Hi

What sort of week have you been having? I hope it’s been good, we continue to be very busy and frustrated, having difficulty moving goods over to Europe and in obtaining raw materials and products from our suppliers. You might notice products keep coming in and out of stock, we’re doing everything we can to maintain a constant supply!
A nicer sort of busy started on Saturday with our quiz; great fun had by all, it was a lot of fun. Congratulations to Bill and Patricia for coming first, the charity prize of £50 has been donated to Cancer Research as requested.
Then last night we had our latest Conkers LIVE YouTube broadcast, featuring Emma Cook (The Tiny Turner). I hope you were able to catch it. If you haven’t already, do sign up for our YouTube channel and for the bulletins, make sure you don’t miss any others!

I’m starting off with a fairly easy question this week. A customer contacted us asking about our Superglues. A colleague had glued something in place, an indoor fascia, but their client didn’t like it and wanted it removed. What is the best was to dissolve our Superglues? The Debonder is the answer here; it’s not just for those awkward moments when you accidentally glue your fingers together, it will also save the day if you’ve made a mistake in alignment, have a spill or just change your mind. A few dabs will quickly soften the glue and allow the joint to be broken, or the spill to be cleaned.

I’ve mentioned before about the importance of getting as smooth a surface as possible for finishing, and how it will improve the end result. A couple of questions recently lead me to think that the reason is being misunderstood; some people think that a second or third coat of a lacquer will hide the irregularities of the surface below.
It won’t.
The lacquer will pretty much follow the contours of whatever is below it, it’s not meant to fill the surface. (That’s why the Ebonising Lacquer/Gilt Cream combo works so well, the Ebonising Lacquer in the grain is slightly lower than the rest, giving the Gilt Cream space).
So always give a light sand between coats, or more if necessary to remove brushmarks, runs, foreign bodies etc. in the coating. The final finish will be so much better for it.

Finally, a question from a pen turner, worried about the sanding process cross-contaminating his work on a segmented pen.
I enlisted the help of our friend Chas, who produces some wonderful segmented work, in case there was a problem unique to segmented work that I’d overlooked.
The timbers being used were reasonably dense hardwoods so not too many open pores to get contaminated.
The main suggestion was that, assuming the blank has been constructed before turning, have a practice run first on the un-turned surfaces to see if there is a problem.
Sharp tools are a must, as they will reduce the need for sanding, and the abrasive should be new and sharp. The use of Tack Cloth, and good extraction, will help to avoid mechanically rubbing debris into the wood.
I’m pleased to say that I heard back from our correspondent, and the pen turned out beautifully. More segmented work to come, apparently!

And that’s where I shall take my leave of you this week. I’m hoping for some news, finally, about the Woodturning Weekend later today, so you might be hearing from me about that soon. Fingers crossed, we need a party!!
Meanwhile, I’m doing a Zoom demo for Axminster Woodturners on Saturday, so I might see you there. If not, I’ll be back next week.

See you soon

Terry