26 August 2025

Every new desire brings along unforeseen responsibilities. Yesterday I was waxing my armor and was thinking how meditative the activity is, swirling a towel in circles, making sure each area gets covered. There’s a lot of oddly satisfying videos of similar jobs, like pressure washing is a good example of watching a job gradually get done; or mowing the lawn. How did I get to waxing metal though, I have this steel armor and I wish it was stainless steel now that I know the different, perhaps that would be magnitudes more expensive. In poor conditions steel rusts and I happened to place mine in the worst conditions, my recording studio is a garage. Garages get hot and humid, perfect to form rust, so I had to solve that problem. My first attempts were WD40 and a brush, that was slightly effective, but it wasn’t until I got a metal wire brush that I could really take rust off. The armor was temporarily clean and would be back growing a day or two later. To prevent rust a protective coating needs to added, I got some mineral oil as it was technically food safe and it seemed like any oil would work. Then I needed to get the metal our of the garage, it took way longer to move than it should have, so now it’s in a better place. Oil coats the metal and the oil can wear a coat too, in this case a layer of fabric to keep air from moving on top. Cotton would work, but wool is usually better, it’s even antimicrobial for baby bottoms. The armor is brushed, oiled, and covered in wool, then I need moth balls to keep the wool from being eaten; a cedar chest would work too. And it turns out oil is a short term coating, for longer storage wax is preferred, which brings me to sitting in my closet waxing armor, smelling like moth balls. All because armor looks cool. Another new addition to my stage is a table with a knight/horse.