Hi

Don’t worry about that heading, you’re in the right place! I’m still talking about using our finishes, but with some of the different mediums they get used on. Who knows what other projects you undertake where you might also be able to use our products?

Mostly our products are used on wood, that’s what they’re mainly designed for. But some of them cross over quite nicely onto other substrates. By coincidence I’ve had a few questions like this recently, so I’m going to feature them here.
Firstly finishes for metal; someone has some metal canisters that have oxidised and they want to preserve the blue/green colour of them. They’ve already has success using our Acrylic Satin Lacquer on an iron table being used outdoors, could they also use it on the canisters?
Well, as with timber, provided the surface is sound and there’s nothing loose on it, the lacquer will adhere to it without much problem, and it will also offer a lot of protection to the metal. The only thing we’re not sure about (because it’s not something we’ve ever tried!) is how well it will preserve the change in colour. Logic would suggest that once the surface is covered it forms a barrier against the oxygen, moisture and carbon dioxide – the causes of the ‘discolouration’ – so no further changes should occur.
As an aside, being fairly low tech, waxes can also be used on metalwork to give a degree of protection and decorative effect.

Pottery is another art form that comes up from time to time, and whether our finishes can be used on it. There are of course several different varieties of pottery so we can’t give a blanket answer, and again our knowledge of it makes it difficult to give a specific answer sometimes. We know that waxes again can be used to great effect. We would see little point in applying any finish over a glazed surface, unless it had then been painted in which case Acrylic Gloss Lacquer could be used to seal the painting in.
Some pottery is still porous – fired bisque for example. Could our sanding sealers be used on them? We reckon so, the surface isn’t dissimilar to wood although it’s impossible to know how well they would seal it. I’d guess that if the intention was to paint it afterwards then a clear lacquer should also be used (before painting) to ensure a good surface for painting, and followed with an aerosol lacquer to seal it in (as above). We wouldn’t recommend another firing after that.

And finally this week we were asked about what to use to seal the inside of an apple press – would Food Safe Finish be affected by the acidity of the juice? We said we’re confident that the oil will handle the acidity, but not that it would seal the press to prevent leaks – but we’d misunderstood the question. The sealing process was just to keep the slats of the press clean, to prevent them going mouldy. And we reckon that the Food Safe Finish would be fine for this, although it would need regular re-application as the press was also washed down thoroughly (as you’d expect) on a very regular basis.

So there you have it. Don’t forget that if there’s a question you’re burning to know the answer to but we haven’t included it yet…well that’s your fault! We only use the questions we get asked, so if you’ve got one, send it in!
Don’t forget, I’m at the ToolPost this weekend where we – and the customers – are always very well looked after so a big thank you to the team there.
I’m looking forward to my short Finishing School demos there, maybe I’ll see you at one of them.

If not, I’ll see you here next week!

Cheers

Terry