This is my first post here. I’m new, but I’ve found woodworking to be my passion. It’s all I’ve done for a couple of years now, and I don’t plan on ever slowing down. I’m excited to be here and learn from all the collected experience.
I have lots of rookie questions about everything, but I’ll keep this to about wax.
I’d like to know what everyone thinks about wax in general.
Can wax be applied over ANY finish? If not, which ones are no-go’s and go’s? Also, why or why not?
What qualities does wax improve or take away from?
Is there something better than wax objectively in all areas?
How much variation is there between brands of waxes?
What are your most commonly used wax types, and for what?
LOL, if you guys aren’t pissed at me yet and have ANY other information to share about wax, I’m all ears…or eyes.
Also, no need to answer all of these. Im so gracious for any and everything that can be shared. Even if it is to tell me off 🙂
Replies
You'll find a whole lot of content by typing "wax" into the search box at the top of the page... more than you could get from any of us in a post here. After your eyeballs heal, if you have Qs that only experience can answer you'll get plenty of help here.
I figured this is what id get lol.
I certainly am going through all the articles out there.
I would like to hear from others too though not just people who write articles. Id like to hear how people agree and disagree.
Thats not something articles can deliver on.
Does it hurt to contribute some opinions mj? id love to hear what you think.
Id sure be grateful.
thats nice post !
nice post!
Anything you put wax on should be fully cured, especially an oil finish. But the old maxim is "wax sticks to everything, and nothing sticks to wax." So, put it on what you want, but don't try to put a different finish on top, unless you strip the wax first.
I find a big difference in furniture waxes. Beeswax based finishes are very soft, for instance. You can get waxes tinted in a wide variety of colors. There's just a wide range. Waxes that some people love, I really don't like.
The only wax I use now is Rennaissance Wax. It's easy to apply and buff, and easy to renew. It's just beautiful.
The biggest drawback to wax is that it's fragile. It damages easily. I think the best comparison says something like polyurethane is like wearing canvas or denim, and wax is like wearing silk.
I have a couple of jars of the Rennaissance Wax.
When I tried it once on a little box, it didn't turn out great.
Now I didn't apply any type of finish beforehand. perhaps that was why it came out looking kinda cloudy?
Also, when it comes to buffing.
Is there a special technique, or is it just a lint-free towel and as fast and much pressure for as long as I can?
I always feel like I'm guessing when I'm buffing.
I use shellac first. A few coats, which dry very fast. I rub it out with 0000 steel wool to make it smooth. Wipe on wax with a rag, wait a few minutes, then buff with a clean rag, like you're shining a shoe.
Shoe polish, by the way, is tinted wax.
Thanks for this, John,
I've learned a lot about finishing lately and have been using a wipe on poly and wipe on shellac, followed by a 3m scotch brite and then a wax.
I haven't tried the R wax since I've learned more, though, so I'll do that since you've given it such high marks.
I've never polished a shoe, LOL. Can you give me some general details about how you buff? By hand?
does the amount of pressure matter? speed? duration?
I know I'm such a rookie and ask such silly questions.
Also, have you ever thinned out your wax and applied it that way?
Buffing is light pressure, back and forth rapidly. Only takes seconds. You'll know when it's done.
I've never even considered thinning commercial wax products. They come ready to use.
Bentusi,
Welcome
I will do wax on simple bowls while it is still turning on the lathe and use the friction to add heat for penetration of wax into cell structure.
Small project like folk art wax on buffing wheel.
As for type or brand no comment.
As for large project with carvings etc.... I would prefer as product with a manufacturers warranty on a product that has at least 4mill thick dry finish.
Making something harder does not making it better.
Those are some nice pieces!
Would you say it's worth heating up the wax with a heat gun a little before applying it to something that isn't being turned and can't have that friction available?
That way, I could get better pore penetration on everything I apply wax to.
Also, would pore penetration matter for wax if a finish is applied first, such as a wipe-on poly or shellac?
As paint dries through the process of oxidation the reaction produces heat an endothermic or spontaneous reaction. So adding heat, I don't know what this really does but a old german furniture maker Mr Baumstark grandson told me that it worked for him.
A lot of big words for a simple guy like me...lol.I don't follow.
What's going on about paint? XD
You hand-carved that rooster, though? That's mighty impressive.
As some as commented, wax can be used on top of just about any finish - or even just bare wood. But wax won't allow any finish to be applied to it. For finished products, wax can offer a little sheen to a nice piece, and protect the finish a little. It may also make the piece more pleasant to the touch. Wax can also help enrichen the colour. Depending on the piece, wax can be used on its own on wood - it isn't durable so you have to re-apply regularily, but that isn't a big deal. Some like the feel of wood after bare wood has been waxed. I like to use it on my hand plane handles. I strip the wood down, sand it to a grit I like, and apply a few coats of paste wax. Offers protection, but also feels really nice. I recommend you use paste wax, name brand doesn't matter, they are all essentially the same. But --- and a big but -- if it will be used for food, don't use paste wax. It isn't classified as food safe. Use beeswax and mineral spirits, or just beeswax for anything that will be used to serve food.
Great info. It's good to give things a nice soft touch, and it ups the sheen a bit in all cases.
I didn't know it could enrich the color, though. Do you mean to saturate the color or up the contrast?
I also didn't know that all waxes are the same. So you'd say some nice Liberon Beeswax is not better than some paste wax I use on tools for extra slip and slide, and both can be used interchangeably on pieces?
Is it a good idea to mix wax with a thinner to create a wipe-on wax?
I would use Liberon Black Bison on every furniture piece I make in the future. I've found, now that Johnstons paste wax ( a lower end, more economical wax) is discontinued, the best solution for jointer beds and tablesaw cast iron is just wadding up a sheet of wax paper and wiping it on. Distributes evenly and is cheap and works well.
That's a great tip; thanks! I'm going to order some wax paper right now. That sounds so much easier than what I've been doing. Do you mind linking the paper you use?
Okay, I'll have to take your advice on the black bison. I'll order some of that now, too.
What are the differences between Liberon Beeswax Paste, Clear, and the black bison you mentioned?
Honestly I just use whatever wax paper I can find at the grocery store.
The black bison is better for large surfaces and furniture and is more protective than just the beeswax paste alone. I haven't tried the regular beeswax paste just yet so I can't tell you the difference other than that.
I'll be picking some up from the store ASAP, then.
Also, I'll do a comparison of the beeswax vs black bison and report back here what differences I notice.
I'm definitely curious about it. The black bison stuff looks nice and well,... I'm a Liberon fanboy, lol. For no reason admittedly.
The wax from wax paper spreads onto the cast iron? I've never heard this before. Fascinating.
Yes, it makes a huge difference! Unless you're needing to do heavier maintenance, then I'd recommend a regular paste wax. But it's a quick solution.
I had no idea. Thanks.
Paste wax works great on wooden router tables and sleds also.
Have you guys ever used the Liberon Black Bison wax she mentioned?
I have a can of Johnson's Paste Wax, and a can of Minwax Paste Wax. They don't behave the same, even if the list of ingredients might look similar. The Minwax is hard to buff out to an even shine without streaks. I think it is harder than the Johnson's Wax.
I use Waterlox Original whenever I can; it's a wipe-on varnish. Several coats of that, very light sanding with 400 grit to level the surface, and 0000 steel wool to refine the scratches from the sandpaper leaves a smooth, but cloudy surface. Applying wax saturates the color (unclouds the finish) and leaves the best hand feel of anything I've ever created.
However, wax is a really poor final coat for table tops as it water-spots very easily. So I've had to refine my technique such that the last coat of Waterlox doesn't need rubbing out, so I don't need to add the wax on top.
The same process with shellac, sandpaper, steel wool, and paste wax makes a very smooth, pretty surface finish and duplicates similar traditional finishes.
Great information, Harvey. Thanks for sharing.
So you get great results from using paste wax on your work if it's not something like a tabletop.
I always thought it was for cast iron tools, etc.
So basically, you sand your wood to whatever, let's just say, 180? Then you apply your finish of choice lets say some coats of wipe on shellac, and then you hit it with 400 sandpaper followed by 0000 wool and buff paste wax on after. Do i have this correct?
I'll have to try this, and I'm excited to see how it turns out.
Have you ever thinned out your wax? make it into a wipe on wax?
Or perhaps warm it up by just pasting wax before using it?
Keep a log of each applications viscosity, time of day, amount of sunshine, temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, Mode of operation and how it turned out.
Anything that will change the way something dry will have a effect on how the paste wax dries.
Temperature, humidity surface characteristics and uv light have had the biggest effect from my perspective.
I guess there are feedback loops in the system and more to go wrong than right.
