Hi

How are you this week? I hope all is well with you and yours, things seem to be easing a bit, let’s hope things continue in the same direction. Among many other things I’m looking forward to being able to get my hair cut. I know I don’t have much, but it is getting unruly and I don’t trust myself to make it better!
But, if that’s the worst of my worries, then I guess I’m doing ok. I hope you’re doing ok too!
Here’s this week’s questions…

I was asked about the difference between the Acrylic Lacquers and the Melamine Lacquer.
In the non-aerosol versions it’s relatively straight forward. The Acrylic Lacquer is virtually odour and hazard free, slightly clearer, but slower drying (5 minutes touch dry, 20 minutes hard dry but should be left two hours before overcoating). It’s difficult to say which is the harder wearing, there’s not much to choose between them. The curing process of the Melamine Lacquer probably gives it the edge, but the Acrylic Lacquer does something similar to give a hard wearing finish too.
When talking about the aerosol versions it’s not quite the same. The Melamine Lacquer is exactly the same product as the non-aerosol version, with the same performance properties. The Acrylic Gloss and Acrylic Satin Lacquers are slightly different as we are able to use different resins in them. This means they are normally completely dry within 20 minutes; they also have UV filters in them (you may recall from last week) and this makes them suitable for exterior use (unlike either version of the Melamine). There’s again not much in it, but the aerosol acrylics are slightly tougher than the Melamine Gloss Lacquer.

We get some odd questions, as you’ll know if you’re a long-time reader. One such came in last week, someone looking to seal a stain on their chimney prior to re-decorating. They had thought the stain was caused by damp, but the builder who inspected it told them it was completely dry, and suggested using a lacquer to seal it. Would one of our be suitable? Definitely a new one on us, and one we didn’t really feel qualified to answer – it’s completely beyond our knowledge of the product. We also assumed that our emailer didn’t already have any of our sealers, so they’d be buying it in just to try it, and whilst we thought our lacquers stood as good a chance as any of working, it would be a waste of their money if it didn’t. Instead we suggested the ‘old-fashioned’ remedy for this of applying an oil-based gloss (or primer) which usually does a good job of sealing anything in before being papered or painted over. A subsequent coating would probably be a bit slower drying but it should still be ok. We hope to hear the outcome!

And finally for this week, I saw a question on a forum asking for other readers’ favourite finishing routine. As one of the respondents said, this isn’t really something that can be answered because, as I always say, you should pick the product according to the project, choosing something that has the properties the item you’ve made needs (water-resistant, exterior use, child safe, hard wearing etc).
I was irritated though by the question also being wrapped up as a dig at demonstrators, saying that they only use the products they are sponsored to use so their opinions are biased (and, by inference, unhelpful).
I’d like to set the record straight! I don’t think that many demonstrators are shallow enough to only use finishes (or tools or machinery) that they are paid/sponsored to use. Nearly all of the demonstrators you’ll see using our products have bought them and paid for them. We understand the advantage of having our product highly visible. Where turners are using our finishes already and giving them a high level of exposure we occasionally send out a ‘thank you’ package of finishes, but again, only to people already using our products. When you see a demonstrator or YouTuber using our finishes it’s because they want to, not because we are paying them (perish the thought!) or sponsoring them.
We wouldn’t have it any other way.

Talking of YouTube, we mentioned about Andrew Hall making some woodturning videos; lots of positive comments about that and we believe that the first one should be ready soon! We’ll let you know when we know.
And whilst I don’t want this to turn into a YouTube advert, I’d just like to mention another prolific film maker Sean Evelegh who makes all sorts from wood, including turning and furniture etc. It’s great to see such passion, worth a look if you fancy watching something different.

And there you have it for this week, I’ll be collecting more questions this week and will report back next Friday. Hope to see you then.

All the best

Terry