Hi

I hope you enjoyed the Jubilee Weekend, I thought it was quite spectacular! And whilst I wouldn’t go so far as to apply the same superlative to my demo at West Sussex Woodturners on Sunday, it was great to see so many people there turning up to watch paint dry! I had a really good time, the audience were fun and engaged which always makes for a better demo.
I had a good day yesterday at DJ Evans in Bury St Edmunds as well, good to see some old friends and to make some new ones too.
And always, there are more questions…

A good few months ago, you’ll recall we launched our Black Superglue, following a suggestion from a Chestnuteer, and it’s been a great success. I was asked the other day if it could be made thinner to go into fine cracks in timber. Sadly, there’s no way I know of reducing the viscosity of CA Glue post-manufacture, and besides, we did try a thinner version of the glue first and we found that it wicked into the surrounding timber too much; it didn’t give the clean lines that the thicker version does, sadly.

On the subject of thinning things, I was asked for advice about thinning stains this week as well. What are the differences between using the White Stain or the Spirit Thinners?
The main one is that using the White Stain will create a pastel version of the original stain. This can be very effective and produce some brilliant effects, although adding the White will cause some of the opacity to be lost.
Using Spirit Thinners will create a weaker stain; it’s the same shade, just not as strong – more of a wash effect as the translucency of the stain is increased in this case. This is not always ideal if the colour of the original timber is quite dark, as the stain won’t be as obvious.

And that leads me into the next question asked about thinning the stain – what’s the best solvent to use? There are options here, so I’ll quickly run through them…
Spirit Thinners is the best. It’s designed for the purpose of diluting meths-based products; it’s clear, so it won’t affect the colour, and based on the same chemistry so it won’t affect the drying time.
Alternatives are meths and Cellulose Thinners. Meths will have the purple tint in it which could affect the colour, and whilst Cellulose Thinners is clear, it will speed the drying time, which can be a problem on large areas. Best bet is to use Spirit Thinners if you want a wash effect, and keep the meths or Cellulose Thinners for cleaning your brushes!

And that’s your three questions for this week! There’s no let up on the demo front, next week I’m looking forward to getting back to Cheam Woodturners Association for another demo. It’s been about ten years since I’ve been there, so I’m sure there’ll be some new faces as well as some familiar ones there.

If I don’t see you there, I’ll be back here again next week!

Terry