Beeswax as a copper finish?

[Jonathan Young]

I want to experiment with using beeswax to coat my copper penannular brooches to prevent tarnishing, but my question is this: can a beeswax coating be applied without darkening or blackening the piece? I tend to polish them to a high shine with rouge, and I want to preserve this shine with a thin coating, but I'm worried that heating it to apply the wax will spoil the finish. What is the best way to go about this? Any advice is much appreciated 

 

[Neil Blythin]

Either warm in an oven / toaster oven, warm enough to melt the wax, but not cause any colour change. Beeswax has a fairly low melting point.

Or, have you tried the good old beeswax, linseed oil & turpentine mixture? Not quite as hard/durable a finish as straight wax, but it's applied cold.

[teenylittlemetalguy]

your problem will be that it will rub off. I suggest a spay clear coat if you are going to actually use them,it is not perfect but will stick better than wax.

[Jonathan Young]

I don't particularly want to use a clear coat as they apparently tend to flake off and look a little unpleasant, but I think I will try the turp/linseed oil/beeswax mix. If that doesn't work out, I may just shell out for some Renaissance Wax. Thanks for the advice. 

[Neil Blythin]

You could also try an automotive car polish. Applied cold, holds up to a lot of abuse, won't melt off if the copper gets hot in the sun, non-yellowing, etc.

[Frosty]

I like Treewax as a durable clear wax finish. It's Carnuba wax and is the stuff they use to armor bowling ally lanes. Applied to coffee hot steel, or whatever, it becomes very fluid, fills very small gaps and wipes clean leaving a thin tough as nails coat.

 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Chinobi]

Johnsons paste wax works well also, i buy it at hardware stores and use it without any mixing, warm the piece but not too hot or it will darken like you wish to avoid

[Pat Roy]

I would try some of these ideas on some copper scraps and hang them outside for a while to see how they survive.