Hi

Well it’s been a hectic week again! We announced on Sunday that the Woodturning Weekender WILL be going ahead this year, making it probably the only woodworking show to be held this year! If you somehow haven’t seen all the details about this just head over to the Woodturning Weekender website, tickets are on sale NOW.
Then on Monday we hosted a demo by Darren Breeze for our Conkers LIVE season. It was a great demo, if you missed it I’d really recommend it. Click on this link to watch it now.
And finally… we can get to some questions!

I know for sure that this has been covered before, but it came up again this week so it’s perhaps worth another airing. It’s that old favourite about toy safety, and using stains and paints to colour wood. Are the stains and Iridescent Paints toy safe? Well, to be honest, it doesn’t matter. The regulations state that as long as the stain or paint is completely covered with a toy safe finish, which cannot be removed or broken away, then the surface is considered toy safe. In this case I recommended the Acrylic Gloss Lacquer as suitable for both colouring systems.

Another question this week asked if Hard Wax Oil would be suitable for a decking verandah? I was doubtful about this at first; the oil is great on flooring, but it’s really designed to be used indoors. It’s very water resistant and will stand up to a lot, but if any water is left standing on it this just could cause problems. Our correspondent was keen to use the Hard Wax Oil as he wanted to add a colour to it, to give the verandah a fresh look. I’d missed that the area was covered, so only a minimal amount of water would be able to get to it, and under those circumstances I was happy that the Hard Wax Oil would be suitable. It will still require maintenance though, and a good clean down and a fresh coat every 12-24 months would be highly recommended.

And staying with oils for our last question, a Tung Oil user emailed, asking whether or not he could put Finishing Oil over Tung Oil to get a better shine. From a technical point of view there really shouldn’t be any problem with this, but oils can be strange creatures and I never like to recommend putting one on top of another. This can, on occasions, cause problems. My emailer mentioned that he’d tried burnishing the dried Tung Oil with an abrasive liquid, and this would be a much better option to get a brighter shine. Something like our Burnishing Cream will work on most oils, as long as they are completely dry, to improve the gloss level.

So that’s your three questions for this week. Thanks for reading this far. Please do check out Darren’s demo and also the Weekender details. Even if you can’t get down to Kent for the Invasion, you can still join us online as we’ll be livestreaming it as well… although the best way to enjoy it is to be there!

I’ll see you again in seven days.

Terry