Wonderfully Simple Homemade Wood Polish Recipe

crunched by Crunchy Betty on March 22, 2012
filed under Household

I hunted and searched through my brain for a funny and/or inspiring wood story to accompany this post. Perhaps something about trees and how they symbolize the seasons we all go through as human beings? Maybe something about the Virgin-Mary-shaped stain I left in our old wood coffee table from fingernail polish remover?

Maybe no. Nothing was good enough or funny enough, because instead, my mushy brain decided to get the theme song from the Woody Woodpecker Show stuck on repeat. (ha ha hahaha!)

The good news is, this wood polish recipe will do the exact opposite to your wooden goodies that Woody Woodpecker would. The bad news is, now you have that song stuck in your head, too. Sorry. Stupid head songs are the price I demand for my stunning expertise.

So I’ll just shut up now and show you the fancy picture (how do you like the new “frame” program I worked with today?) of exactly what we’re about to make:

I don’t really own a lot of beautiful wood things, but a few weeks ago I did buy these adorable wooden bowls at a thrift shop for a whopping $1.50 (for the entire set, people, sheesh).

The only caveat was that they were in pretty rough shape – the kind of shape wood tends to get in when it’s washed and dirtied and forgotten for years at a time. The perfect task for a homemade beeswax wood cleaner, wouldn’t you agree?

Here’s what they looked like before I took the wood polish to them:

I can’t wait for you to see the final before and after picture. The last thing I expected was that all the white scuff marks would disappear, but they did! Oh yes. Gone. Poof. Like Wile E. Coyote from a high desert cliff.

This Wood Polish is Economical AND Effective

If, for some reason, you’ve been skittish about working with beeswax thus far, this is the best starter recipe to get your feet wet with. It’s so simple to make, and it dirties nothing but a spoon (if you make it the way I did).

Best of all, it only uses TWO ingredients (unless you want to toss in some essential oil): Beeswax and olive oil. If you don’t have beeswax, you can always buy it at Mountain Rose Herbs or your local natural food store (or a local beekeeper!).

I did some rough estimating, and the homemade wood polish in the quantity I made cost right around $0.45 or less for about 1/2 c. of wood polish. This will last me months, though if you have a lot of wood to polish, you might have to replenish your supply more often (or double the recipe).

This wood polish is great for any type of wood, AND you can even use it to condition and clean up your cutting boards, if you so desire. It doesn’t just bring your wood back to shiny, rich life, it also protects and cuts down on cleaning time for a while after you use it.

Here’s another awesome thing about the beeswax wood polish: It doubles as a quick dry skin balm. (This is if you don’t include any essential oils in your recipe.) If you ever run out of your hand or elbow moisturizer, just reach for the wood polish.

Betcha Pledge can’t say the same thing, now can they? So there!

Easy-Peasy Homemade Wood Polish Recipe

Even though there are a lot of pictures in this post, you should be aware – yet again – that this is ridiculously easy to make. Don’t feel overwhelmed. I was just having fun with the camera today. Wood is photogenic.

Here’s what you need:

2 Tbsp finely grated beeswax or beeswax beads
6-8 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil (6 if you want a firmer polish, 8 if you want your polish to be a little squishier)
A small glass container
A pot with about 2 inches of water in it
A spoon

First, you want to heat up your water to steaming (not boiling). Once the water is pretty warm, put your beeswax in the glass container and then set the glass container gently into the warm-hot water, making sure the water does NOT sink into the beeswax or overflow in any way, shape or form.

By the way, doing it this way really helps avoid any beeswax mess and cuts down on cleaning time immensely (to almost zero minutes). Otherwise, you could always just use a real double boiler to melt everything, and then you’ll have to clean your double boiler after you pour it in your container.

Next, melt the beeswax completely.

No lumps or bumps.

Just melted beeswax.

Yummy.

Once the beeswax is melted, pour in the 6-8 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil and stir very, very well. You can remove the container from the hot water before you add the olive oil, but you might have to reheat it anyway, because the room-temperature olive oil might make the beeswax set up immediately, leaving you with big clumps floating in your oil.

