Oven Baked Frog With Beeswax Finish

[Robson Valley]

It's supposed to be a froggy-looking dish around the edge. Indulge me, OK?
Notes: birch, 14" x 5" x 1.25", the bottom is 1/4" thick, the feet are 1/4" proud of the underside.
Estimated surface area: 205 square inches.
Biological waxes melt at 65C or less so I melted 2 x 1oz (the bars) in a cup in hot water.
Brushed the wax all over the dish, possibly 1/2oz left over. It set up so fast, it was hard to tell if the coverage was complete.
Oven preheated to 325F/160C. On a rack, over foil, on a sheet pan as you see, into the oven for 3min30sec.

What's supposed to happen: Charles' Law describes how heated gases expand and cooled gases contract.
With the wood hot and the wax melted, as the wood cools out of the oven, the melted wax will be sucked
down into the wood with the cooling/contracting of the wood air.

Turned out that I needed an additional 6 minutes to see wood air bubbling out of the melted wax.
Using vegetable oil, I have finished 70 spoons and 30 forks (birch carvings) this way = you can't wash it off,
you can't blow the oil out, even in boiling soup = not hot enough.

I picked up the dish with tongs (don't like 325F melted beeswax on my fingers) to drain off the surplus melted wax.
30 minutes to cool and into service beside my kitchen sink for scrub pads and sink stoppers.

Conclusion: about as messy as I expected, bw is really hard to clean up. Unless I needed a real waterproofing
again, this goes to the bottom of my list of wood finishes.

 

[mountainm]

I like it, although if you don't mind me saying there's a lot of turtle in that frog...

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks, it's a stretch. HAHA Cane Toads look like this on the highways and byways of Queensland/Australia. "Road Toad?"

The baked beeswax finish was something that I'd never tried before. Satisfactory result from the experiment.

 

[crosslandkelly]

Nice job. Interesting to see how you've used the bee's wax.
BTW, definitely a turtle.

 

[Robson Valley]

I have been wanting and waiting to do the beeswax/oven finish experiment for a long time.
Humdrum_hostage asked about it in a thread, just as I had finished the kitchen frog dish.
What a grand opportunity to do the experiment! Positive or negative, I will get a result of some sort.
I am pleased to report the results.

The skulls of turtles rise between the eyes. My brother is a diver in Grand Bahama, he send me pictures.
Frogs have lower profiles. Of course, they are much of a muchness on the road.

Here is a real Frog Dish. I carved this as a gift for a Kwakwaka'wakw matriarch of Frog Clan who brought great honor to my little family.
There is abalone shell inlay in the tail to signify her PacNW coastal heritage, copper eyes to signify prosperity.
It's western red cedar, about 10" x 10" x 2?"

 

[mountainm]

I had in mind a snapper

would make a great covered dish.

 

[humdrum_hostage]

Thanks for the info RV. I may have to give that one a go. I am glad you made the mess experimenting and not me.

Def more a road toad than a frog lol

 

[vestlenning]

When I opened this tread I expected a recipe for a dish, and was wondering how the beeswax was used - glad to see nice woodworking instead!

 

[Robson Valley]

Thanks all. I needed the dish and thought that the beeswax experiment was worth a try.
Oil-based & baked finishes are good for the kitchen.

Later last evening, the dish felt very dry, not at all waxy or sticky.
So I filled it up with water and poured that out = the last of the water beaded up and ran off.
I'll burnish the surface with brown paper bag (wood carver's finishing trick) maybe today.

Turtles: I see the head shape in the snapper. I am familiar only with the sea turtles, Green in particular.

 

[Robson Valley]

Never again. I won't ever do this without an entire dedicated set of cookware = cake rack and water bath pot.
Won't have to be any more than thrift/charity store kit.

Had to scrape all around every wire of the rack with the back edge of a knife to get the big drippy bits off.
Scraped the biggest blobs out of the pot with a stick. Then lots on mineral spirits paint thinner on paper towels.
Then hot soapy water wash. Now into the dishwasher, maybe run the load tomorrow.

 

[xylaria]

I am going to give this a go. I have silcone cookware that wax just falls off. Generally it is used for soap not food.

 

[Robson Valley]

Under normal(?) circumstances, I use vegetable oil for the finishing process, very easy clean up.
In that, 3/30 at 325F is enough heat to get the result for 70 spoons and 30 forks.
Bear in mind that hot, oiled things in the oven will begin to cook like French Fries! I've done it.

This was a dish for utility service and I wanted to be certain that it was waterproof.
Was not saving the beeswax for any cosmic use.

The key concept is to take advantage of Charles' Law.
I suppose there's always a risk of your carved spoon/kuksa splitting.

 

[Goatboy]

Wonderful work, I'm impressed. (Sorry but I see where the others are getting the turtle from though I think I'm conditioned that way, it's the way the front limbs are being held. Reminds me of The Great A'Tuin from Discworld.) Hope you don't take offence. I was wondering if it would float upright in water? I can imagine having a bath with him floating past with my soap.

The Kwakwaka'wakw gift is also stunning. Were they used for a particular thing?

Cheers for posting up, really lovely work.

ATB,
GB.

 

[Robson Valley]

I'd take it a step further and put a couple of tea light candles in it.
Sharing the bath, a bottle of good wine, in a candle lit room would be nice.
The inevitable tsunami makes the candles too soggy to relight. Oh well.

Post #13: the pair of hexagonal scutes between the eyes identifies the Green Sea Turtle.
I have finished a GST in parts. Maybe a dry fit today. Will be 30" long and 24-30" wide,
the body is about 4-5" thick.

The Kwakwaka'wakw dish was simply a gift. She's a good friend of my D2.
Family health issues meant that we all met up in NYorks for D2's wedding.
Flying all the way from YVR ain't cheap.
Family from Sydney, even my brother came up from Grand Bahama.

It started as the lily pad shape for the dish void.
I've never asked since what she uses it for. Bits of jewellry, perhaps?