Hi,

So here we are again, it must be Friday. My thanks to the Derbyshire Dales Woodcraft Club for allowing me to demo to them last Saturday, I had a great time. Will that be the last demo I give where Zoom is the only option?
Online demos certainly have their place, especially if travel is a problem for whatever reason – which gives me a great excuse to remind you that, if we’re able to hold our Weekender this year (we should know soon!) we’ll be livestreaming it as well, so you can join in wherever you are. Details soon.
I can hear some questions knocking, shall we answer them?

I was asked about using Microcrystalline Wax off the lathe – is a sealer still needed? Yes, it is. I’d use a sealer with pretty much all finishes (not oils), and especially with Microcrystalline Wax. It has a slower drying solvent, so on unsealed wood it could all soak into the timber before it dries, leaving nothing to polish up. The main thing here though, is that our products can be used on all sorts of woodwork, not just on the lathe, but the method of application is the same – it just might need more elbow grease!

A caller this morning was using our Spirit Stain on some veneered MDF, applying one colour then a different one to make the item darker. The problem was that the second coat was removing a lot of the initial colour. My best guess here is that the veneer was too thin to cope with this; the stain needs to soak into the wood, and with a thin veneer there is nowhere for it to go and a lot of it will stay on, or close to, the surface. The second coat will reactivate it, and because the veneer can’t soak up any more stain, it will just remove it. A bit of a nuisance, but relatively easy to cure – in this case, simply mix the stains to the desired shade, before applying them.

And finally for this week, can our Acrylic Lacquer be applied to glass and can it then be washed regularly?
This is way outside of our knowledge of the product. It is after all, designed to work on timber. But this is one I’d approach with caution. When a dried sample of one of our products is required for testing, they are normally applied to glass as this is an easy surface to remove them from. So, getting it to stay on for any length of time is frankly, unlikely. As it turns out, glitter had been applied to the glass first, so this just might work better, but will depend on how securely the glitter has adhered. I’ve been promised a report on the results…

And that’s it for this week, I managed to keep it quite short for a change! Don’t forget to join us on Wednesday for our next Conkers LIVE featuring a full demo from our good friend Gary Lowe. I always enjoy working with Gary and I’m looking forward to being able to watch his demo for a change, I’m usually busy working at the same time too!
We’re also getting ready for another of our fun quizzes, details will follow soon, come and join us for a bit of fun.

Until next week, all the best,

Terry