WEEK COMMENCING 30 JULY 2017

Your weekly Q&A Session with Chestnut Products

Hello again and happy Friday. I hope you’ve got some nice plans for the weekend!

On to the questions…

We’re kicking off this week with a question we’ve been asked before. Our caller was having difficulty getting a good finish from Melamine Gloss Lacquer – it was patchy and unattractive. In fact he’d already worked out the cause but not the solution. It was a bit cold in his workshop when he did the spraying and consequently it was a little bit damp too, and it was the moisture in the air that was causing the problem. Most finishes, and particularly cellulose based ones, don’t like a damp atmosphere, it gets into the finish and stops it from drying properly. Our caller had taken the item into a warmer environment after spraying, hoping this would cure the issue, but sadly the damage had been done by then. Always consider the ambient conditions when you’re finishing and if it’s a bit cold and damp it might be best to wait for it to get warmer.

Another enquiry about our Spirit Stains this week, we were asked which blue – Royal Blue or Blue – would work best as a primary colour. Whilst the stain colours aren’t ‘pure’ primary colours, the Blue along with the Red and Yellow will achieve a wide palette of other colours.

Another query was about putting Hard Wax Oil over Finishing Oil. The correspondent liked the effect of the Finishing Oil but preferred the higher gloss of the Hard Wax Oil.
Whilst the two should be compatible we’re never keen on them being used like this, so our suggestion was that if time allows it would be better to build up several coats of the Finishing Oil, with a light cut back between coats. It’s even possible to apply the Finishing Oil with a fine abrasive (White NyWeb is great for this) and five or six coats will give a good gloss finish.

We’re often asked about using a lacquer over a paint and we had a question about it recently. We usually suggest one of our acrylic aerosols for this – whilst it’s still possible to have problems this will reduce the risk to a minimum, and spraying it will avoid the mechanical contact of a brush which could move the paint. An Ideal way to protect a pattern or design on your work!

The last question this week was about a lacquer to use on a white ceramic surface. The criteria was that it needed to be non-yellowing, able to stick to the ceramic and be resistant to rain! The latter is a pretty tall order for a finish over a long period and getting it to stick to a smooth ceramic is also very difficult. It doesn’t often happen but in the end we had to give up, there’s nothing in our range that will do all of this and last several years. Our best suggestion was an acrylic yacht varnish which should work.

As Porky Pig says with regularity, ‘That’s All Folks!’…well for this week anyway, have a great week!

Terry