Merry Christmas

                                                                               

I wish all of my readers a very Happy Christmas and New Year!

Should you wish to return the gesture just leave a message and I will do my best to reply.

When I started my Blog I never expected it to grow and spread around the world as it has this shows me that there are many of you out there that are very keen to learn about French polishing and Wood-finishing I hope you find the information useful.

Thank you for your loyalty and enjoy your holiday.

Regards,

Andrew.

Why does my polishing rubber lose its shape?

Why does my French polishing rubber lose its shape?

This is a good question; well this is something I come across regarding miss shaped polishing rubbers all the time whilst teaching French polishing.

Well, there are various reasons as to why this happens, mainly I think it is due to too much pressure being applied whilst in use because if too much pressure is used the rubber tends to swash up and then becomes a mess and the point of the rubber disappears alongside the smooth rubber surface essential for a good even finish.

Also, many people do not spend enough time to perfect the correct rubber shape, and therefore seem to have great difficulty in ever doing so.

To make a good polishing rubber you will need a handful of clean cotton wool, not several pieces squashed together in a ball as they will soon start to move around within your rubber and be unsuited for the task.

Next use some clean I prefer white cotton sheeting as a covering, then you will need to as I am right-handed place the cotton wool in your left hand then charge with some French polish and a little Methylated spirits, then place the rag over the cotton wool and try to make into a half pear shape by folding the rag neatly over at the back on the right-hand side to form a straight seam down the middle and then with the left-hand side rag just clasp the folded rags together at the back of the rubber and twist them together tightly and then fold them up and over at the top of the rubber-like a scorpion tail that way you can use the folded rag to hold the rubber firmly in the palm of your hand.

When you have finished with your rubber don’t just leave it to lay around on the workbench as I have seen done many times now where it will pick up dirt and also dry out from the Methylated spirits having evaporated out.

Store your rubber in an airtight container when you have finished with it and that way it should last for a considerable time.

Before you use your rubber you must bang out the residue polish, and the way I do this is to have some clean white paper ready then all I do is just press the rubber surface onto the white paper very gently and that will remove the excess polish rather than apply straight the wooden surface and risk over wetting the surface.

Another good tip is when you have finished with your rubber for the day open the white rag on your rubber and apply some Methylated spirits reshape the rubber and store it away until the next time you need it.

This will keep the rubber from drying out however, you must ensure that you squeeze all of the excess Methylated spirits out prior to use if you don’t remove the spirits and apply straight onto your polished surface it could and most probably would burn/melt the previous French polish so please be careful.

A useful tip for you!

To be used for practice use only.

To help you whilst practising making your rubber and to avoid getting French polish and Methylated spirits on your hands and then having to put up with the nasty smell.

All you have to do is, charge the cotton wool within the rubber with water and then continue to make the correct shape.

What has happened to my favourite paint stripper?

What has happened to my favourite paint stripper?

Recently I purchased my regular Nitromors paint stripper, and when I opened the can, I found that the stripper was coloured green well if that wasn’t bad enough the smell was even worse.

And when I applied the stripper to the old polished surface, I found that the stripper was extremely runny, and seemed to dry out much quicker than I had experienced before.

Also, I had to apply much more stripper, to be able to achieve the same result that I used to with only two coats before.

And the size of the can had become much smaller instead to 5 litres it was now only a 4 litre can.

Together, with the fact that the price with Vat was £61.55p.

 I thought that I had been robbed.

After much debate, I decided I would phone the manufactures and complain as I was just not happy.

I was told that “Due to EU regulations the formula had to be changed”

Well from my experience, now the product is not fit for purpose.

Without prejudice;

This is only my opinion and in no way a reflection upon the Company, its products or their employees.

I was not offered any kind of what I call good customer service, no offer of another can to try out or perhaps a suggestion of another one of their range of strippers no “Just I am sorry” not good enough for me.

I used to recommend their products, but that will now cease and furthermore, I will not buy any Nitromors products again.

