[Cob] Linseed oil and Bee's Wax

[Shannon C. Dealy]

On Thu, 9 Jun 2005, Pack McKibben wrote:

> I just finished putting 5 coats of linseed oil on
> my new earthen floor. I then heated up a 2 part
> linseed oil to 1 part bee's wax mixture to use as
> a final coat.  The cobbers book said to make a paste
> and rub it on. I now have a dull looking floor with
> yellow paste in the cracks.  What have others done
> to make their waxed floors look polished?  I was going
> to use a buffing attachment on my drill, but haven't
> been able to find it yet. Is that how your waxed
> earthen floors get such a nice shine?

It's been a while since I last did this (some day I should stop
experimenting and just do something the normal way :-)  but as I recall,
we completely melted the bees wax in the linseed oil and applied it while
it was still liquid, using a couple of rags to buff and move any excess
into areas we hadn't yet applied the mix to (this was the only buffing we
did, though I don't think our surface was quite as polished looking as
some I've seen, it looked quite good to me).  It sounds like you might
just have to much of the mix on the floor.  The cracks you are referring
to, are they in the floor surface or just where it joins with the walls?
Any significant cracks should have been patched before sealing the floor,
and any minor/hairline cracks should have been completely filled/sealed by
the linseed oil so that there are no actual physical cracks in the surface
(though they may still be visible though the linseed oil).  Given the
state of things as you describe them, buffing with the drill might be a
good choice.

FWIW.

Shannon C. Dealy      |               DeaTech Research Inc.
dealy at deatech.com     |          - Custom Software Development -
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