This is a very helpful thread thank.
Wow, I wouldn't have thought those metrics would make that much of a difference.
I mean I understand it would be a massive difference between the same finish at 85F/80RH and at 62F/15RH (my shop)
Are you saying differences in the same shop making the most difference to you.
For example, one day, I finish at 62F/15RH, and the next week, it's 68F/25RH. Would this make a significant difference in the outcome?
Yes, Kind of your own double blind study.
Way, way, way overthinking it. My great grandmother waxed furniture in her 90s. Wipe on a little wax, buff it off with a clean cloth. It really, really isn't anything more than that.
Yeah, I'm siding with you here, for sure. I'll still keep it in mind, though, and might just jot down the temps and RH% for the next few months.
It won't hurt and just takes a moment, and it would sure be good to know on the off chance it does make a difference.
A wet bulb vs dry bulb thermometer would would tell you a lot about about the relation between the temp and humidity
The manufacturer should have reconditioned on how to apply the wax.
There is a human factor also. If you spend a lot on something you may take a little more time to read the direction following them more carefully.
You can look at the hole process as one big ball of wax that you are rolling down a endothermic hill to entropy. Endothermic in nature, meaning it absorbs energy from the outside system. Your shop It would be spontaneous reaction for something to dry. What would it be if it didn't dry? The reaction stops before it hardens stoping at entropy like before but falling short of drying because there wasn't enough of the solvent in the wax or the surrounding environment didn't have enough available/free energy to finish the process in time. Gibbs available energy:
ΔG = ΔH − T × ΔS
G available/free energy
H is the enthalpy
T is temperature
S is entropy
Oh yeah, I'm gonna have to side with John on this lol...
Wax quantum physics is beyond me, LOL.
I appreciate the info, though. My brain isn't big enough for that.
The room need enough available energy or temperature to flash off the solvent. Say the humid is to high it will lower the temp. (not enough energy)
The chemical engineering calculated the energy coupling to match the good shop environment for you. Well before you open the can.
A rooms relative nor absolute humidity wont raise or lower the rooms temperature.
Also, high room humidity wouldnt lower the temp of the solvent either.
A rooms relative nor absolute humidity wont raise or lower the rooms temperature.
humidity effect the ΔG available energy in the room for the solvent to flash off.
Say we you put a wet rag in a high humidity environment it is slow to dry.
Also, high room humidity wouldn't lower the temp of the solvent either.
It will lower the ΔG available energy in the room to flash off the solvent.
To low of viscosity (resisting a flow) will not allow the solvent for flash off. It can't access the energy in the room.
Everything? That would be a large book. Amazon probably has several? :-)
From the furniture point of view, though, you only need to know some-things about wax. They're not numerous - unless you want to be a physicist about it.
Wax on bare wood can eventually look good once the wood has absorbed enough wax+dirt to build what's generally called "patina". This takes many years or even a century.
Turners can make their gew-gaws gleam by super-buffing on the lather, employing the heat it generates. But it'll still be a delicate finish easily dulled, scratched or otherwise damaged. Some decorative things don't suffer the sort of wear or impacts of furniture, though.
For we hurry-up moderns, it's generally best to apply wax as a final shine-coat on top of a more substantial finish. Personally I like oil finishes (sometimes shellac) but those too are numerous with various effects. More books needed to describe their everything. Their effects have more impact on both eye and resilience than any wax on top of them.
Personally I tend to avoid coloured waxes other than as a match to what's already underneath them (the colour of the wood and its main finish). Wax to re-colour never looks convincing. A neutral wax is generally the best choice when used on top of another finish.
On the other hand, lime-waxing and black waxing, to fill open-pore timbers like ash or oak, can give a very definitie colour effect.
Wax is for making a shine (and that longer term patina). It's a small amplifier of what's underneath. Other stuff is better for providing protection, colour-enhancement and even a good part of the shine.
Lataxe
Awesome reply, Thank for chiming in. Everyone doing exactly as you and a few others have done is exactly what ive been hoping for. im so stoked and grateful.
Oh yeah im sure theres books and lots of articles. I am defintly going through those but i think theres immense value in hearing what lots of people think in the same place regardless of whos actually right or wrong as opposed to one guy writing a book or column where no one else can chime in or question it.
Your take on wax on bare wood lines up with my experiances. it didnt look very good at all. Makes sense about the patina build up. I dont think anything im making will be lasting a centruy sadly :( but one day ill be as good as you guys.
