Hello again!

I should be saying something like ‘Greetings from Somerset’ as that’s where I should be, at the Yandles show but, just in case you’ve missed the news it’s been cancelled this year. Very sad.
But I’m making the most of the extra time I’ve gained to catch up on emails and finish this week’s newsletter.
The demo in Dorset went well (hello again to our new readers!) right until the end when I was loading the van and squashed my finger on my lathe trolley. No permanent damage done but I think I’m going to lose the nail, just wanted to say thanks to everyone who helped me out in my hour of need, especially the lady with the First Aid kit!
Enough of my woes, let’s do some questions!

We get all sorts of questions related to our products (and sometimes unrelated to them!) and one caller this week was very distressed about the metal bungs in our Cellulose Sanding Sealer (and other) tins, suggesting that being metal removing them could cause a spark and ignite the contents.
We normally recommend prising the bungs out using a fine bladed screwdriver (I’ve covered this in a previous, ‘bunged-up’ Newsletter) but some people prefer to drive a nail or some such through the bung and remove it that way. Even when doing this, the bungs are aluminium so the opportunity to spark is minimal, but as they are so soft there is no need to strike them anyway, a firm, direct pressure is more than enough to pierce them.

On the subject of safety we often get asked about how our products can be ‘Toy Safe’ yet have warnings on the back about flammability, being corrosive and to be kept out of the reach of children.
Many of our products are classed as hazardous and need common sense storage and handling in their raw (i.e unused) form. However, once dried and the solvents have evaporated they are no more flammable than other paints and it is the dry film that conforms to the toy safety regulations.

Lastly for this week, and I can’t remember if it’s come up before, sorry, we were asked by a pen turner about what finish to use on his pens. He’d been using Friction Polish but finding that it wasn’t withstanding continual handling, which is what we’d expect.
We’d recommend instead using Melamine Lacquer, burnished with Burnishing Cream for a brighter gloss if required and possibly then applying Friction Polish for a greater depth. The Friction Polish would wear away eventually but leave the shine of the Melamine Lacquer below. Once dried (leave at least ten minutes) Friction Polish can also be brightened even more using Burnishing Cream.

And that’s it for this week, I’m going to continue using this extra time wisely and if you’re in the same situation I hope you’ll make good use of it too.
See you next week

Terry

P.S. I completely forgot last week…some time ago we promised a YouTube film on using Gilt Cream to decorate an ebonised surface. We uploaded the film but I forgot to tell you, sorry. The film is only about a minute and a half long, so it won’t take long to watch, and here’s one of those buttons to take you straight to it: