[TheForge] Re: Carnauba wax (Was: Japan dryer)

[Mike Spencer]

pf> The question on commercially available carnauba waxes is, what % is 
pf> actually the right stuff. ( don't forget car waxes).

My original supply came from a chemical supply house, one now sadly
defunct. It was sold as a straight chemical, not as a consumer product.

ries> I just like to buy a paint or varnish that some idiot PHD spent
ries> years perfecting in a million dollar lab, and then is produced
ries> in a state of the art factory- call me old fashioned,

Yeah, well, if I ever had a thousand of anything to make, or something
that was going to be forever inaccessible, [1] that's how I'd go.  But
once you get beyond the hardware store (or mabe the local marine
fitter's supply) special purpose finishes come with pages of
instructions, constraints and warnings.  Surface must be pre-treated
with OurProduct, dried at foo degrees in bar humidity.  On a vertical
surface you must use 3 ml of SpecialHardener per liter. Solvent is so
toxic that you need a chit from the Surgeon General in order to open
the can. If you spray this stuff, you must wear a space suit made of
aluminum (because the solvent eats plastic as fast as it eats your
liver). Subsequent exposure to sunlight will cause it to turn
malarial-drunkard-colored unless you use SpecialProduct-111-104-111B
during application.  Must be applied within three days of the full or
new moon.  And it costs $399/gallon because we have to pay that dang
PhD for his efforts.

Sort of like the heat treating specs for special purpose tool steels.
If you have to do a bunch of guesswork and experiment on how you're
going to very, very crudely approximte the specified high-tech heat
treating, you might as well do the same experiments and guesswork on
that pile of old axles, springs or drill bits you got on a swap
instead of paying $$/in for a numbered, engineered product.


Just cranky today,
- Mike


[1] Actually, I did make a "ship on stormy seas" piece for the tallest
    church steeple in the county.  They had to bring in a crane from 40
    miles away to install it.  Stainless wasn't, for various reasons,
    a realistic option at that time and place.  It's painted with
    Tremclad from the hardware store.  No pieces have fallen off after
    30 years.  It's probably scaberous and rusty but it's too high up
    to detect that with the naked eye.

-- 
Michael Spencer                  Nova Scotia, Canada       .~. 
                                                           /V\ 
mspencer at tallships.ca                                     /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/                        ^^-^^