Recipes for proofing fabric.

[MaC]

Buying the waxes used to proof jackets, bags, tents, etc., is expensive, and you don't always know what's in them.
If you prefer a specific quality or smell, then making your own is simple.

Base recipe.....
Wax

but what kind of wax ?
Well, commercially, because it's cheap, the base is paraffin wax. This is a soft wax that's a bit of a bye product of industry, pretty much as petroleum jelly is.
However, soft and easily absorbed though it may be it off gases (it's not quite sublimation because it doesn't all evaporate, it's just sort of loses potency) and slowly disappears off the fabric. You can recover the situation to some extent by tumble drying on hot, or using a hot iron or hairdryer. This remelts what's left in the fibres and it sort of spreads out and re-soaks and proofs. It's a make do until you get a chance to clean the item and redo it properly.

The traditional recipe is Beeswax, Boiled Linseed Oil and real Turpentine......does that sound like furniture polish to you ? it should, because that's what it is
But it works, and it works well. Just you rather smell of linseed oil and turps, like a boatyard

Thing is though, just using beeswax is no more a good idea than just using plain paraffin wax. It's too crisp. It's fine for the soles of re-enactors leather shoes where hard isn't a bad thing, but cuire boile is literally leather heated up in hot wax and it makes those rock solid leather water bottles....or armour parts

What is really good is a mix of beeswax and paraffin wax. Best of both really, and if you like the smell of turps then a little added in is a good thing.
It's also quite acceptable to add in some birch tar, if the garment or leather is dark, though the birch essential oil won't darken the mixture but will add scent and potency re stopping insects and vermin chewing.

So, some simple recipe lists.....mind grate up the beeswax first, it'll melt an awful lot easier and more quickly. If you've found yourself with a 1kg block of the stuff, just melt it down and pour it into a couple tinfoil lined baking trays. Thin sheets of the stuff snap up no bother into smaller pieces for melting down when you need it.

100g Beeswax
50g boiled linseed oil
50g real turpentine....if you use substitute you'll smell like you're painting the glosswork, but it does make a fairly reasonable rub in mixture.

or
100g Beeswax
60g paraffin wax (you can buy this from the folks who sell candle making supplies, they're cheaper than most)

or
100g Beeswax
50g real turpentine
25g vaseline....since it's easy to get hold of.
10g of stockholm tar or 1 teaspoonful of birch oil.

Tinfoil dishes, like the kind that takeaways come in, are very handy to pour the wax into to cool and to store. Personally I prefer a screw top tin, but old shoe polish tins are sound.

Melt the wax, carefully.....if you're using turps and linseed oil, do it outside. Do it on a low heat, make sure it's well melted, then add the other ingredients, mixing well each time. Once it is mixed take it off the heat. You need to stir gently until it begins to set. Then pour and set aside to cool.

To use, just use it like shoe polish. I keep a brush just for the wax. It brushes into every seam and nook and cranny and rubs it in well. Set aside for a day or so, then turn the hairdryer on it to really melt it in and settle it. I also keep a shoe polishing brush just to brush the whole thing firmly, make sure I have no extra wax lying on the surface, no stickiness.

Lasts for years keeps leather and canvas and cotton in good nick, and waterproof
M

 

[Beachlover]

Doesn’t linseed oil have the unfortunate habit of combusting?

 

[MaC]

In certain situations, yes. Basically it heats up as it mixes with oxygen. If you trap that heat, in something like a crumpled up rag, then yes it can go on fire. Been there, seen that, and it's so totally silent that it's a hidden risk, it really is.

There are three types of linseed oil though; plain stuff, just from the flax seeds. Boiled, which means it's heated up and thus the drying process is speeded up, or polymerised which basically means that it's really processed and ought to be safe enough to use....sort of. That stuff is called Stand oil.

Linseed oil reaches a point where it has mixed with enough oxygen that it no longer heats up. That's the dry oil, the finish on wood and on paintings. Then it's sound, it's very sound, and waterproof and flexible. It was the choice before we had paraffin and petroleum waxes.
So it's much used in older recipes, and still used in some today, because it really is good.

Personally I make mine using beeswax, real turpentine, a little stockholm tar /or birch oil or the Gale saturated oil, and a little paraffin wax.

I like linseed oil as a smell, I do not like the sticky on my fingers kind of feel of it, but to some it's intrinsic to the wax mixture. I like the smokey birch smell, but for about the village, etc., I use the Gale instead.

Each to their own. Variety's a good thing

M

 

[noddy]

The fjallraven stuff doesn't really work. If you put it on too thick, it cracks off like dandruff in the cold. I doesn't really make their G1000 fabric waterproof, not really.

Do we have the first idea what's in Barbour wax? Mind, I tried to put Barbour dressing on a red Fjallraven jacket a few years back. Not quite a actual disaster, but it still needs a few hot washes to fix it.

 

[Beachlover]

I used a generic type Barbour wax on a Helikon smock and have been really pleased with it. Pasted it on, hair dryer to rub it in and then half an hour in the tumble. Don't know about the G1000 fabric though.

 

[MaC]

The fjallraven stuff doesn't really work. If you put it on too thick, it cracks off like dandruff in the cold. I doesn't really make their G1000 fabric waterproof, not really.

