Hi

Hello! Yes, I’m back from holiday, feeling suitably refreshed and raring to go…back! I had a great time away, thank you to everyone who sent good wishes, they were much appreciated. And thanks also to my great team back at base (they had their holidays earlier!) for looking after everything so well.
Just quickly, an apology to Colwin Way for misspelling his name in last week’s non-Newsletter. That’s what I get for rushing!

So, what questions have come in recently? A couple involving Ebonising Lacquer. The first one asked if it could be applied over Spirit Stain. The answer is yes it can, but it’s a strange thing to do as it will obliterate the stain!

However, that was sort of the intention. The customer wanted the darkest, deepest black finish they could get; the plan was to stain the item black to get a good base, and then apply the lacquer to finish the job off. It’s certainly not a bad idea, although I reckon a couple of coats of the Ebonising Lacquer would do the job nicely anyway.
It does mean that in the unlikely event of the lacquer getting chipped, it wouldn’t expose pale wood underneath.

An unrelated question about Ebonising Lacquer (which would apply to most aerosol lacquers) came from someone having trouble getting a good finish. The lacquer wasn’t adhering to the surface he was spraying onto, and was coming off as a dust. Aware of the problems that using an aerosol in a cold, damp workshop can bring, this was being done in a warm workshop…and in this case this was causing the issue. The lacquer was drying too quickly; in effect, it was drying whilst still in the air, so that when it reached the surface it was too dry to stick to it. The lacquer needs to be wet enough to adhere and also to flow out, to give that smooth, continuous finish. The advice here was to allow the workshop to cool a little (15°c is about right), or hold the spray closer to the target. The latter would reduce the amount of time the lacquer is airborne, and thus reduce the opportunity for it to dry.

In a similar vein, one of our regular correspondents asked whether it was OK to use a food dehydrator to accelerate the drying time of our Hard Wax Oil. (No, I hadn’t heard of one either!)
The dehydrator had a minimum temperature setting of 40°c, which some paint products suggest is too warm. Hard Wax Oil is pretty much air drying, so a bit of warmth won’t do it any harm. It’s not unacceptable to use a hair dryer or something similar (not a naked flame, though) to encourage this, and many other of our products, to dry quicker. Once again, remember that many of them are flammable, and give off flammable vapours, so NO naked flames.

And that’s about everything from me for this week. We’re on the build up for the North of England Woodworking Show (‘Harrogate’ to me and you!), which will very soon be upon us. Don’t forget, if you’re planning to visit, the first day is always the most crowded. If you want to have just a little more room to move about, maybe come on the Saturday or even the Sunday – although you need to balance that with the danger that the stands might be running out of stock by then. Decisions, decisions!

Whatever you decide, do come and say hello if you’re going to be there.

Until next week