Good morning – or good evening if you’ve saved this for later!

I hope you’ve had a good week, it’s been a busy one for us, we’ve been back in the studio making some more films for YouTube. Loads of editing to be done yet but we’ve got four or five films ‘in the can’ (sorry, been working with film-makers too much this week!) and I’ll let you know as soon as they’re ready.

Our first question this week is from someone who mentioned he’d been enjoying our Finishing School films (thanks!) and asked whether it was ok to apply Microcrystalline Wax on top of WoodWax 22. The answer is yes, perfectly acceptable, and you could do this the other way round if you really wanted to but we can’t see any benefit in doing so.

As part of  a longer discussion on finishing techniques someone asked if a sanding sealer and a lacquer are, effectively, the same thing.
Not really… they’re certainly similar but there are significant differences. Firstly the sealer has certain additives in it which seal the pores of the wood and which also lubricate the abrasive, making the sanding back much easier. Also, sealers aren’t normally as tough as a lacquer – they don’t need to be because the expectation is that a lacquer or other suitable coating will be applied on top.
If a hard wearing surface isn’t required it’s not a problem, but on its own a sealer is just a bit too soft.

And finally this week, we were asked what to use to thin Tung Oil. If you need to do this White Spirit is the product to use, as it is with nearly all oil finishes.  It will also mix with Lemon Oil (really can’t see a need to do that!), Hard Wax Oil and Finishing Oil. You shouldn’t dilute Food Safe Finish though.

And there we are for this week. If you’re reading this on Friday I’m off to the Heart of England Woodturners tonight in Stratford Upon Avon and I’ll be back here next week.

Cheers

Terry