WEEK COMMENCING 8 JUNE 2025

Hi

I’m on my travels again this week, heading up to Stratford-Upon-Avon tonight (or last Friday if you’re reading this later…but why would you do that??). It’s a return visit to Heart of England Woodturners, my last visit there being almost exactly 7 years ago. I’m looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and making some new friends.
If you’re in the audience, please let me know you’re a Chestnuteer!

Did you watch Nathanael’s last Livestream, using the Ivory Lacquer? You can still catch it on YouTube if you missed it.
A little bit of background info about it that you might find amusing. The demo was due to start at 2.00. The studio was ready, the cameras focused, the music poised. We were in the office finishing an early lunch, when, at 1.30, I realised we’d lost our internet connection!
This threw us into a frenzy, as you might expect. We couldn’t broadcast without the web, and none of the computers in the office would connect. We tried the ‘turn it off and on again’ trick, on the computers and on the router, but to no avail. By this time we were starting to panic, and the cameras were due to roll in 10 minutes!

For some reason, I wandered into the studio, (probably desperation!) and realised that the system in there had an internet connection! Never one to look at a gift horse too closely, I didn’t try to figure out why, we just ran with it and started the livestream!

(Later we realised that the Ethernet splitter we use in the office had become unplugged from its power source. The feed to the studio plugs straight into the router!)

One slight problem with a Livestream is that everything is done, well, live! And that includes waiting for products to dry.
Feedback from viewers was split between those suggesting we should have previously prepared pieces ready to avoid waiting around for coatings to dry. The other side of the coin is that the demo should be as ‘real’ as possible, and the relatively quick drying time is an important feature of the product.

We’ve discussed this quite a lot, and we don’t really know the answer. I agree that knowing how quick a product dries, and can be worked on, is important. And with something like the Cellulose Sanding Sealer this isn’t a problem.
But, on the other hand, whilst Ivory Lacquer is still pretty quick, drying in about 20 minutes, that’s still a long time to watch it dry!

More feedback on this is welcome, it’s certainly something we want to address in the future.

Still on the subject of drying times… If you watched the livestream, or the recording of it, you’ll have seen Nathanael getting quite creative to try and accelerate the drying time.

Just heat isn’t enough to make the coatings dry quicker. A hairdryer is good, because it warms the surface, which helps the solvents evaporate, but it also performs another important task, by blowing away the evaporated solvent.
If the air above the coating is too static, it becomes overloaded with the solvent, and unable to absorb any more. This will slow the drying time down, as the solvent has nowhere to go, and has to stay in the coating.
So, even a cold fan or simply waving a board near it (a la Nathanael), will have a beneficial effect.

We were very excited by some of the comments during the livestream broadcast, and some of the ideas people were suggesting for ways to use it.
We’d love to see what you come up with, and perhaps feature it in a future Newsletter as our featured image.
So, get your thinking caps on, get creating, and get your camera out!

All the best

Terry