Do we have the first idea what's in Barbour wax? Mind, I tried to put Barbour dressing on a red Fjallraven jacket a few years back. Not quite a actual disaster, but it still needs a few hot washes to fix it.

It's paraffin wax.
One of the members on BcUK a while ago used to work for Barbours in the borders doing repairs and restorations. He said it's paraffin wax and put on using an iron.

Barbour won't tell you what's in their 'Sylkoil Wax', (the sylkoil is also the cotton fabric that's left slightly hairy so it absorbs and then irons flat with the wax) but they do say that it's Vegan friendly. So no beeswax.

"The wax thornproof dressing consists of a blend of mineral oils and refined hydrocarbon waxes which contain no hazardous chemicals. The wax is insoluble in water and acts as a water repellent. It is relatively transparent, non-toxic and has no allergic or skin absorbing properties, making it a safe substance to use. "

Refined hydrocarbons....that's mineral wax, and mineral oil which is basically runny vaseline.

So, I reckon Stu was right in what he said all those years ago.

 

[MaC]

I admit that I did wonder if they added anything like silicon, but it doesn't seem so. It's just good quality, well refined hydrocarbons that is used on good quality but 'hairy' cotton.
Think of the difference that spray starch can make to something, and that's the kind of thing that the ironing of the stuff onto cotton does. It helps it impregnate the fibres really thoroughly, and because it's not a wax that will crack then it's flexibility allows it to remain waterproof on a garment.

M

 

[noddy]

When I put the Barbour dressing on the G1000, I think the problem might be that it is a 40/60 poly cotton, and that Barbour use just cotton.

When applying the Barbour dressing to the G1000, I warmed it up, rubbed it in, let it cool, put the hairdryer on it. It was OK for a week, but then it started to kind of slide down the jacket to the lower parts of it, leaving the shoulders looking dry. Decided to try and get it off. It's been in the wash a couple of times but still needs work.

There is a faint, background organic-compound niff to Barbour dressing that suggests, not quite benzene, but maybe it is silicone or whatever is in sealant that keeps it runny.

 

[MaC]

Every company has it's signature 'smell' or scent. If you smell benzene, then maybe ? it only needs a drop or so to the mixture to give that.
Benzene itself is an aromatic hydrocarbon so will mix well.

Polycotton generally takes stuff the same way as cotton, but, it's not hairy like cotton can be. It's generally a spinnerette spun fibre. It's 'melt spinning'. Those polyester fibres can either be mixed with the cotton at that stage (expensive) or combined later to make thread and yarn. Basically it's plastic.
If you're trying to waterproof plastic fibres that's an issue. Polyester itself is waterproof but the weaving leaves spaces. Those spaces might trap waterproofing but the fibres themselves don't absorb the waterproofing.
It's why tents are proofed with fabsil and the like now not wax dressings like the old canvas ones. It's a surface proof not an absorbed proofing kind of thing.

M

 

[Andylaser]

I used a generic type Barbour wax on a Helikon smock and have been really pleased with it. Pasted it on, hair dryer to rub it in and then half an hour in the tumble. Don't know about the G1000 fabric though.

This is what I did to waterproof an old combat jacket many years ago. I used the whole tin of wax by giving it several coats.
I ended up waterproofing it to such an extent, its still slightly waterproof 25 years later and I once spilt battery acid on it, which just ran off onto my jeans and fucking them instead.

Unfortunately, the mess it made of the tumble drier resulted in much shouting coming my way. It took ages to clean it out and cost me a decent restaurant meal to make amends.

 

[MaC]

Meths cleans wax out of the tumble drier, and off the sole of the iron too

Guess how I know ?

 

[Beachlover]

Meths cleans wax out of the tumble drier, and off the sole of the iron too

Guess how I know ?

I’m guessing that advice should come with a safety warning re. flammability for the hard of thinking?

 

[MaC]

I hadn't thought of that
I just used it to wipe everything clean of the wax and then used a damp cloth and a basin of warm water and Fairy to clean off any residue of the meths.
Then I flung in a couple of old towels and tumbled them hot just to clear it all finally.

It worked fine

 

[BorderReiver]

I hadn't thought of that
I just used it to wipe everything clean of the wax and then used a damp cloth and a basin of warm water and Fairy to clean off any residue of the meths.
Then I flung in a couple of old towels and tumbled them hot just to clear it all finally.

It worked fine

Would putting the jacket in a bag like the ones for delicates keep the wax off the dryer, or would it just go through?

 

[MaC]

It'll soak the bag and still rub off on the inside of the drum and the glass door, and the vent mesh. That bothered me a bit because I could smell the wax for ages afterwards.
For a quick reheat/reabsorb, hang the item up in the full sun. That'll do the trick nicely
Right enough, you need to mind and do it in Summer, because right now the Sun is still so low in the skies that it's barely above the house roofs.

Best of all is a decent hairdryer. It melts and the hot air kind of encourages the fibres to soak up the wax mixture. The iron is still the ideal, but few of us have an iron dedicated to this sort of thing, and using the normal one for clothing just leaves that kind of embuggered until you clean it up with meths, and then blast a tankful of steam through it to make sure it's clean.

I keep a small flat soled travel iron just to use with wax. But then I use it for dyeing too. The wax creates the resist for designs.

M

 

[Jaggededge]

I use an old cotton pillow case to run my wax jacket in the dryer for a bit.