Hi, back from our travels to Somerset and now getting ready to go to the European Show at Cressing Temple in Essex!

One of the strangest questions we’ve had recently was asked at the Yandles show. Can the Buffing Wheel system be used to polish metal – more precisely, a suit of armour?!
Technically this should be possible, the compounds will clean and prepare the metal and using Microcrystalline Wax should give a good finish that will stand up to water. We’ve been promised some pictures…

A customer contacted us who had left the lid off a jar of Gilt Cream and it had dried out – it’s easily done. It’s fairly easy to get it back to a soft consistency, it needs warming slightly in hot water (but keep it away from naked flames!) and mix in a little white spirit to get it back to a usable paste.

Someone else asked about slowing down the drying time of Melamine Lacquer as they were applying it to a table top by brush. Thinning it with Cellulose Thinners won’t actually slow it down but it will make it easier to apply, brush marks will flow out better and it’ll give a much better finish.

We were asked if Spirit Stains need sealing if used outdoors. The answer is yes, and they need sealing even if used indoors. The stain can come off otherwise and needs a coating on top to keep it where you put it!

Which dovetails nicely with another question about removing the Spirit Stain if you have a change of mind. Assuming it hasn’t been sealed in a lot of it will come out with water (surprising eh?), meths will remove even more and if you want to remove every last bit some mechanical sanding will probably be needed as well.

–o–

Do you remember last week we mentioned someone making a detailed model and asking if our Shellac Sanding Sealer would still be usable when he finishes it? We thought you might like to see what he is working on.
(Your browser might hide these pictures so you’ll have to click on ‘show images).