You’re done. Leave it alone.

Oh, unless you want to add 10-15 drops of a lemon, tea tree, or woody – like pine or cedarwood – essential oil. Do that now and stir well.

And then leave it alone. To set up. To get firm. To be ready for your nimble, adept hands and a rag. Because once your beeswax furniture polish is ready, you won’t be able to put it down until all the wooden things in your home gleam like a baby’s bottom.

Yes. That’s right. I said babies’ bottoms gleam.

They do, right? I haven’t seen one in ages. I’m probably thinking about clean car windshields. They’re easy to confuse.

How to Use Your Wood Polish

First, whatever wood things you want to clean, make sure they’re lightly dusted and free of any major gunk and stains. You don’t want to trap any of that in there.

Next, you just dip your fingers or a very clean rag into the polish and scoop out a little bit.

Massage it into the wood, being careful not to miss any spots. Though you WILL be able to tell if you miss a spot – the difference is that pronounced.

You can either wipe it off immediately, if you’re in a giant rush, or – even better – after you’ve coated the wood with your wood polish, leave it alone for 20 minutes to an hour and then come back and wipe it all down again with a clean, dry rag.

Think of it as the difference between conditioning your hair and using a hot oil treatment. The longer you leave it, the more goodness soaks in.

And that’s it! You’re done, until the next time.

Without further ado, here is the before and after picture of one of the bowls I wiped down. And I didn’t even WAIT 20 minutes to an hour to wipe it off; imagine how perfect it would be if I had.

I wish I owned more wood now.

You guys have to try this out, if you haven’t already. It’s a little addictive.

The more I think about it, the more it seems that being crunchy and making my own homemade cleaners has turned cleaning into an adventure now instead of a chore. If I could, I’d clean the whole world.

Today, though, I’ll just settle for some bowls.

Do you have any wood cleaning tips, or a favorite wood polish recipe you’ve used before? Think you’ll try this one?

P.S. Feel free to yell at me if you really DO have the Woody Woodpecker song stuck in your head now. I deserve it.

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kylieonwheels

Ahhh lovely! This has been on my list for a while. I’m about to take some time off work to get my house (err…life) in order, and I think a day polishing wooden stuff sounds very therapeutic (not to mention productive and fun). My dad was a carpenter so I love timber, it has the smell and feel of my childhood.

Love the technique, too. That’s how I make my coconut oil deodorant in little jars too.

Oh and the chopping boards will love this!
- Karen
  
  Can you give the recipe for coconut deodorant?
  - kylieonwheels
    
    Sure! :)
    
    I mix equal parts bicarb soda and cornflour together in the jar, and then I put coconut oil in, enough to make a smooth paste. Add any essential oil I might like for fragrance. Give it a real good stir.
    
    Then I put the jar in the fridge to solidify the coconut oil quickly. Reason being that previously when I’ve used other oils with a lower melting point (ie. liquid at ambient temperatures), the bicarb and cornflour have settled out as a sediment at the bottom of the oil, which is a real pain to try and apply. So by cooling quickly, my theory is that it remains a fairly homogenous mix of the ingredients.
    
    Depending on my location and the time of year, I might keep it in the fridge. If it is staying solid in the bathroom, I’ll just leave it there.
    
    There are plenty of discussions about deodorants on the site and in the Community, so have a search if you’re curious. Hope this helps :)
Sara

I’ll have to look around, but I don’t think I have much wood stuff. Except floors that need to be refinished. Can I use it on them? Or do you have another option for floors?
- Allison_Ogden_Brown
  
