Hello!

If you’re here either from my visit last week to Dukeries Woodturning Society (great evening, thanks!) then a warm welcome back (this will be your second Newsletter) or from my visit to Dorset Woodturners (I’m writing this in advance of my visit, it’s like being Doctor Who! I hope we all had a good evening!) then I’m very pleased to see you here. If you’re a regular or have signed up via another method recently I’m just as pleased to see you, I hope you enjoy the Newsletter.

Enough of my ramblings, the first question this week doesn’t really have an answer. I’ve been in what is nowadays grandly called ‘the surface coatings industry’ for over thirty years now and it’s not often I’m asked about something I’ve never come across before, but it happened recently when I was asked if we sell ‘bore oil’. Any ideas? Me neither, I had to ask for more information and bore oil is something woodwind instrument players use to lubricate the inside of their instruments (try to read that without imagining Frankie Howerd saying it). It’s not something we sell per se, so I did a little research to see if we had anything similar and I think the closest we get to it is our Food Safe Finish. I can’t quite determine if it’s an exact replacement, but I reckon it’d do most if not all of what was required.

We had another more direct question about Food Safe Finish as well this week, asking whether it was okay to use on a table as the correspondents ‘small children put their food directly onto the table and eat from it’. We have heard of people who do this (use Food Safe Finish that is, not eat directly off a table) and they’ve reported good results from it, although they do need to reapply the oil very regularly, in some cases using the oil itself as a cleanser. In general we wouldn’t really recommend this as the oil isn’t really tough enough to stand up the the thorough cleaning a table will need on a regular basis.

And staying with oils, another question posed was if Microcrystalline Wax can be applied over Finishing Oil to improve – or at least maintain – the water resistance. At last a question this week we could say a wholehearted yes to, although technically speaking it shouldn’t work it is perfectly ok to apply a wax over an oil.

Normally at this time of year I’d be saying that I hope to see you at the Yandles show next week, where I should have been when the next Newsletter is sent – but just in case you don’t know the show has had to be cancelled due to the fields used for parking being waterlogged. A great shame but top marks to the good folks an Yandles for taking the decision early, allowing plans to be changed or cancelled.
Regardless of the above, I’ll be back next week with more questions and answer. Have a good week,

Terry