# Re- a recent enquiry about equipment wax, op departed after one reply.



## Cabinetman (23 Nov 2020)

Trevanion, you answered his question can I say, maybe in a slightly terse way but I can understand it, indeed I feel the same quite often, so.
A few thoughts in my head in no particular order, and they’ve been buzzing around for a while now, and not aimed at this particular op.
Are we too fierce? Is our goodwill being stretched a bit thin? Should we ignore what WE consider to be very basic questions that may be of serious concern to the inexperienced? Are we getting a little bit fed up of being asked questions, answering them and no feedback at all sometimes ? Are we asked questions – not quite sure how to say this, in a frivolous way just to start a conversation? Bit sad but some people just like to be in the loop/the club? Are we getting a little bit up our own ar,ses, and I include myself in that.? 
And I was going to answer that I like to use WD-40 silicon. Because it suits me, my equipment and my environment. Ian


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## marcros (23 Nov 2020)

sometimes this happens- people register to ask a question. They can see the answers without logging on and may have no interest beyond the one thing that they have asked.


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## Ollie78 (23 Nov 2020)

I must say that I have always received great advice on this forum and had some good discussions about woodworking in general.
I will help if I know the answer to something or can add a point and I think generally everyone here is pretty helpful and polite. 
I do think that sometimes it can be hard to communicate via writing forum messages, tone and humour can be missed so easily which can lead to miss communication sometimes.
It is important to remember that all skill levels are represented here from people who are just picking up a saw and chisel for the first time to highly skilled and experienced pro`s and everyone in between.

Ollie


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## Trevanion (24 Nov 2020)

It's just wax.

I mean, what else is there really to say?


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## Ttrees (24 Nov 2020)

Presumably expensive though, compared to soft paraffin canning wax what you can easily buy in America.
Would love to know where abouts can you get that stuff from?

Tom


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## Trevanion (24 Nov 2020)

Ttrees said:


> Presumably expensive though, compared to soft paraffin canning wax what you can easily buy in America.
> Would love to know where abouts can you get that stuff from?



Isn't that stuff just Vaseline?


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## Ttrees (24 Nov 2020)

Here is about the best look at it that I could find, on David Weaver's channel.
Sorry it is not too great of an example, all I can find.
It just looks like candle wax in this clip, but I have seen it in other videos that David has made and it looks a lot easier to apply than regular candle wax.


Tom


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## MikeK (24 Nov 2020)

Trevanion said:


> Isn't that stuff just Vaseline?



It's food-safe paraffin wax that can also be used to make candles. Growing up on a farm, we canned every season and used melted wax to seal the tops of the jam jars instead of putting sealed lids on them. We bought it in two and five-pound blocks, and melted it as we needed it. I don't think anyone does this now.


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## OldWood (24 Nov 2020)

Cabinetman said:


> Trevanion, you answered his question can I say, maybe in a slightly terse way but I can understand it, indeed I feel the same quite often, so.
> A few thoughts in my head in no particular order, and they’ve been buzzing around for a while now, and not aimed at this particular op.
> Are we too fierce? Is our goodwill being stretched a bit thin? Should we ignore what WE consider to be very basic questions that may be of serious concern to the inexperienced? Are we getting a little bit fed up of being asked questions, answering them and no feedback at all sometimes ? Are we asked questions – not quite sure how to say this, in a frivolous way just to start a conversation? Bit sad but some people just like to be in the loop/the club? Are we getting a little bit up our own ar,ses, and I include myself in that.?
> And I was going to answer that I like to use WD-40 silicon. Because it suits me, my equipment and my environment. Ian


I've been using Forums and Groups probably now for approaching 30 years, and there's only been one or two occasions when I received what might be called 'abuse' - more accurately unhelpful comment! Rather unexpectedly that was on one of the beekeeping forums, which I did learn later had become 'fierce'. Whether or not it is valid to continue the coincidence, in that that is a bit like a beehive that has an aggressive queen, and that forum then had a number of members who were 'short-fused' and it spread to others.

There's no way this forum is like that, and self-policing via members or the mods should address it anyway. 

