Hi

I was chatting to a stockist the other day and he asked how I find the time to write the Newsletter every week. I answered that sometimes it’s easy, it all depends on the questions that we’ve been asked. He was a little surprised to hear that all the questions we feature are genuine, but I can assure you (and him) that they are!
Shall we answer a few..?

A week or so ago I was talking about our Dome Brush for Drills, and put in a link to a YouTube video featuring it. In the video I remove the mandrel on the brush and screw it into one of the Buffing System mandrels. A reader contacted me, saying he thought this was a great idea, but he couldn’t recreate it. Is the brush he’s got made by someone else?
This question illustrates one of the great features of these brushes – they last a very long time! The original version of these brushes had a fixed mandrel – it was created before we’d even thought about the Buffing System. We adapted them about 5 years ago, maybe more, and our correspondent had one of the old ones, still looking in prime condition. It’s fairly easy to adapt the brush though, it just needs an M8 bolt and a couple of nuts – but remember, doing so means you’ll need to use a mandrel with it every time, even on a drill.

Sticking with domes, another question came in about the sizes of our Dome Buffs – we describe them as ‘Small, Medium and Large’, but what does that mean? The information is in our catalogue and was on the website, but it seems to have fallen off, sorry! When measured at their widest part – the flat base of the dome – they are 60mm, 100mm and 150mm respectively. They come in the same A, B and C cloth grades, and all fit into the Buffing System mandrels. As a rule, the Medium size is the most popular and seems to be the most universally useful size.

Finally for this week, a question that I’m going to bounce back at you, loyal Chestnuteers. One avid reader wrote to me saying that he wanted to dry some wet wood using the ‘shavings in a paper bag’ method, but found that it was impossible to buy large enough paper bags in anything less than wholesale quantities. Would it be something Chestnut would consider stocking and selling?
Up until then, it wasn’t something we’d thought about at all, but we always say we are customer led so we’re giving it some consideration. Importantly, what do you think? We’d really like your opinion. If we did it, we’d make sure the bags were big enough to handle all but the largest blanks, and probably gusseted to give extra room. Thick and strong too, so that they could be re-used. Have a think, and drop me an email; you only need to hit reply to this email and it’ll get straight to me.

I’ll leave you there for this week, but not before mentioning a couple of special events coming up. First off, this coming Monday, we’re welcoming back our very good friend Stewart Furini to our virtual broadcast studio to give a Conkers LIVE demo for us. We always enjoy working with Stewart, it’ll be great fun to have him back again. Just follow this link to watch.If you click it now you can set a reminder!
Also, we’re planning another online Pub Quiz for the end of the month. We’re holding this in response to the challenge from the family of Captain Sir Tom Moore; as always it’ll be for charity, and we’re hoping you’ll join in as well. In keeping with the challenge, the theme of the quiz will be ‘100’. All I’ve got to do now is come up with a bunch of questions around the number 100. What’s 10 times 10? Fifty plus fifty? You should be so lucky, they won’t be that easy!
I’ll be giving more details very soon!

I hope I’ll see you on Monday

All the best

Terry