Hello!

And wow! We had a little publicity drive for the Newsletter last week (thank you Roger for the idea) and we’ve had over 100 new subscribers this week. That’s amazing. So if you’re new here, welcome! Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. And if you’re an old hand, you’re just as welcome – and you already know the routine.

Accidents happen however much we try to prevent them, and this week we were asked how to remove Spirit Stain someone had managed to cover their hands in. It was the Green colour, and although it’s a nice colour he didn’t want to look like the Jolly Green Giant.
Meths is normally good for cleaning up spills of stain but we don’t recommend using that on skin, it’s not flesh-friendly. Simple soap and water will do the job here, a beaded liquid soap is especially good. A good soak in a bath will do the job perfectly, the stain just takes a little time to lift out from the skin, so it’s a great excuse for a relaxing wallow in the tub. Just don’t overdo the bubbles.

Looking around on YouTube and on our Facebook group Conkers a lot of turners use our Spirit Stains to decorate their work. Sometimes just something subtle, others very vibrant and ‘in your face’. Both have their place and when done properly can look fantastic.
There are several different ways of using the stains with new ideas coming up all the time. We were asked, when blending different colours, is it necessary to sand back after each colour?
The Spirit Stains don’t raise the grain, so sanding back is by no means essential. But some like to do this, to remove some of the colour and give a slightly ‘patchy’ effect which can look absolutely stunning. So our best answer on this one was to experiment and play with the effects to see which works best for you.

We have a wide range of aerosol lacquers which are very popular, spraying almost always give the best results and if you don’t have spray equipment these are a great introduction to this method of applying a lacquer or sealer. But as spray equipment gets more available, more affordable and more desirable we’ve been asked which of our products are suitable for spraying.
The Spirit Stains spray beautifully straight from the bottle. The Iridescent Paints are ok in most set-ups but might require a little thinning for some airbrushes (a dedicated thinner is coming, but in the meantime normal water will do the job).
The Acrylic Lacquer and Melamine Lacquer also spray very well; they’ll need thinning for most spray equipment. On the Melamine Lacquer about 10% is a good starting point when using a spray gun, possibly more for an air brush. Acrylics don’t like to be thinned too much so about 5% is about the right level for the Acrylic Lacquer.

In closing this week I’d like to congratulate Phil Irons on his recent election as President of the AWGB. Phil has been involved in the world of woodturning for as long as I can remember and I’m sure he’ll continue to be a great ambassador for the art and help promote it and the work of the AWGB.
Phil is also one of the main demonstrators at our Woodturning Weekender, so we’ll have a presidential presence there – without the dodgy hairstyle. If you’re new here and don’t know about our Birthday Party please click on the link.
And if you enjoy our Newsletter and want more, we occasionally send out information about the Weekender (I just happen to know there’ll be one on Saturday) and if you’d like to sign up for that too just click here.

I hope you have a great weekend and I’ll see you here again next week.

All the best

Terry