Montys "ageing wax" snake oil? or good ?

fretfinder

nero1701 said:

So heres the deal.. 

I'll donate £1 to charity for every person that gets the use of this tin.

Names on the list to see order of use.

1. Nero1701
2.

I’ll have a go if there’s any going. Someone could just post a dollop to everyone interested in a small flat plastic bag, which would be much cheaper to post than the tub would be.

fretfinder

BillDL said:

With Winter just around the corner, I wonder if there would be enough in one tin for BoJo to use as lip salve?

I’d love to see a pic of Boris Johnson with that stuff slathered all over his gob!  

BillDL

Royal Mail would have the bomb squad, anti-terrorist branch, and the infectious disease experts out if the bag leaked.

nero1701

I might have a few little snap lock baggies, i'l;l check

Lebarque

nero1701 said:

So heres the deal.. 

I'll donate £1 to charity for every person that gets the use of this tin.

Names on the list to see order of use.

1. Nero1701
2.

Add me to the list please, mate. I have two fretboards to do.

JerkMoans

BillDL said:

Looking at the consistency of the Monty's wax in the tin brings back old memories of childhood where we had to rub dubbin into our leather rugby boots to waterproof and soften them.  As kids we had a leather panelled football with a red rubber bladder inside that my Father made for us.  That was also dutifully dubbin'd, which made it heavy as hell.  Modern footballers and rugby players don't know how lucky they are with their modern boots and balls    Later on as a late teenager we used it for heavy leather hillwalking boots while on residential "outward bound" courses.  While wondering whether dubbin was just paraffin wax and beeswax or something like that, I got the surprise of my life to realise it is still made and used.  The dubbin from my childhood was darker and far less neutral in colour to modern dubbin, or perhaps it had just aged in the tin over the years.  I would love to know what goes into the magical Monty's wax.

I still use it for my hiking boots.  Which reminds me, as it's pissing it down, that I'd better get Dubbinin'  

elstoof

BillDL said:

 While wondering whether dubbin was just paraffin wax and beeswax or something like that, I got the surprise of my life to realise it is still made and used.  The dubbin from my childhood was darker and far less neutral in colour to modern dubbin, or perhaps it had just aged in the tin over the years.  I would love to know what goes into the magical Monty's wax.

it’s not too dissimilar to dubbin, quite a hard and not a drying wax. Dubbin should have some animal oils in it, they used to put marine mammal fats in when they were more readily available. Did a similar job to neatsfoot oil, mink oil, all those sorts of waterproofing fats that were popular before synthetic materials took over the utility footwear market. As a shoemaker I’ve got various tins and bottles of those things knocking around that very rarely get used any more, which is why I was curious to see if this stuff was recognisable to me. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a furniture paste with some pigment, there’s no odour at all so no turps or other volatile oils that dry off, mostly beeswax and somethig oily to soften it slightly 

BillDL

This has reminded me that somewhere in my loft I have a 35 year old tin of Barbour reproofing wax for waxed cotton jackets.  I must dig it out and try it on an old fretboard.  From memory it stays kind of tacky though.

willo

Lebarque said:

nero1701 said:

So heres the deal.. 

I'll donate £1 to charity for every person that gets the use of this tin.

Names on the list to see order of use.

1. Nero1701
2.

Add me to the list please, mate. I have two fretboards to do.

I'll have a go too if I can, please!

fretfinder

I’m pretty sure I had this before I got married, so it’s over 38 years old.     I don’t think I’ll try it on a fretboard though…

guitarjack66

BillDL said:

Looking at the consistency of the Monty's wax in the tin brings back old memories of childhood where we had to rub dubbin into our leather rugby boots to waterproof and soften them.  As kids we had a leather panelled football with a red rubber bladder inside that my Father made for us.  That was also dutifully dubbin'd, which made it heavy as hell.  Modern footballers and rugby players don't know how lucky they are with their modern boots and balls    Later on as a late teenager we used it for heavy leather hillwalking boots while on residential "outward bound" courses.  While wondering whether dubbin was just paraffin wax and beeswax or something like that, I got the surprise of my life to realise it is still made and used.  The dubbin from my childhood was darker and far less neutral in colour to modern dubbin, or perhaps it had just aged in the tin over the years.  I would love to know what goes into the magical Monty's wax.

I still use Dubbin on my football boots and they are over 15 years old. I referee now though,not play.