Personally for 'simple' questions I would rather start with a Google search - others may well see a forum on specific subject being the way to go and I suspect we have to thole that. 
Rob


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## Concizat (24 Nov 2020)

MikeK said:


> It's food-safe paraffin wax that can also be used to make candles. Growing up on a farm, we canned every season and used melted wax to seal the tops of the jam jars instead of putting sealed lids on them. We bought it in two and five-pound blocks, and melted it as we needed it. I don't think anyone does this now.


The posh little pots of stilton cheese are still sealed this way


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## D_W (24 Nov 2020)

Ttrees said:


> Here is about the best look at it that I could find, on David Weaver's channel.
> Sorry it is not too great of an example, all I can find.
> It just looks like candle wax in this clip, but I have seen it in other videos that David has made and it looks a lot easier to apply than regular candle wax.
> 
> ...




That must be a fairly old video!! I've managed to convince the mrs. since then that there's no good reason to put cars in garages. 

I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that paraffin is used in a lot of cheaper candles in the US, just very clean in composition to minimize smoke. 

The bars that I buy are Gulf brand canning wax (never seen another brand here) and though few people can, the grocery store always carries it - generally $3 for a pound of it. It gets lost or dropped and broken several times before it's ever consumed. 

As far as people making things difficult, I always thought this was ideal (the bars can be turned on edge and dragged from the back of a plane to the front and literally cover the sole in one swipe - it took some later laziness to figure out that even scribbling is too much effort), but beginners are fair fodder, I guess, and I've caught Rob Cos(t)man telling newbies that gulf wax is sometimes unusable. Whatever that's supposed to mean - even if it was, it still waxes wooden drawers and makes oil/wax mixes just fine - it's got a million uses) and he sells people a much less convenient little glue stick tube of what looks to also be paraffin wax for $10 (probably with a purple heart picture on it). 

Anyone who sticks around for one post is unlikely to stay long no matter what. Two things come to mind:
1) some people always perceive others as slighting them, no matter what - they probably do it in real life
2) aside from just being oversensitive, some people are clinically diagnosable for such a thing and there's no gate on the internet that sends them in a different direction

I've also used paraffin mixed in mineral spirits to stabilize pencils that I've made (that little adventure ended with some of them turning into bananas - and they stay straight when allowed to soak a bit of the mineral spirits with a bit of paraffin dissolved in it - which leads me to believe that if a soft wax is OK for preventing rust, paraffin dissolved into just about any suitable hydrocarbon would make a really cheap shop wax -same as one can mix mineral oil and beeswax for about $12 a quart here in the US and make a very useful wax that also prevents chapping)


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## MikeK (24 Nov 2020)

Cabinetman said:


> Trevanion, you answered his question can I say, maybe in a slightly terse way but I can understand it, indeed I feel the same quite often, so.
> A few thoughts in my head in no particular order, and they’ve been buzzing around for a while now, and not aimed at this particular op.
> Are we too fierce? Is our goodwill being stretched a bit thin? Should we ignore what WE consider to be very basic questions that may be of serious concern to the inexperienced? Are we getting a little bit fed up of being asked questions, answering them and no feedback at all sometimes ? Are we asked questions – not quite sure how to say this, in a frivolous way just to start a conversation? Bit sad but some people just like to be in the loop/the club? Are we getting a little bit up our own ar,ses, and I include myself in that.?
> And I was going to answer that I like to use WD-40 silicon. Because it suits me, my equipment and my environment. Ian



I just realized what might have prompted this. The OP of the wax thread is not a drive-by one-post wonder and has been active since joining the UKW. For reasons known only to the OP, he or she replaced the content of the first post in the thread and title with "." five minutes after Trevanion replied. This rendered the thread useless, so I deleted it and notified the OP. It takes two mouse clicks to restore the thread content, but there's no point.


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## Cabinetman (24 Nov 2020)

MikeK said:


> I just realized what might have prompted this. The OP of the wax thread is not a drive-by one-post wonder and has been active since joining the UKW. For reasons known only to the OP, he or she replaced the content of the first post in the thread and title with "." five minutes after Trevanion replied. This rendered the thread useless, so I deleted it and notified the OP. It takes two mouse clicks to restore the thread content, but there's no point.


