What does Carnauba wax dissolve in

Lifted from WikiPedia;
"INCI name is Copernicia Cerifera (carnauba) wax
E Number is E903.
melting point: 78-85 °C, among the highest of natural waxes.
relative density is about 0.97
It is among the hardest of natural waxes, being harder than concrete in its pure form.
It is practically insoluble in water, soluble on heating in ethyl acetate and in xylene, practically insoluble in ethyl alcohol. "


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(Sorry I've been waiting to use that for ages /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)
 
when I'm cleaning my surfboars it's usually just warm water a scraper (plastic) folowwed by clean clothe and elbow grease. but then again, I never have to paint the surface, just put on fresh wax.
 
Acetone which is what we use to remove mould release wax. Acetone is an agressive solvent and can react chemically with some substrates so be careful about what else is/will be in contact. For example it is corrosive to all polyesters. Do a spot test somewhere that does not matter.
 
I always thought is dissolved in meths - maybe you need to warm the meths up a bit.

Why do you need French Polish on a boat? And wouldn't it be easier to buy it ready mixed? Or is it a non-boaty application?

OK. I admit it. I'm nosey.

Regards

Richard.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I wondered if anybody knew which solvent would soften or dissolve Carnauba wax from its flake form into a paste or liquid wax

[/ QUOTE ] All i can find apart from some properties which have already been quoted are two recipes in an old "Woodworkers Pocket Book" by Charles H Hayward for making furniture creams.
In both 6 parts carnauba wax, 3½ parts japan wax and 1½ parts paraffin wax are melted together.
In one that is then dissolved in about the same quantity of pure American turpentine to form a paste which is stirred well and to which is added a little french chalk and ammonia.
In the second recipe it is dissolved in 12 parts of pure American turpentine. 3 parts of white curd soap are shredded into 30 parts hot water. The two are then stirred together while hot and allowed to cool. This cleans as well as polishes.

I would imagine that the mixture of waxes is dissolved in warm or hot turpentine but it does not say so.
 
French Polish is Shellac, which does indeed dissolve in meths.

Carnauba is a really hard wax, with no tendency at all for dirt or grit to stick to it. Its extremely slippery. I use it in the workshop on the soles of planes, and similar moving surfaces.

Boaty application - I use it to lubricate sail grooves and some other moving parts that I can't remember just now. As well as lubrication it leaves a non-stick surface and some protection, as you'd expect from wax.

Why not get it ready-made? I had some ready made, but I've left it somewhere so I thought I'd make up some more from the flakes. (That'll guarantee that the tin will turn up)

I saw the comments in Wikipedia, but I'm sure there's a more routine solvent used to make up pastes. Something less toxic sounding than Xylene or Ethyl Acetate.
 
From what I have gathered in this thread it is insoluble in water and has great non-stick properties.

I wonder....

What if I were to melt it gently, say in a bain Marie, (using salt water to get a high enough temperature if necessary) and then apply it with a brush to the propellor on my boat, would it be sufficient to prevent marine growth from getting a grip? The motor is only used for going in and out of the harbour or when there is no wind so most of the time it is idle.

Any opinions?
 
You can buy it in solid sticks, about 1" x 3" ( or whatever in metric ) from many of the online woodworking or particularly woodturning suppliers such as Turners Retreat . I have quite a few sticks on the back of the lathe and melt it with the heat of friction onto items in the lathe. Not practical for most boat bits but you could probably just use one of the sticks straight onto the item to be finished but would suspect a lot of elbow grease will be needed as its very hard stuff.
I use it to finish wooden pens and it will stand up to daily use happily on them so should be hard enough for most things.
 
The only time I came across it was when investigating solid fuel rockets (in the dsays before such a pursuit might be construed as potentially terrorism!). You add it to cordite so that it makes black smoke and you can see where the rocket has gone.

Versatile stuff!
 
gandy said:
Cheers. I found some recipes on woodworking sites. Generally they have you melting the wax then stirring in white spirit or turpentine.
Click to expand...
Hi
Did you desolve the carnuba wax with turpentine or white spirit and it ended sucsessfully ? , if it worked can you tell me the percentage of each carnuba or white spirit to turpentine
and did you used water or any addes or it's just the carnuba and the white spirit - turpentine without any addes to make the solvent wax ?
Thank you
 
I mix my own waxes for non-boaty application. You can make a. Wax that’s much harder & durable than commercial waxes which are made to be very easy to apply.
you can dissolve it over a Bain-Marie in either paraffin turps or white spirit - i tend to use paraffin, but please take fire precautions! Best to mix in the Bain Marie with a softer wax or it’s very hard to apply. Best results are to rub in with 0000 wire wool, but if it’s marine I would avoid the wire wool and use a stiff new shoe polish brush.

its a very practical alternative to French polish but a lower sheen. done properly it can last for ages and easy to reapply
 
Let's imagine it was 2007...

...think just how much we could avert: the banking crisis, Trump, Megan Markle, Corbyn, Brexit, Boris, Covid...!
 
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