I discovered this company by chance while looking at some WW stuff on FB
https://store.bwccompany.com They show a broad variety of wax products as well as other wax related wood finishes. Anyone have any experience or product reviews?

Their bowling alley wax looks promising for metals https://store.bwccompany.com/4122620.html
From their web page The BWC Company is the leading Manufacturer of hard to find finishing products including the original Bowling Alley, Boston Polish and New England Paste Wax products. We have also developed Preen Style Wax as a substitute for the no longer manufactured Wood Preen Liquid Wax.
calabrese55

Edited March 2, 20251 yr by calabrese55

No experience with them Mike, but thanks for the heads-up.

Thanks Dave , I really miss Johnson's wax . 

Might have to try out that "Bowling Alley" wax.

Thanks for the info

The shop I worked for in the late 1990's used Boston Polish Wax.  I've never tried Johnson's so I can't help with comparison to that product.

I do remember that one of the other guys in the shop telling me that he liked Johnson's better.

 

What I remember about BPW is that it struck me as having more solvent than is typical.  That makes for a softer paste and easy application, but also evaporation of the solvent taking longer before you get to buffing off the excess wax.  I'm more used to paste waxes being soft solids in the can as opposed to a true paste - like a toothpaste kind of consistency.  But that perception of a difference could be mostly the result of the shop where I used this product went through wax quicker than I had ever done in my own experience - the quicker you use it, the less time there is for the stuff to lose it's solvent and become a soft solid in the can.  It takes me years to use up a small can of wax, that shop would go through a couple large cans of BPW in about a year.  We usually had maybe 3 kicking around for use, and a stock of new cans were kept in the boss's office as he would sell it through the showroom to customers who liked to wax their furniture (or liked the idea of waxing furniture).

 

For doing drawer slides, jigs, machine tops, etc, I tend to buy Briwax.  I like it's hot solvent (tolulene as I remember) that evaporates quickly.  I don't like waiting.  My impression is that it's just a mix of a couple types of hard waxes and solvent.  Lighter color than BPW, but I never looked into what BPW was made up of.  I tried out Briwax about 20 years ago when a Woodcraft opened up in Tucson, where I lived, and I bought a can because it wasn't something I was used to seeing around - local hardware stores tended to sell Minwax and Johnson's.

 

Really, I think too much is made of wax products.  I use them for just a few things in the shop, but their utility in the household is a bygone thing I think.  That likely accounts for the retirement of many name brands - their market is shrinking so the supply shrinks too.  Companies eventually retire stuff that isn't selling especially well.

 

EDIT:

Although I have no experience with their bowling alley wax either, I would bet it is more like the waxes I'm used to.  More carnuba and a hotter solvent, more elbow grease needed to apply and buff down.  That is based solely on the name though, and an understanding of what to expect based on how they name the product.  Thinking about the color of BPW too, I bet it's mostly beeswax.  Color is about right for that.

Edited March 8, 20251 yr by JWD

I don’t know about bowling alley wax, but most shops are using Miniwax or Trewax. The problem with some waxes are they are difficult to work with in winter. I’ve actually taken a heat gun to tye wax..

Edited March 9, 20251 yr by BillyJack