Hi there

How’s your week been? If it’s hot where you are I hope it’s not causing you any problems nor keeping you out of the workshop.

This is a time of year when thoughts turn to holidays and sometimes we get asked by overseas visitors about taking some of our products home with them if they can’t buy them in their own country. And sometimes travellers jetting off from the UK ask if they can take them over to friends in other climes. In the main we advise against it. Many of our products are classed as hazardous for transport and aren’t allowed on planes, not even in the hold. If the container has the flammable diamond on it then it shouldn’t go – and although we know people do take them, it is very much at their own risk!

We were asked minutes ago about using a beeswax and mineral oil mix to seal the inside of a goblet. Another practice fraught with problem – it won’t seal the goblet completely, beeswax has very limited liquid resistance and even less against hot liquids, and one needs to be careful about the provenance of the beeswax as not all beeswax is handled in a way to keep it food safe.
Our suggestion was that if wax is the preferred route then our Microcystalline Wax is probably the best option. It’s very fluid resistant, and conforms to the Articles in Contact with Food Regulations so it ticks both boxes – but note my use of the word resistant, it still won’t be waterproof in the long term.

And finally for this week we were asked about a finish for Olive wood. In general, we would say that the finish depends more on the item being used (toy safety, handling resistance, water resistance etc) than the type of timber being used, but some oily woods can be a bit of a problem so if this is a concern we’d always err towards using an oil finish for oily woods. We have a number in our range and one of them should meet the practical requirements.

I’m off to Norwich tonight for a club demo, maybe I’ll see you there, and if I don’t I’ll see you here next week.
I nearly forgot to mention, we’ve got another video out this week, this time about using Friction Polish. There’s a link below to take you to our YouTube channel and you can see it, and all our other creations, there. I hope you’ll have a look if you haven’t already.

Have a good week

Terry