  I’ve used a variant on this recipe to hide scratches on my newly-finished floor. (Argh.)
  It worked like a charm. I would be really careful about using CB’s formula on floors because of the high proportion of oil. You wouldn’t want the floor to be slippery.
  The formula I use is mostly beeswax, melted with just enough oil to make the combo spreadable with effort. I designed it to waterproof my cracked dry skin when I work at a hospital. Picture a really hard salve.
  It’s a consistency that works well on small scratches, but might be hard to apply to a whole house worth of wood floors. Unless you rent a floor buffer, which is a pretty good deal, considering the cost of refinishing. I’d say, give it a go on a small section, polishing with a rag. See if you like the results a week later (Is it too slippery? Is it too sticky? Is it pretty?!) and refine the polish before you go whole hog with the buffer.
- kylieonwheels
  
  Regarding floors, you do need to be careful. I bought a house about a year ago and ended up ripping up the manky, feral carpets and polishing the boards, so I’m pretty fresh on this topic.
  
  The thing with floors is that they can be polished (as in lacquered, finished, etc) with an acrylic product, or an epoxy based (2 part) resin. Obviously the acrylic is the less harmful of the two, in terms of manufacture, and then in terms of chemicals in your living space. However, acrylic can be affected by oils in the timber. In my case, if anyone had ever used oils on the floor previously, it was going to prevent the acrylic stain and seal from ‘adhering’ to the timber. Much like how water beads on an oiled surface.
  
  So, without waffling any further, if you are thinking about polishing your floors with an oil or wax based product, you need to know whether your surface is acrylic or epoxy/resin, and you want to think about whether putting oil on it now is going to make refinishing (professionally) in the future difficult.
  - Allison_Ogden_Brown
    
    I guess it depends on whether you sand the floors before refinishing. Our floors had some scratches, so they got a good sanding. I imagine that would take everything off.
    Also, you wouldn’t necessarily have to put much polish on. If you knew you wanted to refinish in the future, just don’t reapply, and it’ll wear off eventually.
    I guess my point is that if refinishing was in the budget and on the horizon, maybe this isn’t the project for you. But if you’ve got beat up wood floors and just want them to look nicer without having to move all your furniture into the garage…this might be an option.
Pam

This is awesome and I’m definitely going to make it. What I’ve been using for years is about a 1:4 ratio of olive oil to lemon juice. Sometimes it a 1:3 ratio, whatever. I keep it in a 2 oz spray bottle. It works better than Pledge. But, I like the idea of the beeswax as a protective coating. :0)
Lisa Jordan

Another idea instead of olive oil (which can get a rancid smell sometimes) is to use a nut oil like walnut oil with the beeswax. I use tung oil for my woodwork, but the walnut oil for my wooden bowl collection, spoons, etc.
http://wholesomehomemaker.com/ Deb

This is so awesome! My father-in-law turns bowls (and builds other things in his wood shop) and I’m definitely going to make some of this to give him. I can’t believe the after pictures on those bowls!
Laura

I am so excited I try this! I was about to hunker down and buy a premade jar of beeswax polish before I saw his.
Gina

This would make the perfect gift for my mother-in-law! She has a lot of wooden furniture. I gave her another homemade wood cleaner for Christmas a while ago (vinegar, olive oil and lemon essential oil) but this one seems even better! Thanks :)
Laura Pilati

my oma (german grandmother, and cleaning freak) always says that you should use lemon oil as a wood cleaner and polish. i’ve never tried it, but she swears by it!
- Allison_Ogden_Brown
  
  Lemon oil sold since the 50′s or so, it usually mineral oil with a lemon scent. I still use some of my grandma’s backstock when I’m feeling nostalgic, but it’s not crunchy.
Heather L

Hmm…I know you said all wood, but really, like teak too? I have this nice set of teak nesting coffee tables from my mom and I keep forgetting to put the fancy teak oil stuff on it…maybe making my own fancy wood polish would inspire me to care for the tables.
Ps…I recently made your lotion bars, in tiny flower ice cube molds and have amazed all my friends at my crafty handiwork. Excellent little hostess (and really anytime) gifts. Thanks!
Kanke

I’ve been looking for a good polish but I hate the oillyness (is that even a word?) that polish leaves behind. I’m afraid to touch my dining room table after I polish because it leaves marks on my clothes even after letting it dry overnight. Does this leave any residue behind? Thanks.
KarinSDCA

I just use oil. Whatever oil is seeping out of one of my concoctions. They all seem to work. The wood LOVES oil. I skip the dry rag on certain pieces of furniture because they seem to really need time to soak in all the oil and it takes a few days. I do use a clean, dry rag to wipe and rub and, you know, polish the wood on tables.

It is soooo grounding and relaxing to polish wood with your fingers. Almost like hugging a tree, which I did yesterday. Me and 22 fifth graders hugged and touched oodles of trees before an outdoor art lesson where we sketched trees. I felt so grounded the rest of the day.
Aislinn

Sounds great. Haven’t tried it yet, but I will. Speaking of polishing, Leslie, do you have a recipe for shoe polish? Or anyone else? I’ve used the same recipe as above, but it doesn’t cover the scuff marks or stay around very long. Perhaps I need some sort of colourant in it to match the shoe colour (spell check does not like Canadians! Grrrr…). Any ideas? I’m watching my shoes go down hill because I refuse to buy the nasty “conventional” shoe polish.
- kylieonwheels
  
  I wonder if you could use a bit of that charcoal in a black shoe polish? As in the stuff Crunchy Betty has used for makeup…is it a digestive thing maybe? Found in chemists?
  - Aislinn
    
    Thanks, Kylie. I ended up using this recipe with some iron oxide pigments in it. Brown and black. I’m a potter and we use these as ingredients in glazes, so it was perfect. The shoes look awesome!
Pat

I use a lemon juice and olive oil mix. Ill add an essential oil sometimes because it works like a potpourri in the house for awhile then. I did my grammas antique china hutch with it and it looked gorgeous after I was done. The juice cleans it, the oil moisturizes it and it looked great.
Melnkay

Your bowls look amazing! Going to go make some now…YAY
Michelle Partington

I don’t think you understand how relevant this is to me right now! The past few days I’ve been looking for a good natural wood polish recipe!! Thank you!!
Erin R.

I like that you said making your own cleaners makes cleaning more an adventure than a chore! I was texting my mom the other day and said making my own cleaners kinda makes cleaning fun! She replied that the words cleaning and fun don’t belong in the same sentence!! LOL! I may have to make this polish. We have some wood items in our house that could use a polish :)
http://www.facebook.com/PennyLeathPeterson Penny Leath Peterson

This is great! I’m so glad I found your blog – you have inspired me to do a lot of things!! Thanks!!
http://www.makeitbakeitbuyitfakeit.blogspot.com/ Stephanie

Love this stuff. I’ve only made it in a big batch before (for Christmas gifts), so I love that this is a “little” recipe that I can do right in the intended containers. Tip of the day: whatever amount you make, only use wide mouthed jars!
Sara

This is so similar to a recipe I use for hand cream (beeswax, olive oil, and coconut oil)…you really can use it on your skin too! Also makes a great lip balm.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Madalyn-Rose-Crissman/100003200998418 Madalyn Rose Crissman

This is probably a dumb question, but can I use this on wood that has been stained and given a super shiny glossy coat of wood sealing shiny stuff? Or should I only use this on more natural unsealed wood?
- http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=725621676 Chandra Rambo
  
  I don’t think that’s a dumb question, Madalyn. I don’t know how CB will answer it, but I will tell you that I have TONS of wood furniture and I make a lot of wood stuff, and I’ve used (really expensive) beeswax-based polish on them all, including poly-coated/varnished/wood-sealed. It will enhance the shine, and darken/hide scratches and nicks, even on sealed wood (just like Pledge or Old English, only not so poisonish).
Anne

“If I could, I’d clean the whole world. Today, though, I’ll just settle for some bowls.” That’s why I love you.
Liina Laufer

