Hi all.
Just reading through posts and came across this one.
Mick Hanbury definitely uses this method, I went on one of his courses and he also recently did a demonstration at our club where he talked about it. Mick's recipe is a mix of liquid parafin and beeswax, with some lemon essential oil in as he said it keeps his hands soft and smelling nice!
I have made my own and I put the liquid parafin in a container in a pan of hot water with the beeswax and heat it until it melts, never had any issues with smells from it, the only smell is the beeswax.
I don't use this on pens but I have no issues with it affecting the finish I use on bowls or spindle turning - used it under wax, oil and friction polish, it keeps dust down and acts as a grain filler. The first batch I made did clog the sand paper badly but I recently saw Mick demonstrating and the stuff he uses is much sloppier than my batch, I put that down to too much beeswax.
I just use liquid parafin and beeswax and I put this on wooden bowls using my fingers to rub it in as the heat melts it a bit. Use it to sand and as a finish on food safe bowls, let it dry and buff with a cloth I also use it on chopping boards that I make, as a finish rather than when sanding.
If you want to keep the dust down when sanding and you can't afford a trend airshield or similar, I would recommend giving it a try, you don't get the big clouds of dust. I rub it in before sanding and let it sit for 15 mins or so and then sand, I don't use it like Carl Jacobson i.e. dipping sandpaper in and sanding like that. You will need to change sandpaper more often when it clogs, but maybe using a more liquid version would work better.
Anyway there's my two penoth on the subject.
Macman.