 Hi Mike, I was looking at it as it was in the process of being edited, I got the impression that the OP was unhappy with Trevanian’s answer. I tried to comment on that post but wasn’t able to, that is presumably when you were in the process of removing it? Ian


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## MikeK (24 Nov 2020)

Cabinetman said:


> Hi Mike, I was looking at it as it was in the process of being edited, I got the impression that the OP was unhappy with Trevanian’s answer. I tried to comment on that post but wasn’t able to, that is presumably when you were in the process of removing it? Ian



I think so. The time span between the thread creation and deletion was 32 minutes.


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## D_W (24 Nov 2020)

i'm tempted to change my footer to remind people of the ignore function. Sometimes, I ask a question and it's just stupid and i realize afterwards that it was a stupid question (or I post an idea and then realize that for practical purposes, it's just stupid). When it gets blasted, I usually say "yeah, thinking further, that was a really dumb idea". 

I hate taking text out of posts because what's left makes no sense then (and it suggests if it's done to manipulate a discussion that the poster either has some kind of problem or is being deceptive). 

But as much as people get upset about responses...jeez, the ignore button is a wonderful feature.


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## clogs (24 Nov 2020)

D-W
bit like the MUte button on the telly.....hahaha.....
the white writing is the first to wear off on the MUTE button in our house....


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## Trevanion (24 Nov 2020)

I can be a bit blunt sometimes which isn't to everyone's tastes, if anyone ever feels offended or made upset by any of my posts they are more than welcome to contact me privately about it.

I'm certainly not on here to offend and troll people.


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## craigs (24 Nov 2020)




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## ScaredyCat (24 Nov 2020)

D_W said:


> i'm tempted to change my footer to remind people of the ignore function.



Can I use it on myself?


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## Phil Pascoe (24 Nov 2020)

And just don't have a moan when someone's opening post is to knock a company. That's all I can say.


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## Peri (24 Nov 2020)

If you see a question you think is way too basic, ignore it - it gives someone with 'just a bit of experience' an opportunity to get the warm and fuzzy glow of helping someone 

I love this place, I've used forums for 25'ish years - this is a good one


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## Rorton (24 Nov 2020)

I wondered if an FAQ type section where some of the more common answers to questions could go. 

there are some really brilliant posts here, last example the one about lining boxes. it’s more like a how to, so maybe a how to section and an faq?

ive always found everyone really helpful


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## Doug71 (24 Nov 2020)

To be honest I think first time posters probably feel they get a friendlier response now than they did in the past since one of the more outspoken members moved on.


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## Rorton (24 Nov 2020)

Sorry, forgot there was a how 2 section at the bottom, just not very active. Perhaps some of the great posts could be moved into there as a reference?


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## marcros (24 Nov 2020)

an FAQ section may work, but as a complete novice, you probably want guiding through your specific issue. I dont think that what we have is that unapproachable. It tends to mirror how the person approaches the forum. If they say that they dont know what they are talking about and needs help, they get it. I have seen plenty of offers of help, including "bring your plane over and I will show you how to sharpen it and use it". the alternative is people that come on with no idea, trying to convince themselves that whatever idea they had in the first instance will work, and tell the experienced professionals that they are wrong. 

people generally get the help they deserve.


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## billw (24 Nov 2020)

What happened to Sebastian?


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## Droogs (24 Nov 2020)

he was rather arrogant and obnoxious in his outlook and manner and thought he knew better than many far better than both he and I whose help he actually wanted to ellicit. He brought the response he had upon himself. and even when given help basically bit the hand that fed him


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## Doug B (24 Nov 2020)

billw said:


> What happened to Sebastian?


I’d forgotten about him already  
I don’t know whether to be pleased or worried about my memory


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## D_W (24 Nov 2020)

ScaredyCat said:


> Can I use it on myself?



you might need to make two user IDs but then you can double use it!!


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## Blackswanwood (24 Nov 2020)

Doug B said:


> I’d forgotten about him already
> I don’t know whether to be pleased or worried about my memory


Is that they guy who deleted all his own posts?


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## Doug B (24 Nov 2020)

Blackswanwood said:


> Is that they guy who deleted all his own posts?


That’s him also responsible for our lose of edit function


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## Trevanion (24 Nov 2020)

Doug B said:


> That’s him also responsible for our lose of edit function



Don't remind me, Doug, the castration still hurts!


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## Ttrees (24 Nov 2020)

Clearly most folks aren't commenting as they are still waaay too upset over that thread, 
which didn't come across to me, as any excuse to loose our edit function for.

It seems the forum may have evolved a bit, it could be the new forum software enabling a clearer expression or something, but people seem to be communicating better these days, and I see no-one getting mis-interpated having to defend their opinions and in haste, with their point not coming across and an unimportant sentence being manipulated.

I suppose there will always be a rogue, but there seems not to be any recently, 
well there are no heated threads anyways.

I think it may be safe to have a rethink on the matter of the edit function.
Sorry for the long winded post, but I'm not the best at compressing my writings.
Tom


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## RogerS (24 Nov 2020)

Rorton said:


> I wondered if an FAQ type section where some of the more common answers to questions could go.
> 
> there are some really brilliant posts here, last example the one about lining boxes. it’s more like a how to, so maybe a how to section and an faq?
> 
> ive always found everyone really helpful


Or even a Search facility on the foru....oh, we've got one of those


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## Doug B (25 Nov 2020)

Ttrees said:


> I think it may be safe to have a rethink on the matter of the edit function.



Couldn’t agree more, It did seem a sledgehammer to crack a nut type of response


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## Cabinetman (25 Nov 2020)

RogerS said:


> Or even a Search facility on the foru....oh, we've got one of those


 It may be me, but I have virtually given up using the search facility, it just doesn’t seem very intelligent. Sometimes you just need to put in more than two words and it doesn’t cope at all well.


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## Benchwayze (25 Nov 2020)

Concizat said:


> The posh little pots of stilton cheese are still sealed this way


Oh Gawd! Thanks for the reminder Concizat. Christmas is here again. Better order my beef fillet!

John


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## brittonc (25 Nov 2020)

I joined this forum recently to ask, what most here would probably consider a very broad and often asked question. I wanted to know what hardware I should look at getting to start wood working. I had a number of replies with some very helpful advice, for which I'm very thankful and I'm glad I joined. 

Maybe it's worth remembering that everyone started somewhere. What may seem like a stupid question to someone with years of knowledge and experience could be seen as a hurdle to someone just starting out. I'm sure over the next year or so, while I start trying my hand at wood working, I'll be here asking all sorts of things. If I get the same helpful advice as I did to my first question I'm sure my future builds will go well.


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## bourbon (25 Nov 2020)

My first post on here, was to help someone who required some bandsaw tyres. I was thanked for that by a few people.


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## D_W (25 Nov 2020)

bourbon said:


> My first post on here, was to help someone who required some bandsaw tyres. I was thanked for that by a few people.



That's generally how it goes!! If one gets on and bashes someone else for their first post, most of us will be suspicious (and some will reply). If someone offers generous, genuine and helpful advice - we're all less suspicious!!


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## Phil Pascoe (25 Nov 2020)

brittonc said:


> ... I had a number of replies with some very helpful advice, for which I'm very thankful and I'm glad I joined.
> ... I'll be here asking all sorts of things. If I get the same helpful advice as I did to my first question I'm sure my future builds will go well.



Maybe because you listened to someone?  Many first posts serve only to irrate the people who try to help because the OP has already decided what to do (wrongly), wants his opinion reinforced then objects like hell when experienced people don't agree with him.


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## rafezetter (25 Nov 2020)

what what? we've lost our edit function?
edit: err nope?


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## Phil Pascoe (26 Nov 2020)

We can no longer edit old posts.


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## Benchwayze (7 Dec 2020)

brittonc said:


> I joined this forum recently to ask, what most here would probably consider a very broad and often asked question. I wanted to know what hardware I should look at getting to start wood working. I had a number of replies with some very helpful advice, for which I'm very thankful and I'm glad I joined.
> 
> Maybe it's worth remembering that everyone started somewhere. What may seem like a stupid question to someone with years of knowledge and experience could be seen as a hurdle to someone just starting out. I'm sure over the next year or so, while I start trying my hand at wood working, I'll be here asking all sorts of things. If I get the same helpful advice as I did to my first question I'm sure my future builds will go well.



Don't worry Britton.. You won't be 'trying your hand' for long. Once this bug bites it bites forever. Best of luck

John


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## brittonc (9 Dec 2020)

Thanks Benchwayze. It's something I have waited a long time for but delivery of my shed is now only 4 weeks away! I'm counting down the days!


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