I infused olive oil with some dried sage I picked out in the Santa Barbara mountains, and rubbed it all over my unfinished wooden table, and my table took on a beautiful, darker shine! Then I used some of this sage olive oil to make a healing salve using your recipe – it smells so heavenly! Question – does anybody find that these treatments give off any flavor to their food via cutting boards or utensils? Say, if I used a tea tree oil treatment on a wooden spoon, would the flavor end up in my food?
- kylieonwheels
  
  That’s a good question about the spoons in particular. I have always kept a couple of wooden spoons, in my head saying “one for curry, one for custard”, because the strong flavours definitely stick around with things like curries. Unlike bowls, the spoons get submerged in your hot dinner, which would wear away the polish more quickly. I think I’d probably stick to just regular cooking oils for the spoons, and keep the waxes and essential oils for bowls and furniture and every else.
Zel

What a lovely recipe. Just a question, though. When researching how to maintain wooden/bamboo cutting boards and rolling pins, I read that there are concerns with olive oil going rancid, and therefore some thing like paraffin (yuck) or walnut oil is better. Has anyone noticed such a problem?
- kylieonwheels
  
  I’m not sure, but I actually would have thought walnut oil went rancid more quickly than olive oil. I know walnuts need to be eaten pretty soon after opening the packet for that reason.
  - Zel
    
    Thanks for answering, Kylie. While walnuts do go bad if you store them outside of the fridge, the refined oil seems to be more resistant to oxidization by comparison with other oils. At least that’s what Wikipedia and some other sources I’ve read have said. Here’s a nice recipe for making your own wood “finish” using walnut and beewax that has some interesting tips and can be stored for several years http://www.erikorganic.com/green/finishing-with-walnut-oil-and-beeswax/
    The biggest differences seem to be that it contains more beeswax than a polish and the walnut oil is actually lightly boiled as extra proof against rancidity.
    
    But I really wonder if rancidity is such a problem when oils are used on wood. I’d never heard about it til a few months ago. Up til now I have always just been using a bit of sunflower oil on my rolling pin, and I haven’t noticed my cookies tasting funky, even though I only use the rolling pin a couple of times a year.
- Cyndel Jones
  
  Perhaps try to mix in food grade mineral oil instead of olive oil.
Heather :) :) :)

This looks great. I’m living in my aunt’s home and we have some old wood furniture…I’m talking from the early 20th century or previoius century…and I’m looking for a natural way to keep it looking good!!! Would this work for wooden furniture, too? Love and hugs from the ocean shores of CAlifornia, Heather :)
Heather :) :) :)

I’m thinking this would be good for our old, wood table and the wooden highboy. Love and hugs from the ocean shores of CAlifornia, Heather :)
jennhsweat

Cant wait to make this! I am in love with a couple of hand made bowls I recently got at the farmers market and Ive been thinking I need to start taking care of them so they’ll stay beautiful forever. This sounds like the perfect thing for them because they arent polished or stained or anything so they need a little love and protection :)
http://twitter.com/HippieHealthNut Casey

I was steps away from buying polish this weekend and I didn’t. And I have all of these things on hand. That is clearly a sign to make this. :)
http://www.facebook.com/sophstarsmama Kathryn Rabung

I made this and polished all my daughter’s blocks with it. They were the unfinished Melissa & Doug blocks, pretty already, but now they are absolutely beautiful and they feel wonderful too!
Karina

Oh I must make some of this today. I’m a furniture wax addict for the reasons you’ve shown and the stuff in the spray can can actually ruin the wood finish and make it a gummy mess. I love that this has no turpentine or anything harsh in it. This would even be a great lip balm!
Adri Fair

Great advice! I already use olive oil and lemon juice to clean the wood, but it doesn’t give it that shine without the wax. So I’m off to stock up on beeswax!
http://www.homemadewellbeing.wordpress.com/ Kristina

Great tip :) Seems lovely :)
Meg

My chopping block needs to be conditioned and I’ve been having a hard time spending $8 for a bottle of this same stuff! I have beeswax galore; my brother in-law keeps bees; and a huge bottle of olive oil. To the stove I go!
Becki