I just got the rockler mini/midi lathe and looking foward to seeing the super sheen as you mentioned.
If you dont mind me asking, what is lime-waxing? im assuming black waxing is using a black wax to fill the pores AFTER the main finish.
My question is. lets take shellac. wouldnt the pores already be sealed from the shellac coats? so how would the black wax get in there. and you cant put the wax first cause the "Nothing sticks to wax" right?
Id love to give it a try though cause it sounds like itll look amazing
Would you agree with others it helps with colour saturation and touch feel?
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A lot has been said so here are my two cents. Each wood finish has to be evaluated for its intended use and appearance. Hardness, abrasion resistance, sheen, aging are a few criteria’s to be considered. Wax alone rates low to very low in all criteria’s unless it’s applied over a hard finish such as shellac and is my go to finish for turnings intended for display or light use. I am very generous in the number of shellac coats using a technique close to French polishing where the goal is to fill the grain. Once a uniform sealed surface has been achieved, I sometimes will polish with a mixture of pumice stone and mineral spirit and a felt pad and then apply carnauba wax either on the lathe or with a cotton wheel mounted on the drill press until a deep gloss finish is achieved. As you guessed, ease of application is not part of my criteria’s .
Thanks for sharing your process, gulfstar,
Would the pumic/mineral spirit mixture get better results than a 0000 steel wool or 3M ultra-fine scour pad?
Lataxe,
Like you sometime we will give to much information in one post.
This makes some people mad and they will beat you down with their experience.
Are you saying I'm asking too many questions?
Seems like a very unconstructive comment.
Im not mad in any sense of the word...I also don't think I'm "beating" him down by graciously asking questions...There's no obligation to reply...Strange.
It's unfortunate you feel this way.
I don't feel like that.
This is your thread to do with as you please.
Its our thread.
My two cents. I've always looked at regular wax as a coating, not a finish. It makes things look good and feel good, but temporarily, like wax on a car or furniture polish. Yes it protects somewhat against water, but not so much against scratches or hard object wear. Thats OK for some projects, but not others. Just another tool.
I like that perspective and will be adopting it myself now.
For something that's not getting beat up, like a tabletop or something.
Let's just take a jewelry box for example.
How long roughly would you say the wax needs to be reapplied?
In my mind if its not getting physcially worn out then it should last a LONG time. But im wondering does it dry out passivley?
I know things like temperature, RH, UV, and use are variable and will make a huge difference, but just roughly. For the example, are we talking about months? Years? Two years or 10?
So that I have an idea.
How would i know the wax is worn out? is it just a lack of sheen or a lack of soft touch?
Can it hurt to re-apply wax too often?
Lime and black wax - heavily coloured waxes made to rub on open pore timbers such as oak and ash (which are also lightish in tone) to provide enhancement or amplification of the grain structure. The coloured wax remains in the pores but is rubbed to nothing but a faint-hue gleam on the rest of the wood.
Limed wax lightens timbers like oak or ash slightly. Black wax darkens them slightly. The stuff remaining thickly in the pores is of a much deeper and therefore contrasting hue.
https://inbetweenchaos.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/20191004_202529609_iOS-e1571244553351-768x1024.jpg
You can rub such waxes into/on to bare wood or on to any finish that hasn't filled the open pores, with the same general effect.
It probably works with any wax containing a lot of colour pigment, of any colour.
***********
Few finishes fill the open pores of such woods themselves, although you can do so by combining them with a grain filler (often plaster of Paris) or with wood dust. French polishing (many coats of shellac rubbed into and on to the wood) can also eventually fill grain - but it takes lots of coats and lots of time and quite a lot of skill to avoid runs, drags, blotches and other shellac-bloops.
************
Some other wax thoughts:
Avoid any "furniture wax" with silicone in it. It makes the surface shiny for a bit but eventually forms a dull white glaze that's impossible to remove except by sanding.
Some wax formulas contain hard as well as soft waxes. (E.g. carnauba and beeswax). Hard waxes offer a little bit more protection from smudges (but not against scratches or abrasion) whilst soft waxes tend to make a better gleam. Many waxes can be a bit dull compared to a pure beeswax, because of additions such as pigments or other less soft waxes.
