Here is what a blacksmith friend suggested to me--
 
Beeswax was a good coating for metal to keep it from rusting. Sometimes
it was mixed with turpentine or linseed oil to help it spread better and
to speed up the drying process. Smiths had their own "secret" formulas
for this finish. Another thought just came to mind and it might have
been in another "secret" tempering formula whereby the beeswax could
have been mixed with some type of petroleum product. I know that some
smiths used all manner of formulations to temper the tools with. I
interviewed an old smith down in Georgia for Foxfire years ago who used
to work in a shop near the stone quarries around Elberton and his first
job as an apprentice was to hide the color that a mill pick was drawn to
and then grind off all traces of the color in order to keep this a
secret. I'm pretty sure that the finishing would be the first use of the
beeswax. As a tempering medium that's only an educated guess.

www.plumorchardforge.com <http://www.plumorchardforge.com> 

Jane

Jane L. Brown 
Anthropology/Sociology
101 McKee Building 
Western Carolina University 
Cullowhee, NC 28723-9646 
  
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