I got K this great little natural wood table and chair set today. Since she will be drawing and playing on it, I want to protect it from getting too marked up. But, I don’t want to put nasty chemicals on it. So, I decided to try this Beeswax Varnish recipe that I have been wanting to try out for a while. Here’s the recipe:

BEESWAX WOOD FINISH (for bare wood)
1 pound beeswax
1 pint turpentine (odorless, if you can find it)
1 pint boiled linseed oil
Melt wax. Remove wax from heat source, then stir in turpentine and oil. Before applying to bare wood, warm the mixture to achieve better penetration. Apply with a soft cloth, let dry, then buff with a wool cloth. Old coats can be removed with an organic solvent such as turpentine. This can also be used on leather. (Another wood finish can be made with 1 pound beeswax and 1 pint turpentine, omitting the linseed oil.)

I quartered the recipe since I didn’t need much. But, it turned out really well. I just varnished the top of the table and it was pretty simple. Just dip the rag in the warm mixture and rub on the table. Then, buff it down after a few hours. (It’s like taking of car wax… you really have to buff “wax on, wax off”)

Here are Toby and K buffing the wax off (Yes, it is nudey time, but she was too cold to take her shirt off 🙂

And here is K enjoying her new table and chairs with some cool wood fruit. The pieces are held together by velcro. So, when you ‘cut’ it with the wood knife, it actually sounds like you are choping vegetables.