Hello!

I’m back from my holiday, a brilliant week in Portugal in the sunshine…playing lots of tennis so for a change I didn’t double my body weight whilst away! Although with the shows and exhibitions season about to start that’ll probably happen in the run up to Christmas anyway. Ooops, did I just mention Christmas? I know lots of you will be out in your workshops getting ready for it. If you’re being pestered for ideas on what your nearest and dearest can get you can I make a cheeky plug and say that a ticket for our Woodturning Weekender would make a great gift!
Let’s do some questions!

We’re often asked about coatings for toys and I know I’ve mentioned it many times before, but it’s still a popular query. To make them easier to find we’ve added a new category to our online shop, ‘Toy Safe Finishes’ and all the relevant products are gathered in here (as well as being in their original categories – oils, waxes, lacquers etc).
All of these products have been tested to the EN71-3 regulations, which tests for the amount of each of the following elements present in the finish as a dried film:

• Arsenic
• Barium
• Cadmium
• Chromium
• Mercury
• Lead
• Antimony
• Selenium

That’s not an exhaustive list either, other elements are checked for too.
All of the products in the new category are well below the limits and, should it be required, we can supply certificates showing this for each product.

This one is a sort of market research question and also (at the moment at least) a ‘Chestnuteer’ exclusive. The question was whether we can supply our 8 inch Buffing Wheels in a thicker/wider option. (To be honest I’m not quite sure why this would be required, but I’m always happy to learn). We can make wheels at double thickness in any of the grades, as a special order (which would have to be ordered direct at this time). The cost per wheel would be £17.70. I’d be interested to hear your views on this if you have any.

A slightly odd question to finish with this week, is our Cellulose Sanding Sealer suitable for use under a nitro-cellulose lacquer? Or at least we think that’s what the question was, the wording wasn’t very clear. The ‘Cellulose’ in the product name is short for ‘Nitro-cellulose’, we use the words interchangeably (although usually the shorter version). As a result, it should be safe to use with a nitro-cellulose lacquer but as always, if mixing brands, a test piece is very strongly recommended in case there’s something going on in the other product that we’re not expecting.

I’ll be in Didcot in a couple of weeks for the ToolPost Open House (2-3 November) where we’re trying something a bit different, I’ll be giving a couple of short ‘Finishing School’ demos during the day, so if you’re in the area maybe I’ll see you there?
But before then I’ll be back on your computer same time, same channel next week!

Have a good one!

Terry