Massey finish - two part epoxy and acetone

[Ruddy Darter]

"On wet weather hunts here in Alaska, I keep a small tin of beeswax mix,( thinned into a firm paste with some oil), for frequent application as needed.
Dean Torges did some experiments published in one of his books which showed a wax finish to be most effective for his purposes also." Quote from willie.

I have to admit I'm a fair weather archer but I came across a simple recipe for a protective wax/polish to put over a shellac finish, (also to dull down shellac with wire wool). Can also be buffed to a shine apparently.

100g beeswax.
2 tablespoons of natural Carnauba wax flakes.
2&1/2 cups of real turpentine, (not substitute).

(Small batch by my calculation with slightly higher ratio of Carnauba wax flakes---->
10g beeswax, 5g Carnauba wax flakes, 70ml of real turpentine.)

 Melt the wax together in a double boiler (optional, can be desolved in the turps but takes longer), remove from heat, add the turps, stir well with a wooden spoon, put in jars/tins, allow to cool before use.

 I'm waiting on the ingredients to arrive and I will make up a batch.
Maybe a different ratio with more Carnauba wax would offer more water resistance, maybe also add a little linseed oil/other oil?. If a better recipe is known I'd  be grateful to know.
R.D.

[simk]

Hello Rudy, I do the same but solve pitch in the turpenrine before mixing. All the four ingredients 25% per weight. Depending on temperature takes a few days to really harden out before it can be polished, but im fine with that mixture now for a few years back. Protects sinew as well. Cheers

[JW_Halverson]

It's all grist for the mill for me, Eric. Jimmi the Sammi uses this on all his bows and I have seen his rather extensive rack, so I have a good idea of what it will look like. Well, his may look a little more refined than mine, he's a nitpicker on detail.

As for whether it will "thread counted", this bow ain't running in that crowd. Though I have a couple of projects coming up where I'm gonna be that thread counter! One in particular is gonna have me looking for some bear fat for the finish.

[Eric Krewson]

I forgot to mention; after I read about Jay Massy's experience as well as being in the infancy of my bow making journey this finish became my go to finish for a number of years. I suspect I put it on close to 50 bows, possibly more, I put it on wood bows, snake skin backed bows (copperheads and western diamond backs) and lots of bamboo osage bows, for my customers hunting bows it got a spritz of spar to dull the finish, for my tournament shooters I left it shiny, it looked really good on a bamboo osage bow which was the most of the tournament shooters wanted at the time.

I came to realize this finish was overkill for an osage bow that didn't absorb moisture that readily so I went to simpler finishes. I used something between the Massy finish and Tru-oil but as that was 20 years ago, I can't remember what it was.

Here is the Massy finish muted with spar, this bow had 13 drying checks down the back, I filled them with superglue, the bow is still shooting.
 



 

[bownarra]

You can buy epoxy based finishes no problem nowadays - you've just got to look! Kinda pointless making your own.

[Eric Krewson]

Some of us like to experiment with different things and don't feel like this type of piddling is "pointless". My piddling may be trying new garden techniques off the top of my head, food plot planting, bow making or flintlock building. I have come up with some new innovative stuff as well as plenty of complete failures.

The Massey finish I put on one bow might have cost me 20 cents, I have the materials in my shop all the time for other projects so buying anything else seemed "pointless" to me. I could mix up enough finish for a couple of bows in about 30 seconds, sure beats a trip to the store to buy a specialize finish.

Case in point; my tillering gizmo, I could tiller a bow just as well with conventional methods, I was experimenting with old ideas to come up with a new concept, this didn't seem "pointless" to me.

Here is my first workable gizmo, a far cry from what I ended up with, the brass screws hold the pencil in place, adjustment was very cumbersome and worked poorly.

[Eric Krewson]

This is off topic but shows some of my piddling; a vertical cantaloupe patch, dang if it didn't work really well. I suspended the cantaloupes in a bird netting pouch held up with an S hook. I used a cattle fence panel attached to metal T posts for my trellis.

[Allyn T]

You can buy epoxy based finishes no problem nowadays - you've just got to look! Kinda pointless making your own.

Well then why make your own bow or pine pitch or arrow, you can buy all those things too.

