Hi Don @DonC,
Finally back home after an additional trip to Epernay, France (the “capitol” city of that part of France where champagne is grown and produced). So now I can try to explain waxing of harmonica reeds!
Since a picture is worth a thousand words, as the saying goes, here is a picture of a Lee Oskar harp of mine where I have waxed all of the reeds. In the picture you only see the draw reeds because I was too lazy to completely disassemble it, but the blow reeds look the same.
I used “orthodontic wax” and applied it to the rivet end of each reed. Since some wax unavoidably also extends onto the free part of the reeds (although you should try to keep that to the absolute minimum, sometimes it is also necessary to eliminate squeals) you will normally need to re-tune each reed after waxing has been finished.
The only real caution that you need to observe after waxing is to not let the harp sit in the sun where it can get hot enough to melt the wax! Also, cleaning is easier with varnished reeds.
I do not varnish reeds because if I accidentally put too much varnish on the reed then it is quite difficult to recover from the mistake.
I hope that this helps you to understand waxing.
Regards,
– Slim 