Clapham's Beeswax

Several years ago, I heard of something called "salad bowl beeswax." It was an all-natural way to coat unfinished wood to make it waterproof and safe to eat off of. Lots of IKEA furniture is made of unfinished wood, and I've owned several pieces that quickly became pretty gross and stained from spilled liquids and whatnot without any kind of sealant to protect them. You also just can't clean unfinished wood without it soaking up water like a sponge (pretty yucky). I planned on finishing those pieces I owned and bought the sandpaper, steel wool, stain, and polyurethane to do the project, but I just never got around to doing it...partially because I didn't really have outdoor space to do the project in NYC.

Anyway, I wanted to treat the furniture I bought from IKEA right this time around, so I looked up the salad bowl beeswax and found some on Amazon. There's no fumes, no chemicals, no sanding, nothing extra you need to do to use this stuff. It smells really good, and all you do is rub it into the wood with your fingers or a paper towel. It's completely safe to eat off of, and repels water very well. It made our Groland kitchen island look much better (it has a nice deeper finish to it now) and it's now waterproof! Fantastic. One of the containers of beeswax was more than enough to coat the island two times. Awesome.