Hello!

Last week I mentioned the phrase ‘sticks out like a sore thumb’ and, getting a second mention in three weeks Alex emailed to politely correct me that it’s an idiom (read that carefully, he wasn’t insulting me!) and went on to say ‘the origin, like Chestnut products, does what it says on the tin.
It is a reference to people bashing a body part, carpenters and hammers are mentioned, then wrapping up said injury – bandage, kitchen roll, dirty rag etc – with the result that it is obvious for all to see.’
You never know what you’ll find out in our Newsletters!

To the woodfinishing questions (said in the manner of Robin saying ‘To the Batmobile’ if you please)…
We exalt the use of our Tack Cloths to clean any sanding residue and other loose material from the surface of wood before applying a coating. A caller today queried whether the resin on the Tack Cloth would stop a lacquer adhering properly. The cloth is impregnated with the resin and it is designed to stay where it is put and to not transfer onto the other surface, so you can use them with no adverse effects at all.

A question that comes up now and again is whether wood should be stained before or after using a sanding sealer. Usually, staining is done first as it needs to penetrate into the timber and if it has been sealed first it won’t be able to. On some occasions it is done the other way round, but this is usually to slow the drying time down for decorative effects.

Last but not least we were also asked about a charcoal grey stain. We don’t have one in our range, and there are apparently 50 Shades of Grey (I can’t believe I just typed that) so whichever one we had would be wrong, but a grey stain can be easily achieved by adding Black stain to White Stain (with thanks again to Stewart Furini for the tip on using them that way round to get a better mix).

I had planned to bring you more details of our mystery weekend in August 2019 (plans for which have progressed greatly this week) but sadly I find myself unable to due to website issues, but maybe when I’m back next week…

Look forward to seeing you then

Terry