Less is more. If you dollop on a geet splodge of wax it'll take ages for the stuff to dry out; and the dried result will look more like a slice of buttered bread than a nice gleaming piece of furniture. Also, you'll be rubbing at the excess for ages to thin it out to what putting just a little drop on would have achieved in far less time.
Lataxe
So much good information, Lataxe, much appreciated.
When you say, most finished won't fill the pores of wood...
Shellac, lacquer, and poly, even when thinned out significantly, will seal the pores within a few coats, won't they? they won't be able to get in after that.
What am I misunderstanding about this?
Various finishing gloops for wood will go into and cover the surface of the different kinds of "open-grain" pores in woods such as oak and ash (the most obvious open-grain woods). But they won't fully-fill those pores (i.e. make the surface of the wood co-planar with the pore-bottoms). The wee dips, pits and holes of the open grain will still be there.
If you put on and rub down enough coats of a finish, you may eventually get those pores truly filled. Most finishes are film finishes and so thin that it takes multiple coats to erect enough height in the pores to make the whole surface of the wood smooth.
Grain fillers speed the process, as they're bulky stuff (plaster of Paris, wood dust and similar fine-grain material). They can be combined with a film finish to speed the pore-filling.
Some natural finishes, such as shellac, have very small solid particles in them and so can fill open pores after the application of several coats faster than can most artificial finish gloops.
The coloured waxes rely on any film finish first applied leaving the pores unfilled, even though the pore-bottoms still have some of the film finish in them. The coloured wax is usually thickened to a condition where it will semi-fill the remaining dips, pits or holes of the open pores once it dries out.
Lataxe
What would some examples of a "film finish" be?
Is it standard stuff thinned out a LOT, or are there special finishes that accomplish this?
Lataxe,
Good stuff, You must have payed your dues more than once.
John
Ha ha - the only dues I pay are to those blasted tool sellers, who should really give me (and everyone else) the nice tools for free, as part of a new pink-livered universal income scheme allowing us all to become adept at all sorts.
I've always scavenged the timbers for free - or for a piece of furniture made with one quarter of the timber "found" for me by various fellows in the building trades, tasked with wrecking nice old buildings of The Victorian and even Edwardian times to replace them with ticky-tacky buildings full of MDF.
But I digress.
On the other hand, if one buys tools of sufficient quality, they keep and even increase their cash value, so one may ebay them after a decade to finance the purchase of different tools, as one wanders from one kind of hobby-obsession to another.
I just so-swapped a Veritas combination plane and several blades for a bag o' gouges for green woodworking purposes, for example. The gouges too are good 'uns, from both Ashley Iles and various Svedish folk. None of that Amazon tat for moi!
Lataxe, just a tool fondler really.
PS I have a spare Marcou smoothing plane of immense quality (Holtey standard minus only one point) for sale. Would you like to "pay me some dues" fer it? :-)
Do you have some pictures of the plane? I'm a fellow tool fondler myself...The blasted tool sellers definitely have nasty hooks in me, too...
Here's one pic. It's the plane in front (nearest the camera).
$nnnn.99. :-)
Mr Marcou last sold one of these for around $5000! I didnae pay anything like that, as I got one early in the lad's plane making career. In fact, I got two of this particular model, which is why this one's for sale - although I'll probably cry if it ever goes off to someone else's workbench.
Philip Marcou has sadly gone dark since COVID was at its height and no one in the woodworking community seems to know what he's now doing; or even if he survived the filthy rot. But perhaps he's just met a rich widow? :-)
Lataxe
WOW...I looked these up, and they're hard to find. They are absolutely stunning. I'm VERY jealous of you...VERY
What number WOULD make you part with it out of curiosity?
I see you have THREE in the picture...how many do you have?
Personally, i wouldn't let it go for damn near anything....it would take a fortune, lol.
I hope the man is ok and you're right about the the latter.
Bentusi,
Another thread started just for you, with Marcou plane pics. No drooooling there!
The one I keep thinking of selling (for about a decade now) could be priced at half the price of the last new one that Philip Marcou made around 5 years ago: $2500 ($5000/2). Send Used British ten pound notes, though. ;-)
Lataxe
Heating the paste wax will change its viscosity or resistance to flow, changing its viscosity could speed up the evaporate rate by add heat T to the equation but could create an undesirable atomic structure of the finished produce.
The chemical engineer has a specific temp, humidity and time to dry as well as a viscosity of wax in the Technical Data Sheet. Not just random set of facts.
