Re: Final coat on mud/Bees wax

[Robert W Tom <archilogic@juno.com>]

a Derelict in the Rough wrote:

>The story of 17 years of exterior woodwork protection 
>from a single coat of oil/wax I believe to be a rural legend.  
[snip]

> God often sends miracles to the innocent, and inflicts 
>sufferings on those with advanced degrees in chemistry.
[snip]

Actually, I think that She mostly inflicts sufferings on people
who live in California doesn't She ?

WRT the oil/wax mixture claim: 
I'll go one step further and say that it is an out-and-out lie.

Quite frankly (and Becky too), I am puzzled as to why 
people are so enamoured of linseed oil . 
Actually, I'm not puzzled. I think that people believe
that it is magically good because it is "natural".
So is Poison Ivy but you won't catch me slathering myself 
with it .

The reality is that in order get good protection, one has to
slather on at least three liberal coats of the stuff under the
right conditions (warm/sunny with good air movement) the 
first time and then EVERY year FOREVER after that.

This later requirement is why the world switched over to 
latex-based paints from oil-based (often linseed oil) paints
a generation ago... people couldn't be bothered with the time 
and expense of having to re-oil-paint their woodwork every 
five years at several thousand  dollars a shot. 
The fact that people now have more electro-mechanical slaves
around supposedly giving them more time, does not seem to
negate the fact that people generally don't want to spend
any time maintaining their homes, as people did in the past.
Whether this is due to sloth or smarts I cannot say. 

While I am not fond of the chemical stews known as latex 
paints either, their popularity  did eventually lead to the 
development of low VOC/ no VOC paints.

If the proper conditons for drying are not present, 
the linseed  oil remains tacky forever, picking up dirt, 
mould and grime till it becomes a nice shade of black.

In order to give some assurance of proper drying, 
solvents are added to thin the oil and which later 
evaporate (read: off-gas VOCs). A good way to 
make yourself stoo-pid is to breathe solvents.

And beeswax ? If it were good for weather protection, 
don't you think that paper wasps would be using the 
stuff to weatherise their nests ? (They don't)
Instead, they choose to build their nests under wide
overhangs. (They can't buy siloxane in small enough
quantities to do one nest only and they don't have a 
co-op arrangment for siloxane sharing between nests.
(Assuming that they could hang onto paper money 
long enough to spend it, in the first place.)

The linseed/beeswax/turps mixture is a finish intended 
for use on interior woodwork only, and one would not 
use it on a piece of furniture or cabinetwork which might
have liquids spilled on it.

                 ===    *     ===
Robert  W. Tom          Kanata, Ontario, Canada       
Rob_Tom@ErehwonDesignGroup.intranets.com 

please visit:  http://www.theHungerSite.com daily

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