Wax and the Workshop

Few tools make the cut when it comes to what I carry around in my woodworking apron. You will find in my apron a square, tape line, marking knife, pencils, sharpies, a pen, safety glasses, wooden shims for setting planes and a rectangular block of wax. In my work a block of wax is just as essential as a marking knife or a square. I find myself reaching for wax to ease multiple areas of my work. The usefulness of wax is not just limited to a hand tool workshop it has many uses with power tools as well. You can pick up a block of wax at any grocery store that sells canning supplies. Look for canning wax or paraffin wax. There are other types of waxes available, but they tend to be hard to find and more expensive than paraffin. Under $5.00 will buy you enough wax to last many work years in the shop. Here are just a couple of uses for wax in the shop.
Wax will help reduce friction making things slide with much less effort. Any time you have wood sliding over a surface it will drag because of friction. Try taking a block of wax and like a 3 year old with a crayon squiggle a line of wax on the working surface where the wood is sliding over. Any power tool machine table like a table saw, band saw, planner, jointer, router tables and even squiggle on the fences as well. Waxing the bed of a shooting board allows the craftsman to shoot all day long without it becoming arduous. Use the wax on objects that slide on top of wood as well. This is especially helpful with hand planes dropping the friction of the plane almost in half. Handheld routers can also benefit. When cutting wood with a hand saw wax can make the saw glide through the cut and slice the wood sweetly. Large panel saws always get a light squiggle a couple inches above the tooth line before they touch the timber. Dovetail saws and other backsaws will also benefit greatly and let you focus on sawing to the line not excessively forcing the saw. If you are tired of always breaking fret saw blades because of them binding in the cut running the block of wax on the back of the blade allowing it to cut into the wax will coat both sides of the blade and will turn your blades into marathon runners. This will work great in coping saws, power jigsaws and scroll saws. If you have ever snapped off a brass screw when installing that last piece of hardware in a project you know how frustrating this can be. Second only to drilling a properly sized pilot hole and pre-threading, wax can facilitate a smooth entry for any screw and prevent breaking. Wax is superior to soap in this application because soap can hold moisture and cause the screw to rust.
Wax will even help drawbore pins slide in without hitch into their designated holes. Recently while working on my bench the round brass bench dogs became very difficult to push up above the bench. A light coat of wax on the spring and far side of the dog solved the problem quickly.
Wax can prevent material from going where you don’t want it. Files can clog when working with soft metals like brass and even with certain types of wood. Running a block of wax against the teeth will fill in the gullets of the file with wax and will prevent clogging. I am eager to try this technique on rasps and floats. Next post I will talk about the usefulness of paste wax.