Hello again! Another busy week, lots going on here at Chestnut Products, all the normal stuff really; deliveries coming in, parcels and packages being sent out, and lots of questions…here’s a few of them…

We speak with a lot of people who are making guitars; some as a personal project, some as a business. Many of the results are stunning. We were asked by one such maker about how to cover up the grain on a guitar. Digging deeper it was an old guitar which was being updated, including the addition of some new electronics. Removing the old ones had left some holes which had been successfully plugged, but our caller wanted to cover them. He’d used our stain before, but this was highlighting them rather than covering them, which is to be expected; the stains are meant to be translucent and will show, even accentuate the grain (and plugs!). The only way to obliterate the grain and other items is to use a paint, and our caller was very pleased to hear about our Metallic Paints.
It’s worth remembering that stains highlight what’s beneath them – and this will include any rogue scratches left behind from sanding.

We always do as much as we can to answer the questions that come in; one came in during one of my rare absences from the office, which Melissa took. Are the Metallic Paints intermixable? She wasn’t sure, but keen to answer the question she took some from stock and experimented! The colours mixed perfectly, as I’d have expected, so the answer to the question is yes, they are intermixable. Never let it be said that we don’t do everything we can to answer questions!
As I type this I realise that the question came from the same source as the first one, but on different days.

Finally for this week, a call from someone who has been using their enforced stay-at-home time to renovate some old pine furniture. They’d stripped it all back and it’s looking good, but what’s the best way to finish it? They’d already said that they have limited experience with finishing, so I was keen to keep it as easy as possible. The important question I had to ask was what sort of furniture was it? The answer came back that it’s bedroom furniture, so it won’t need to have a tough coating (as, say, a kitchen table would). I suggested the Shellac Sanding Sealer followed by WoodWax 22. This will be easy to apply, using the sealer will cut down on the amount of work involved in the long run and the wax finish will be great for this purpose. Maintenance will also be easy as it will only need a gentle re-application every few years, and only if necessary.
This is a great example of one of my favourite mantras, to fit the product to the project.

That’s it for this week. As restrictions get tighter and opportunities to meet in the ‘real world’ get less, don’t forget Conkers LIVE, our free series of online demos. Next up is Richard Findley on 13 October. If you click on the link you can set a reminder now, to make sure you don’t forget. As if I’d let you!

Take care, I’ll see you next week

Terry