular free offering and the policy was that the shells were to be discarded on tha old hardwood floor. They were swept away every morning (along with those patrons that hadn't left on their own), but the floor was left in a very neat, pollished condition. Evidentally the trampling of many feetjust shuffling about and on the small dance floor accompanied with what residual peanut oils and the soft and constantly crumpled shells did wonders for the hardwood. The place has been torn down nigh on to fourty years now, but I can still remember the beautiful condition of the floor. Come to think of it, maybe something usually comes from a misspent youth. Perhaps there is no such thing.
Tumbling is still done as a finishing technique, I saw tumbling equipment in use in the last few years so the equipment, the tumbling media and the waxes should still be available. I'd do a web search.
John W.
Have done web search. Thomas Register has yielded some results. Nothing specifically under wax for that purpose, however. I did do some blanket inquires and got one successful (I think) response. Have a sample coming. Their minium order is $200, but that is OK for my purposes. If it appears to work for what I want I will pass on the information for all who might be interested. Or even if it doesen't fit my needs I will pass on my findings as I suspect others might find it useful. MSDS sheets are available for it, too. (Gives the safety aspects and use cautions, if any.)
I expect I am going to have to rig up a small tumbler to test the small sample I expect and then only on some small small samples, but that should suffice. That is depending on the wax hardness. Small pieces and a short drop in the tumbler might not effect the impact and the consequent wax-to-surface transfer Ias fast as it should. I am sure I won't get tumbling time information that would be indicative of a scaled up tumbler. I will get a finish that I can evaluate, I don't doubt. I am thinking rock tumbler as I have one available, but that is small. Need to think about it some more. I will have to wait on the sample to see how to procede. As it is not what I am going to need for production it will be a cobble job, using something for a purpose it was not iniatially intended. I do that a lot. I suspect most of my trips to the hardware store have me leaving with something I intend for a use it had not been intended.
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