Hello!

How has your week been? We’ve had an interesting week, busy as always and some more questions to share with you..

An emailer today wanted a clear, hard wearing satin finish but didn’t want to use a lacquer as they wanted to retain a nice tactile feel to the item. I don’t think our lacquers are particularly ‘plasticy’ in their feel, but I suggested the Microcrystalline Wax over a sealer as the best option – and, as with most waxes, the more you buff it the brighter the final finish. If you don’t want a full gloss just stop buffing when you’ve got the shine you want. Easy!

Another question was about using acrylic paints in conjunction with our Acrylic Sanding Sealer and Acrylic Lacquer. Would they be compatible?
Sometimes in finishing it’s hard to speak in absolutes because we can’t know everything about every other manufacturer out there. Sometimes we are able to say that something definitely won’t work, which can be helpful, but other times, as in this case, we can only say that it should be okay as far as we know. It’s always good practice to coat a sample piece before using a product for the first time, in situations like this it’s very important.

Lastly this week on the question front, we were asked which abrasive to use to smooth back a sanding sealer. It’s important to remember that when doing so you don’t normally want to cut through the sealer (we discussed an exception to this previously), just to remove the sanding agent in the sealer. To do this, simply use the same abrasive that you last used on the bare timber, usually 320 grit or finer.
(Burnishing Cream and Cut’n’Polish are an option if you’re not following with a lacquer.)

And that’s this week’s Newsletter (or, as someone described it, ‘a dollop of learning’) done. Thank you for the feedback and comments if you’ve sent some, they’re always welcome.

I’ve re-vamped the Woodturning Weekender website with a slightly tidier look and a lot more information about what’s going on. I hope you’ll have a look.

See you next week

Terry