[gutpile]

whole point in doing it the hard way... agree with Allyn here.. gut

[jimmi the sammi]

JW.  Got some bear fat too if you need it.
JtS

[Muleman]

i agree 1000% with eric,allyn,and gut,i love hearing about these homemade recipes,thats what its all about!!

[JW_Halverson]

Eric, I have run squash plants up into fencing, too. I thought I would need to make hammocks, but it turned out they could handle their own weight. Squash went from taking up 400 square feet of garden space to a mere 20 square feet for the same amount of produce! I have cukes on a trellis now, too.

Again, all grist for the mill in the end.

[bownarra]

It is called hijacking a thread and taking it off the rails; "how about being a little more primitive?", I mentioned the excessively shiny finish in my answer.

No matey that is how you interpreted the reply.

N

You can buy epoxy based finishes no problem nowadays - you've just got to look! Kinda pointless making your own.

Well then why make your own bow or pine pitch or arrow, you can buy all those things too.
[/quote

blah, blah.....kind of a stupid reply - why don't you grow all your own staves then
I suggested buying epoxy based finishes because a) they are better b) messing with acetone isn't really my thing - you like breathing those fumes as it gases off?
To take your point a little further how many people make their own finishes, collect every
single resource they use to make bows oh and of course forge their own tools on a hand built forge.....I think you will find virtually everybody buys most/if not at least a lot of their stuff.
I would suggest this forum is going downhill fast - too many people too willing to get personal and start flinging nonsense about. Come on guys why not grow up and live and let live. Somebody offers a different opinion - so what - no need to get all arsey about it. Remember other people can also have experience and guess what they could also be better or worse at doing something than you.....
Lets get the ego's in check
peace out

[Allyn T]

It is called hijacking a thread and taking it off the rails; "how about being a little more primitive?", I mentioned the excessively shiny finish in my answer.

No matey that is how you interpreted the reply.

N

You can buy epoxy based finishes no problem nowadays - you've just got to look! Kinda pointless making your own.

Well then why make your own bow or pine pitch or arrow, you can buy all those things too.
[/quote

blah, blah.....kind of a stupid reply - why don't you grow all your own staves then
I suggested buying epoxy based finishes because a) they are better b) messing with acetone isn't really my thing - you like breathing those fumes as it gases off?
To take your point a little further how many people make their own finishes, collect every
single resource they use to make bows oh and of course forge their own tools on a hand built forge.....I think you will find virtually everybody buys most/if not at least a lot of their stuff.
I would suggest this forum is going downhill fast - too many people too willing to get personal and start flinging nonsense about. Come on guys why not grow up and live and let live. Somebody offers a different opinion - so what - no need to get all arsey about it. Remember other people can also have experience and guess what they could also be better or worse at doing something than you.....
Lets get the ego's in check
peace out

I would say the person calling my reply "kind of stupid" is the arsey one but hey that's my experience ; )
Also you said making your own finish was pointless, never mentioned fumes or it not being your cup of tea. The point remains however that doing things on your own is kind of the reason people are here. As for forging your own tools vs mixing two ingredients together, I'd say there is a disparity in the skill and difficulty requirements for those two. 

[Pat B]

OK guys, lets quit bickering. If you don't agree with someone it's ok to disagree but then move on. You don't need to get the last word in.
 I first heard about epoxy finishes(ie, Massey finish) from reading Jay Massey's books. He started using it because he mostly hunted in Alaska where the conditions are frequently wet and especially floating the Moose John River(fictional river but actual hunts). In one situation his boat flipped over and it wasn't until 3 days later that he found his bow down river and with little if any ill affects.
 Simk, I don't know if you hunt where you live but frequently hunters are in situations where their bows get wet, either by hunting in the rain or, like Jay Massey, a bow falls in the water.
 All of our main concerns are related to protecting our wood bows from moisture and it usually is water vapor rather than just water we should be concerned about.  For years, Jay's go to bow finish was French polish, shellac and linseed oil and he was hunting Alaska then too...and most of Jay's bows were sinew backed so because of the hygroscopic properties of wood, sinew, hide glue and fish skin coverings a good moisture protection was and is by most of us, needed, whether we are hunters or not.