Hi

I’m back from holiday with some exciting news to tell you! At 8pm this Sunday (8 October), Channel 4 will begin showing the new series of Handmade – Britain’s Best Woodworker. I accept this title is a bold – and potentially impossible – claim, but anything that promotes woodwork on TV has to be a good thing. We have a special interest as our very good friend Nathanael Griffiths will be taking part. It’s a knock-out show, so I hope you’ll join me in rooting for Nathanael to come out on top! Set your recording device thing now!

One of the questions that came in during my absence asked which of our products can be used for wet sanding. Just in case you don’t know, this is favoured by some woodworkers, especially turners, to reduce the amount of dust generated during that most hated part of making something – sanding it smooth.
Any of our slower drying products can be used for this, oils are a popular choice – Food Safe Finish, Finishing Oil, Lemon Oil or even Hard Wax Oil. The moisture makes the dust either clump together and fall down, rather than circulate in the air, or become lodged in the abrasive itself – which means regular de-clogging of said abrasive will be necessary.
Wet sanding can also produce a slurry which can go some way to helping seal the timber as well.
WoodWax 22 and Microcrystalline Wax can also be used for this. And, of course, our Cut’n’Polish is designed to do this job as well.

Something I know I’ve covered before, but the question came up again, so it’s worth mentioning again… we were asked if we can supply our Melamine Lacquer in a matt finish. This is entirely possible (as would be a satin or semi-gloss finish), subject to a minimum order of 5 litres per product/sheen level. The same flexibility is available for Acrylic Lacquer and even Hard Wax Oil.
Such variants would be a special order; this means there could be a small delay in producing them, and they would be non-returnable/cancellable.
If you require this, just let us know.

Finally, for this week, a slightly odd one from someone wanting a coating for a garden statue. It had already been zinc plated, which would protect it from the elements, but a softer tactile feel was required. Could we suggest anything?
We’d normally suggest one of our wax finishes to give a ‘nicer’ tactile feel, but being an outdoor object only the Microcrystalline Wax would be suitable, as it is more water-resistant and likely to stay put longer. We did recommend, however, that some maintenance will be required, possibly annually depending on location, to keep the wax coating topped up.

And that’s my first post-holiday Newsletter finished. I had a really nice break, very relaxing. As always, I’d like to thank my small but wonderful team here at Chestnut Towers for looking after everything so well for me. In fact, I don’t think anyone realized I’d gone!

I hope you’ve had a good week too, I’ll be back with more in seven days. Don’t forget to cheer for Nathanael on Sunday!

Terry