I have a white wax wood staff (martial arts staff) that I want to cut to size and use for a hiking staff. But I am trying to figure out what to coat it with to protect it. Tung oil seems to be what a lot of people use on hiking staffs, but some have told me not to use it on the wax wood. Can I just use something like thompson’s water seal?
If anyone has experience with this type of wood, or has any ideas, I’d love to hear it.
Thanks
urthane or spar varnish are my first thoughts but sugest you mite contact wooden boat builders there are a few forems and ask them whats out there another place to look are with bespoke(custome) walking stick makers.
good luck
Depends on what you plan to do with it and what environments you plan to use it in.
Spar urethane varnish would probably be the most waterproof, but might not be the very toughest coating -for that, I think waterbased polyurethane is the way to go. You’d have to stain it first though, if you wanted it to look good.
Stuff like tung oil are sort of an all-in-one stain/polish product, in that the tung oil has a certain tint to it that the polyurethane doesn’t quite have, even though it does yellow with age.
If it was going to get pretty light duty, I might consider something like the “Tried and True” brand of finishes- they’re all-natural linseed oil and beeswax finishes. I’ve used their “Original Wood Finish” on cutting boards before, and it does look very good and lasts a surprising while. I can’t imagine their varnish oil or Danish oil finishes would look worse.
You could also look at more readily available Danish Oil finishes- they might work for you as well.
Thank you for the replies guys. But I took care of this about a year and a half ago. I used some stuff my dad had laying around in his basement. Not sure what it was now, but it looks really good and seems to hold up well.
Must eat brains!