Waxed wool & Cotton DIY

Dunno if I could tell the difference between wool that has been Nikwaxed and an identical garment that has been industrially treated. That said, my use of wool is deliberately restricted and perhaps scaling from a hat to a cardigan might disclose stuff more obviously. I really like Nikwax products though.

As for waxed cotton, I wouldn't bother attempting to wax that myself from scratch. I think I'd almost certainly end up with some ragamuffin urchin looking garment. Then there's how cost effective it would be. The place where I get most of my fabric sells waxed cotton off the roll at around £4.50 / meter, rising to about £7.50 / meter for the heavy denim weights. I'd take some of that straight to the machine sooner than mess about trying to make the material.

In terms of construction I see no reason that a home baked product should necessarily be inferior. There's a guy up in Lincolnshire that brews bespoke Duluth type packs from cotton canvas. They look every bit as good / bad as a Duluth to me. Supposing he'd used waxed cotton canvas I can't see why his standards would go down.

P1010711.jpg

P1010710.jpg

P1010709.jpg

P1010708.jpg

P1010801.jpg

P1010800.jpg

P1010799.jpg

P1010798.jpg
 
Last edited:
Don't you have to "boil" the cloth in a vat of wax to get even absorption of wax into your material? This sounds like a lot of wax...
 
I was planning on making a poncho. The nikwax looks good, but wouldn't traditional waxed canvas be more permanent?
 
I've never used Nikwax for that. I really would be inclined to buy in waxed fabric and reserve any DIY wax applications for maintenance down stream.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top