Thought I would share about my experiments in making
Greenland
wax.
From what I gather, there has always been a need to waterproof
clothing and other fabric items. As man was quick to find out that
wet clothing makes for a dreary existence, several innovations in
waterproofing were developed. For my purposes I am focusing on a
technology called Greenland wax. No I am not a historian and the
origin of the name does elude me, but that’s not why you’re
reading this anyway.
My interest in bushcraft / woodcraft has led me to procure some
cotton canvas bags for wilderness use. This type of bag is usually
easily found and most importantly – inexpensive. They do have a
drawback, in the wet they turn into a sponge! Not so good if you want
your stuff to stay dry. So I needed to waterproof them; enter
Greenland wax.
The recipe:
Now an internet search will yield many recipes for this, each
effective (I assume) yet varying in results. The typical Greenland
wax recipe is as follows:
90% paraffin wax and 10% beeswax.
This does have a tendency to yield a waterproof yet stiff final
product – especially in the cold. I wanted a pliable yet waterproof
final product so I had to research an alternative recipe to
accomplish this. What I found is that the more oil you add to the wax
the less stiff the final product. This does not affect waterproof
ability, but it may diminish the wear ability of the treatment
causing the need for more frequent application. This would be subject
to the specifics of how the article was used as well. This does not
concern me as reapplication is very easy and making the wax is
inexpensive as well. The other thing I need to mention is the type of
oil you use is important in that some recipes will call for a type of
oil that may be subject to rancidity. After hearing from those who
use essential oils in homemade laundry soap complain of foul odors in
(washed) stored articles, is became obvious that my oil selection
needed to be something that would not go rancid over time. My recipe
is as follows:
3oz Beeswax, 7oz Paraffin wax, 7oz Mineral oil
The beeswax was sourced from the local health food store. And the
paraffin wax is the easy to find “Gulf wax” brand. The mineral
oil is from any pharmacy (used for digestive issues!) – Total cost
for all was about $10.00. This has left me with enough wax to treat
many bags several times over. As an aside if I did need to make more
all I would need is more beeswax (about$4.00) as there is plenty of
oil and paraffin left over.
The process:
Use a double boiler to melt all your wax first. It does help if
you grate the wax blocks first, but is not necessary. Once your wax
is completely liquid, gently pour in the oil; (be careful here if
you’re working with an open flame, oil + Flame= not good!) this
will temporarily harden some of the wax. Continue to melt everything
until its one consistency.
Application:
Before you get started know that this will darken the color of
your bag / fabric, similar to the color it would be when wet.
There are two ways to apply the wax to your bag. 1) Using a brush
apply molten wax to fabric. I elected not to go this route because it
may cause “loading” of the cloth, basically you end up with
excess wax that rubs off on everything the bag comes in contact with.
(Once the excess is gone this will no longer be an issue). 2) Allow
the wax to harden and hand rub the wax onto the fabric. It should
leave a glossy look to your bag (don’t worry were not done yet).
Now that your bag is all waxy and terrible looking; find an old
pillow case. Place your bag in the “bag” and tie off the end of
the pillow case. Place it in your dryer for about 30 to 40 minutes on
a high heat setting. What this does is warm and tumble the whole
works so as to let the wax wick into the bag – waterproofing it and
leaving no surface residue to foul other things.
The beauty of this method is that if your initial treatment was
insufficient you can just repeat the process, same goes for future
re-coats. I like this method because it gives me more control over
the final product (although it is a bit more work with the hand
rubbing).
Conclusion:
This is a great project for waterproofing any cotton / canvas
materials. Two out of two discerning consumers agree!
Note: unexpectedly the wax also has other uses as a skin
moisturizer sans “girlie smell” (think “Chapstic”). Just rub
it on your skin where needed. I may even explore how well it works
with various flint and steel tinder’s.
Hope you enjoyed this write up.
Luther