This is such great stuff, I have used it on almost every wood surface of our house, LOL! Thanks so much for sharing!
http://beckyskaleidoscope.blogspot.com/ Becky

I made this and it is just PERFECT! I’ve been running around the house polishing things all day – already made a second batch. It is so easy to make, and it leaves the wood so beautiful. Thank you!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1196451670 Jackie Messinger

I just made some! Even more ridiculously easy than you made it sound! I added fir needle essential oil to it (10 drops) just because it smells so wonderfully woodsy. Thanks for this idea! Now Im just waiting for it to set up so I can polish a few Monkey Pod wood bowls that were my mom’s.
Jillian

Totally easy to make, but my first batch, with 8 T of EVOO, was way too firm. Made a second batch with 10 T of EVOO, STILL super-firm. Zapping it for a second or two helps, and I didn’t add any essential oils . . . did anyone else have this problem?
ElizaBeth

Mineral oil is actually better for polishes than olive oil. Olive oil can turn rancid over time, and mineral oil does not.
Darla Tuning

Rather than using essential oil, if you can plan ahead, infuse your olive oil first and then it is per-scented. Since I grow my own lemons, I made a batch for this very purpose and it works wonderfully.
http://www.myspace.com/jessinamercy Jessina Sowe

I just made some and I am liking the results, excellent!
Heather

I just told my husband today I need to get back on making all of our cleaning products to save money and get the chemicals out of the house. I was doing it for a while and then fell off the wagon for whatever unknown reason. I was telling him I need to find a homemade wood polish and happened to come across this and your site. I LOVE it! My husband is a woodworker and so I need something natural to take care of the beautiful furniture he’s built.

My only concern with olive oil and a cutting board is that olive oil goes rancid over time and shouldn’t be used on cutting boards by itself. I’ve heard of the mineral oil and beeswax mix though, since mineral soaks into the wood and beeswax seals it in. I’ll likely do that mix for our wood polish vs. olive oil but thanks for the idea!

P.S. Olive + BW is an amazing mix for skin. I’m a handmade soapmaker and I have to admit I delve into my supply sometimes. “Washing” my face in the evening with castor oil a few times a week is one of my favorites! Just rub a dime size in, put a warm washcloth on for 30 seconds and wipe off. It draws out impurities and moisturizes.
http://www.ourhomemadehappiness.com/2012/02/homemade-furniture-polish.html Our Homemade Happiness

I really like using 2 parts olive oil, 1 part lemon juice or vinegar for my wood polish.
Sheena

My test batch it setting now. Halfway through polishing my kitchen cupboards with a commercial polish I decided to search for a homemade method and came across your site. Your before and after pictures had me sold immediately!!! I have A LOT of wood in my house (entire kitchen, massive window frames, all trim and baseboards). I can’t wait to try this. I may need to make an XXXXXL batch by the end of the day.
Naoms

What happend to the virgin Mary stain you had ? I have a similar situation and just need to fix that spot will any polish blend it in with the rest of the table ? Also where can i find beeswax ??
Darlene S.

LOVE this recipe and how easy is it?? Thanks for sharing!
kevin

A) this is not polish, it’s finish. Polish is an fine abrasive, removes finish leaving a shine.
B) do not by any means use this to fix up furniture. The finish used on even cheap furniture is so much harder than this. This will scuff, smudge and lose its lustre so quickly it’ll likely look worse in a few months. Oils are penetrating finishes, coating finishes are used on to to protect, not the other way around. The same goes for pledge.
C) as others have said, olive oil can go rancid, it will yellow maple as well. Mineral oil is clear and won’t go rancid.
EricaVee

Haha, I found his post looking for ways to tweak my beeswax/evoo lotion recipe. I think I might have to run around the house with a jar of lotion looking for wooden things to polish now.
KennieB

Would this polish work on wood floors as well?
http://www.creativesimplelife.com/ Creative Simple Life

This looks great! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks!
Motherstars

I have a question: If I use this polish on a wooden table, will a hot or wet plate make a white ring?