Perhaps I am old fashioned, but I think that good customer satisfaction is very important should you wish to stay in business.

What do you think?  Let me know as always feedback is very welcome.

Music Gadget

Welcome,

No not this Music player!

                                                                    

I hope that you like my new music gadget? 

I just love music, and sometimes when I am reading I find it very relaxing to listen to some nice music.

Therefore, I have decided upon classical music after much debate, as I find that most people either like or grow to like this music.  

This gadget is very easy to use, should you would wish to listen to music whilst viewing my Blog, all you have to do is just click on the MP3 player and the music will start.

You can adjust the volume by pointing on the volume speaker icon and using the slider up or down this will determine your own volume level.

Should you wish to stop the music at any time just use your mouse pointer and click on the stop button.

You can scroll down the list of music, and find a tune that you might like then click on your choice and that tune will then play.

I hope that you will enjoy this feature if you do? Or don’t? Just let me know.

As always feedback is very welcome.

Thank you.

What glue to use?

What glue to use?

A brief guide;

This is something I often ask myself, well it depends upon what you are going to require from your glue.

For instance, if you are going to repair a very valuable Violin then you will have to consider that someday in the future, you might have to back engineer your Violin again.

In this case, you must use a glue that can be re-softened such as animal glue.

This will soften with hot water gently worked into the joints that will then soon start to come apart.

However, if you were to use wood PVA glue you would have great difficulty in separating any joints and would most likely damage your Violin. 

Well, I do not repair Violins so I don’t have to worry about that. 

However, I sometimes have to carry out repairs on Furniture, such as loose joints in Chair legs etc.

For this kind of repair I use wood PVA glue, as I find that it gives me enough time to be able to clamp up all the joints unlike fast drying glues.

And for joints that are loose fitting, I like to use glue called Gorilla glue.

As this glue has a very strong bond, and as it expands within the joint which makes for a very tough repair, and when dry the excess glue has to be cleaned off with a sharp chisel.

When using Gorilla glue you have to apply the glue to one side of the joint and wet the other side with a mist of water, then clamp together and when dry you will not be able to separate the joint.

Glue should I think be suitable for its purpose.

 If you use glue for repairing Boats then you would need to purchase exterior glue suited to a salt water environment.

With the advance in glue technology, it is now possible to have tough bonding glues that can set in super fast drying times.

Another glue that I have found very useful is Mitre glue it comes in Two parts, the glue which you apply to one side of the break and the other side you apply a spray liquid provided, you have to bond them together extremely fast as the glue sets in about five seconds, no room for error I’m afraid.

Before you begin your project stop for a minute and ask yourself what do I expect of my glue?  When you know this then you can start to look for the correct glue for your job.

I hope this has been helpful to you?  If so feedback is always welcome.

Wood finishing stages a brief guide

Wood finishing stages a brief guide:

Stage One: Preparation.

Strip off the old finish using paint stripper or Methylated spirits.

Rub over the surface with wire wool or you can use a scraper blade then wash off using water or Methylated spirits.

Stage Two: SANDING.

Sandpaper smooth using rough grade sandpaper together with a sanding block to start, and then change to a finer grade paper to finish with, follow the grain at all times.

Stage Three: STAINING.

Choose the desired colour, and then apply using either cotton wool or brush in the direction of the grain at all times.  This will dye the wood and can be very difficult to remove so choose carefully.

Stage Four: SHELLAC, SANDING SEALING.

Apply shellac sanding sealer, using the cotton wool from the inside of your polishing rubber or by using a polishing mop brush.  Apply even coats that don't over-wet the surface or your stain will streak.

Stage Five: FRENCH POLISHING.

When the shellac sanding sealer has dried, you can then flick on a few drops of linseed oil onto the surface to be polished.

Now apply your French polish to the inside of your rubber, reshape it and now start to apply light pressure in the direction of the grain to start with, reapply a little more oil and now start to polish in circles so as to cover the entire surface you are polishing.

