It’s Friday! (or whichever day you’re reading this).

Last week’s Newsletter garnered the most responses I think I’ve ever had, everyone has an idea about removing pencil marks and thank you for sharing them. Erasers, abrasives and even just water and cotton buds were among some suggestions, but these oddities also turned up…
I mentioned last time about acetone and that it can be difficult to find sometimes. It is of course available as nail varnish remover, but even some of these no longer contain acetone. Fear not! We tested some acetone-free nail varnish remover this week and it’s just as effective at removing pencil marks. Another suggestion that came in was to use our DeBonder. We had to test that and it makes a great job of it. My favourite though is to use the cork from a bottle. That definitely called for a test and a great excuse for a bottle of wine. Sadly the first two had metal screw caps (but they didn’t go to waste) but third time lucky, and who knew? A cork is great at removing pencil marks from wood! (Ken knew actually and deserves a name check for this one).

Having removed the pencil marks, I was also asked about which finish can be applied afterwards. Most of the things people are using are straight solvents which will quickly evaporate and because there’s no residue anything can be used over the top. Using water might require a longer drying time and possibly some light sanding if it raises the grain.
Take care if using DeBonder if you want to use Cyanoacrylate Superglue afterwards for bonding as the DeBonder remains active for quite some time and will prevent the two parts sticking.
And of course, using a cork will have no detrimental effect, just make sure that if the cork sheds any material it is removed and anything can be used on top of that.

And finally this week we heard from a frustrated woodturner who was using our Friction Polish but kept getting lines in his work. He’d asked many people at his club how to prevent this but hadn’t had a satisfactory answer, so in desperation he called us. It’s quite a simple one really (when you know); this is almost always a sign of too much polish being used. The pad used to apply Friction Polish should be damp, not wet, for the best results. Our caller did admit to being somewhat generous with the application and we really hope this has put him on the right track (and I know he’ll be reading this so please let me know!)
And this brings me to a wider comment about finishing, which is that it’s nearly always best to apply thin coats of any finish – whether it’s wax, polish, lacquer or oil. They’ll dry faster and harder, and thin coats are much less prone to being damaged.

I’ll sign off there for this week. We’ve had even more new subscribers this week, welcome to our newbies and thank you if you helped guide them here.
Whilst writing this another order for tickets for our Woodturning Weekender has come through. We’re really excited that as well as visitors from the north of Scotland and the south coast of England, we also have our first international visitor!
If you want to get your name on the guest list (or just find out more about this) please head over to the Woodturning Weekender website, remembering that is is a ticket only event.

I’m always happy to get your feedback on the Newsletter, good or bad, so if you want to get in touch you only have to hit reply.

Thank you again and I’ll see you same time, same place next week.

Cheers

Terry