I was in a remote part of NW Vietnam last year and they used wax to treat wood there. I was immediately interested since I do some woodworking and keep bees. They would heat it to a liquid and apply a thin layer then rub it out... similar to waxing skis or snowboards if any of you are familiar. I haven't tried this yet myself, but once it warms up and I start making things again I'm excited to try this.
They also did this to cloth to make it water resistant:
The women would shuffle their feet on the top piece of wood to mash the cloth between the upper and lower wood pieces. It would deeply penetrate the cloth and they would end up with a very sealed and polished cloth.
This I did try on my favorite fishing cap. I didn't rub it between two pieces of wood but rather just applied the wax and rubbed it in with another piece of cloth on my butcher block. Works great fishing on rainy days. Doesn't breathe like gore-tex of course, but that's not the point!
Back to the point, I'm excited to try this as a wood treatment because it's extremely efficient, natural, low-energy, and really adds a deep gloss to wood that the water-based polys don't have.
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."