Polishing
Polishing ( waxing, previously also beans, blocking, in Switzerland bloching or wanking ) is the name given to the sealing and polishing of floors of all kinds with wax . The word bohnern is derived from the Low German bohnen , which means something like polish . It has been part of the general German vocabulary since the 18th century. Below is a contemporary description from around 1890.
process
You sprinkle the floor , which was previously well prepared with a plane and scraper or iron turnings, with scraped white or yellow wax, run a hot iron over it so that it melts and penetrates the floor, and brush and rub it with a sharp brush weighted with lead until a uniform shine is achieved, which can finally be increased by rubbing with a woolen cloth. This wax polish can be easily freshened up again and again by brushing and rubbing, but it always becomes sticky in warm air.
The process was known for a long time by the Bundeswehr and the NVA . The floors in the barracks were treated in this way. The polishing was carried out with a floor broom .
Pretreatment
Ointment-like polishing or floor wax , represented by melting ten parts of yellow or white wax with four to seven parts of turpentine oil and stirring the mixture until it cools, is easier to spread than pure wax and gives a very thin, very shiny coating, which, however, has a prolonged smell of turpentine spreads. The wax soap is preferable , for the production of which eight parts of boiling rainwater are poured onto five parts of yellow wax, the clear solution of two parts of potash in four parts of water is slowly added while stirring constantly, then the mixture is allowed to boil until the ingredients mentioned are intimately combined , continue stirring until it cools and finally add iron ocher , umber , orlean and the like stirred in water . This mixture is applied to the wood with a brush and, after drying, gives it a shine with brushes and woolen rags.
maintenance
Polished floors must be saturated with wax etc. at least once a year and, depending on use, often rubbed down with brushes and woolen rags. They are cleaned by washing them with thin soapy water, then brushing them off and rinsing them again with pure water. Shellac polish and linseed oil varnish have recently been used on floors .
Today, wooden floors such as floorboards or parquet are often sealed with a varnish so that polishing is no longer necessary. On the other hand, floor wax made from natural raw materials is an ecological alternative to paint.