OilCityPickups

BillDL said:

Looking at the consistency of the Monty's wax in the tin brings back old memories of childhood where we had to rub dubbin into our leather rugby boots to waterproof and soften them.  As kids we had a leather panelled football with a red rubber bladder inside that my Father made for us.  That was also dutifully dubbin'd, which made it heavy as hell.  Modern footballers and rugby players don't know how lucky they are with their modern boots and balls    Later on as a late teenager we used it for heavy leather hillwalking boots while on residential "outward bound" courses.  While wondering whether dubbin was just paraffin wax and beeswax or something like that, I got the surprise of my life to realise it is still made and used.  The dubbin from my childhood was darker and far less neutral in colour to modern dubbin, or perhaps it had just aged in the tin over the years.  I would love to know what goes into the magical Monty's wax.

Available in brown or black - anyone with horses can tell you that ... it's what you use on saddles and harness. That large tub cost me about £6.00
PS ... modern Dubbin is  petroleum jelly , paraffin wax, neatsfoot oil, and naphtha.

nero1701

I've some redwing and some wolverine boots, I like mink oil, if you keep an eye on ebay, you can get some vintage tins with a high % of mink unlike the newer stuff

thermionic

digitalkettle said:

BillDL said:

Looking at the consistency of the Monty's wax in the tin brings back old memories of childhood where we had to rub dubbin into our leather rugby boots to waterproof and soften them.  As kids we had a leather panelled football with a red rubber bladder inside that my Father made for us.  That was also dutifully dubbin'd, which made it heavy as hell.  Modern footballers and rugby players don't know how lucky they are with their modern boots and balls    Later on as a late teenager we used it for heavy leather hillwalking boots while on residential "outward bound" courses.  While wondering whether dubbin was just paraffin wax and beeswax or something like that, I got the surprise of my life to realise it is still made and used.  The dubbin from my childhood was darker and far less neutral in colour to modern dubbin, or perhaps it had just aged in the tin over the years.  I would love to know what goes into the magical Monty's wax.

It got rebranded and probably nicer smelling:
https://www.drmartens.com/uk/en_gb/wonder-balsam-shoe-protector-85ml/p/AC787000

I have an old tin of Dr Martens branded dubbin and some of their Wonder Balsam. They’re quite different - the dubbin is more viscous and reddish-brown, the Wonder Balsam is a lighter yellow-brown and resembles sticky vaseline. Both are great on Dr Martens waxy leather shoes/boots, but I wouldn’t try either on a fretboard!

Seziertisch

I would say, depending on the ambient temperature, the Monty’s is not as soft as most shoe polishes. A little run of the hairdryer makes all the difference in terms of being able to get an even spread with it.

nero1701

fretfinder said:

nero1701 said:

So heres the deal.. 

I'll donate £1 to charity for every person that gets the use of this tin.

Names on the list to see order of use.

1. Nero1701
2.

I’ll have a go if there’s any going. Someone could just post a dollop to everyone interested in a small flat plastic bag, which would be much cheaper to post than the tub would be.

1. Nero
2. Fretfinder
3. Lebarque
4. Willo

Basher

I'd love to try this on my horribly streaky Les Paul fingerboard. However, I've tried a few different products on it over the years, from boiled linseed to Fret Doctor. I'm guessing it'll take much more than a quick run with naptha to get that out and that without having a completely clean fretboard the Monty's wax won't work. 

fretfinder

Basher said:

I'd love to try this on my horribly streaky Les Paul fingerboard. However, I've tried a few different products on it over the years, from boiled linseed to Fret Doctor. I'm guessing it'll take much more than a quick run with naptha to get that out and that without having a completely clean fretboard the Monty's wax won't work. 

I don’t think it would even out the streakiness, just make everything a little darker (assuming it works). I’m familiar with the problem though, the board on my R9 was so streaky I just had to get the whole fingerboard replaced!

BillDL

Basher said:

I'd love to try this on my horribly streaky Les Paul fingerboard. However, I've tried a few different products on it over the years, from boiled linseed to Fret Doctor. I'm guessing it'll take much more than a quick run with naptha to get that out and that without having a completely clean fretboard the Monty's wax won't work. 

I think we are going to have to start getting used to streakiness in fretboards as densely coloured rosewood and ebony stocks dwindle and we have to pay a huge amount more for stockpiled premium woods.  On some guitars the streakiness can look really nice, but it just doesn't look right on a LP unless it's a modern take on one that has other non-traditional appointments.

elstoof

The lighter streaks will often darken more than the darker streaks, so you can sometimes even everything out. Much depends on the method used and shade of the pigment or dye