How to put beeswax on a Canvas bag?

[Leatherbark]

I made me a possible bag out of very thick canvas. I died the canvas brown. Should I waterproof the thing with beeswax?. Do I melt it and rub it in? Or do I thin it with something that will evaporate and paint it on.......Thank you................Bob

 

[wwpete52]

Years ago I had a linen haversack that I coated with beeswax. I don't know if this is the right way to do it but it worked. I heated the beeswax then brushed it on the haversack. I then placed the haversack on a cookie sheet and placed it in the over at VERY low heat for a little while. This allowed the beeswax to soak into the linen. Again, there must be a better way to do it but it worked. Just be sure not to cook it! :grin:

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Two steps.

Brush melted besswax on the outside surface of the fabric with a natural bristle brush. I use a shoe brush.

Next use a hair dryer on low and hold close to the material while using the brush to work it further into the fabric as it melts.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Brush melted wax onto the fabric. Then use an iron, on a low setting, to Iron the wax into the fabric. There will be excess, and that can be scraped off when it cools. Put the fabric you are ironing on top of toweling, so that any excess that bleeds through is soaked up by the toweling, and can be discarded. I use paper towels for this purpose- several layers of them, layed out on my kitchen counter, rather than on my ironing board.

 

[Goldhunter]

And use an old iron, not SWMBO's good one... Don't ask.

 

[paulvallandigham]

Actually, wax comes off an iron- particularly these new ones with the Teflon coating, very easily. I am currently without a SWMBO, so its MY IRON! :blah: :rotf: :hatsoff:

 

[Goldhunter]

It all worked out in the end, now I have a dedicated iron. Especially after the ski waxing I tried. :rotf: Luckily she's pretty forgiving!

 

[Harddog]

Actually, wax comes off an iron- particularly these new ones with the Teflon coating, very easily. I am currently without a SWMBO, so its MY IRON! :blah: :rotf: :hatsoff:

Paul,

If the iron is a steam iron, aren't they all these days, the beeswax can/will be deposited up inside the iron through the small steam holes in the face of the iron thereby ruining the iron for any other purpose besides ironing beeswax coated cloth.

Randy Hedden

 

[Harddog]

It is better to melt the beeswax in a double boiler arrangement by putting the beeswax in a pan or tin can and then placing the tin can into a larger pan or tin can with water in it. The bottom of the container with the beeswax should not touch the bottom of the container with the water in it. If you don't use a double boiler arrangement the wax will most probably be burnt and take on a bad burnt smell.

Randy Hedden

 

[paulvallandigham]

That is not my experience. To remove the wax from the bottom of the iron, I just put some paper towels on the counter top, get the iron hot, and run it over the towels. The paper absorbs the wax and removes it from the iron. Wax doesn't go UP. If you pour water into the iron and turn it on to steam, the steam will melt and carry out any wax that might begin to go up into the openings, which are quite wide, actually.

I let the iron cool, and use a cloth rag and alcohol to wipe off any remaining wax on the iron.

 

[Harddog]

Paul,

You are correct, wax doesn't go UP, but the vapors from melted beeswax will GO UP just like every gaseous vapor. When the iron cools down the vapors up in the iron solidify and go back to being solid beeswax. It takes a long time before the wax can be worked out of the iron. Maybe you didn't have this experience, but it can and does happen.

Better for the guy who asked the question to use some other method than to encounter this problem.

Randy Hedden

 

[Leatherbark]

Thanks for the responses.......I'll give it a go..................Bob

 

[paulvallandigham]

I use the iron with the steam on for this, as it helps get the wax down into the fabric. The steam going down and OUT keeps the wax "fumes" from going Up and Into the iron. Again, Its not been a problem for me in actual practice.

I did this years ago when I was trying to waterproof something- I don't even remember what it was, now. Possibly, Some kind of cover for gear in camp. Dad had given me a chunk of Beeswax, so I melted down some , and used a paint brush to spread on the fabric. The steam iron was then used, with the fabric sandwiched between the iron and some paper towels, to spread the wax evenly. We checked the Iron after the first stroke, because I didn't want the iron picking the wax up off the cloth, rather than melting it and driving it into the fabric. I used an old iron I had bought when I lived in an apartment during college and law school.

Years later, I used paper towels and a steam iron to lift candle wax off a dining room table that had a varnish finish that would have been ruined if I tried to scrape the wax off the finish. The wax melted and was soaked right up into the paper towels. A couple of repetitions, and the table looked like new.

 

[mazo kid]

I've got a couple of old irons I picked up at garage sales for little cost. I use these for any wax melting chores I have.

 

[wwpete52]

After reading all of the posts maybe my "brown and serve" method ain't so bad!