I've been hitting my pens with a coat of Renaissance Wax as the final step. I put 1-4 thin coats of it over everything--the blanks, the fittings. I like how it keeps the smudge marks and fingerprints to a minimum. I'd assumed this was OK. Seems like I read a bunch of folks who use it and the stuff is advertised as having been developed by the British Museum. If it's good enough for the Rosetta Stone, it's got to be good enough for my pens, right?
But I came across a couple articles and blogs that strongly recommend against it, at least for celluloid, cellulose acetate, and ebonite. The thinking is that those materials naturally release gases that contribute to degradation, and if you put a coat of wax over it, the wax holds the gases in and speeds up the degradation of the material. See here and here.
Here's my question--how much of an impact does it really have on degradation? Does it matter if the material is really old? (I use mostly vintage acetate. My thinking is most of the gas has leached out by now.)
But I came across a couple articles and blogs that strongly recommend against it, at least for celluloid, cellulose acetate, and ebonite. The thinking is that those materials naturally release gases that contribute to degradation, and if you put a coat of wax over it, the wax holds the gases in and speeds up the degradation of the material. See here and here.
Here's my question--how much of an impact does it really have on degradation? Does it matter if the material is really old? (I use mostly vintage acetate. My thinking is most of the gas has leached out by now.)