I don't have a degree in chemical engineer so I lean toward not recommending manipulate the manufacturer recommendations.
Technical Data Sheet
https://myoldmasters.com/documents/sites/documents.vogelpaint.com/files/documents/OM%20Crystal%20Clear%20Paste%20Wax%20Data%20Sheet-11-20.pdf
I have no empirical evidence about add wax to wood while turning wood on the lath will work.
And I have no opinions on how anyone finish their projects/form.
But empirical evidence would be better than a free floating rationale.
Or at least keep a log of your modus of operandi.
I guess the most important things I've learned about wax are that it's best used sparingly, applied evenly, allowed to dry, and rubbed out thoroughly. I usually apply using 0000 Steel Wool or an ultra fine Scotchbrite pad. After allowing it to dry for 30-40 minutes I hit it with paper towels to remove any excess. For the final rubdown I use microfiber hand towels. You know you have it right when you generate an even sheen that is silky to the touch. I use Johnsons Paste Wax (two cans in my stash) or BRIWAX. Minwax paste works fine too.
Is it possible to rub or buff too much and end up with no wax? If so, what would the potential downsides be?
I never knew paste wax was good for finished work. (I don't know squat...hence the thread lol)
I always thought the paste wax was for more functional purposes, while nice beeswaxes or whatever were far superior.
This was always merely my assumption, all cause I'm a big sucker for marketing. LOL.
But I've seen multiple other times in this thread where paste wax is suitable for fine-finished work.
I admit I still want to put the fancy, expensive waxes on my hard work. Am I wrong in this feeling, and am I really being manipulated by marketing?
Have you tried the hardwax oils? Like Whittlewax. I've never been that happy with BLO, tung or shellac on the boxes I make and recently picked up a small tin that was going out cheap.
Its amazing stuff, food safe, nice sheen, doesn't pick up dust and the next day I accidentally spilled some mineral spirits on the surface and it was fine.
Magic stuff.
Whats BLO?
The shellac gives a plastic feel, right? It's not very high-end to me. I'm currently trying to make thinner and thinner cuts, but I wonder if I'm wasting my time with it.
I'll have to pick up some Whittlewax and try it out. Hardwax oils, so Rubio, Osmo, and general finishes hardwax oil. Those right?
I've used Rubio a lot, and I love it for bigger pieces, but it's pretty annoying and seems wasteful when used on boxes and smaller stuff. I feel like I'm wiping too much away, and it gets all up in the joints and then seeps out when I fall asleep. Perhaps I'm doing things wrong.
BLO - Boiled Linseed Oil, which is linseed oil that's undergone a process (not boiling, by the way) to make it dry (eventually) as the raw stuff never really stops being tacky.
Shellac, in the form of French Polish, is probably the most "high end" finish there is. It can give good looking woods a tremendous amplification in their beauty and clarity. However, the application of French polish is no easy thing to get right as the stuff can easily sag, run, cloud or perform other spoiling behaviours if the rubber-on of the many, many coats lacks the appropriate knowledge and skill.
French polish is also rather vulnerable to many of the damages that can be wreaked upon furniture finishes. It was reserved for the posh furniture that was protected from children, pets and the clumsy drunken visitors sporting wet-bottom whiskey glasses by a fierce butler; or even the threat of beatings and a sojourn in the cupboard under the stairs!
Only a queen, prince or duke could get away with spoiling such a polish - although they would never be invited again. Or so I have heard from my old neighbour Mr F, who was a French Polisher for Waring & Gillow for over 40 years.
But I digress.
The most pasticky-looking finish is that polyurethane stuff or similar, beloved of those who want to make their nice hand-made furniture look like something from an automated furniture factory populated with robots that go mad with spray guns on a regular basis, out of boredom.
I'll here emit a poke and suggest that there's a USA tradition of finishing that seems to have a rule stating that the more coats of at least 12 different goos you put on to the furniture, the better it will look. Three coats of a good furniture oil and a final coat of wax when it's dry is all it needs, really.
Lataxe, a simple Liberon or Osmo oiler fellow.
Don Williams (of Don's Barn website fame) has a DVD that I purchased where he discusses traditional finishes. One of which was to melt beeswax onto a bare wood piece then remove (some sort of dull scraping device so as to leave the wood alone) the bulk of the beeswax. Looked interesting and is on my to try list when the right project comes along.
Wax can be the only thing that goes on the wood, or the last thing that goes on the wood. No other options.