Welcome back! Especially if you accidentally unsubscribed and then had a bit of a job getting back here. We can blame GDPR for that, but it was nice to be missed.

Onto some questions…and we’ve had some more about toy safety, covered by the EN71 Part 3 Regulations. (I tried to find a link with more information on the regulations but it was either just a list of the different parts or 70+ pages of legalese, so you might be better off just taking my word for it!)

First we were asked why Microcrystalline Wax isn’t Toy Safe. Well actually it is, it was tested recently when we had all of our relevant products tested and it passed, it’s just that the labelling hasn’t caught up with this development yet. So if you need a tougher finish than just WoodWax 22, here’s the ideal option.

And why, we were also asked, isn’t Friction Polish toy safe if it’s shellac based and similar to Shellac Sanding Sealer? The answer is that it probably is safe for toys, we’re pretty confident that it would pass but we don’t really think it’s hard wearing enough for a toy, the finish will dull quite quickly if handled a lot; if we put ‘toy safe’ on the label it would infer ‘toy suitable’ which would be wrong. We may never know for sure!

And in the same vein, which would be better for a baby’s rattle, oil, wax or lacquer? This one is purely subjective, but I’d be inclined to go for the oil or the wax – these are slightly  more flexible. If bitten (or gummed!) the finish would move with the wood potentially causing less damage to gums or teeth. Properly applied the lacquer shouldn’t crack under this sort of stress, this would require a lot of pressure to be applied, but it’s virtually impossible for an oil or wax to crack so this is an extra safety benefit.

And there you go for another week! We lost a number of readers due to GDPR and it’d be nice to boost the numbers again. If you enjoy the newsletters and have friends you think might as well please let them know about it so that they can subscribe if they’d like to.

Thanks for sticking with us

Terry