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Polywhey

PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 12:48 pm
by dave brenneman
A natural furniture finish made out of whey. Anyone ever used this stuff?

http://www.vermontnaturalcoatings.com/o ... re-finish/

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 1:02 pm
by pa_friendly_guy
I have never used it, but it sounds interesting. I would be interested in what type of finish you end up with.

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:00 pm
by matt walker
Good find Dave, looks very interesting. I have a friend working on developing green boatbuilding techniques. I'm going to let him know about this.

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Fri Apr 12, 2013 4:18 pm
by dave brenneman
i'd be curious to hear more about it from someone who's had hands-on use. i just sealed a pine high chair I built for the youngest; it took me a couple days to wipe on coats of poly, and there were rain delays, because I didn't have a space to dry it where we wouldn't be breathing the fumes.

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Sat Apr 13, 2013 3:32 pm
by mannytheseacow
I was in a remote part of NW Vietnam last year and they used wax to treat wood there. I was immediately interested since I do some woodworking and keep bees. They would heat it to a liquid and apply a thin layer then rub it out... similar to waxing skis or snowboards if any of you are familiar. I haven't tried this yet myself, but once it warms up and I start making things again I'm excited to try this.

They also did this to cloth to make it water resistant:
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The women would shuffle their feet on the top piece of wood to mash the cloth between the upper and lower wood pieces. It would deeply penetrate the cloth and they would end up with a very sealed and polished cloth.

This I did try on my favorite fishing cap. I didn't rub it between two pieces of wood but rather just applied the wax and rubbed it in with another piece of cloth on my butcher block. Works great fishing on rainy days. Doesn't breathe like gore-tex of course, but that's not the point!

Back to the point, I'm excited to try this as a wood treatment because it's extremely efficient, natural, low-energy, and really adds a deep gloss to wood that the water-based polys don't have.

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Sun Apr 14, 2013 11:52 am
by GrahamB
Manny you could use a hairdryer. Back in the UK it's fashionable to wear waxed cotton coats for country events (shooting, market days, point to point). We used to reproof them with a semi hard wax by applying it to the material and then going over it with a hairdryer. It lets it run into the fibers. You could probably even do it with wood as long as you don't hold it too close and burn the wood. Then buff it up with a cloth.

Re: Polywhey

PostPosted: Mon Apr 15, 2013 6:41 pm
by dave brenneman
yep, if I had a ready source of wax, I'd use it for sealing some woodworking projects. i'd also do some candle-making...