If the surface becomes too hard to polish, you can add a little more French polish to the inside of your rubber and try continuing with your polishing.

When you have built up a nice shine you should now start to polish in the direction of the grain as this will slowly remove the oil marks.

Change the polishing rag and add a very small amount of Methylated spirits as this will help to remove any excess oil left on your polished surface.

Take great care not to apply too much Methylated spirits as this could easily strip off your just French polished finish.

Don’t worry if things go wrong the first few times as French polishing does take many years to perfect the technique.

I hope this will be of use to you?  If so please give me feedback.

How to clean and repair Japanese Shoji.

How to clean and repair Japanese Shoji.

Shoji this is the name given to the wooden sliding Doors/panels, found mostly in the older style and traditional houses in Japan.

Firstly on a trip to Japan a long time ago now, or so it would seem, I had the opportunity to be able to clean and the repair some broken Shoji’s.

Well, I had never carried out such an interesting request before, so I jumped at the chance to learn something new.

When I looked at the Shoji, I saw that it had been discoloured by nicotine therefore, I set about to wash the wooden structure.

Firstly I removed all the torn rice paper that was discoloured by many years of cigarette smoke.

I filled a bowl with hot water, and started to clean the wooden frame with a brush and cloth.

I was very surprised as to how much grime came off; well it had taken many years to build up suppose.

I cleaned the surface until the water rinsed clear, and then I allowed the timber frame to dry thoroughly over night.

The next day I was keen to try and repair the broken frame struts, I had no tools to hand and began to think that perhaps this might be a too difficult a job.

After very careful thought, I decided to go to the local DIY shop and see what was on offer in my quest to fix the damaged frames.

Well, I found a suitable glue for repairing the wood, and I also needed some masking tape, after finding these items I was now ready to start.

I tired to place all the broken pieces of wood together on a table, once I found where they all belonged.

I started to fix them together in sequence, and because I had no clamps, I did something that I have done many times before; I used masking tape to pull the joints together and left them to dry.

I was delighted when the repaired timbers when dry, left no visible glue line I thought this has to be a good idea.

I finally glued all of the broken pieces back just like a jigsaw puzzle.

Now for learning about the rice paper covering, how could I replace this I asked myself, well back to the DIY shop again and yet another search around and attempting to ask the staff for Shoji paper, a staff member understood what I was looking for and showed me a suitable paper, but how could I attach the paper to the wooden frame? I was at a loss.

I was then shown special glue for this job, the name of the glue is called Nori, this is made from rice, the glue is like a very starchy substance.

Nori glue, is especially used for this job, I was told because it does not stain through the white Shoji paper, and has been used for many years in Japan.

I mixed up the Nori glue with water and was ready to attach the paper to the frame.

I read the instructions or should I say, that I looked at the picture instructions which showed that the paper should be glued whilst the frame is stood in the upright position, after a few failed attempts at this I gave up why! Because the paper kept on rolling down to the floor, in desperation I decided to lay the frame on the table therefore a flat surface.

Now this worked much better, I slowly spread the glue on the thin struts of wood and just like wallpaper, I very slowly rolled out the special rice paper wiping the surface with a clean cloth to apply general pressure for the glue to dry, I had found items to hold down the drying paper over night.

The next day I went to inspect my efforts, and to my delight the paper had dried on perfectly.

I was told that the paper as it dries shrinks very slightly and therefore tightens to the frame, thus pulling out any creases should there be any.

Pleased with my efforts, I proceeded to repair other

Shoji's that needed attention.

After I fitted the doors back into their groves, the doors looked just like new, I felt very proud that I had carried out these repairs, and without any tools and certainly no knowledge on how to repair Shoji’s before.

It just goes to show that with a little imagination and effort, we can all do many tasks that we are not familiar with.

Shoji's are mainly made from Cedar wood; this has a strong tight grain and has a good light appearance.

I have been told, that back in Japanese history, Ninjas if they wanted to enter a house or building without disturbing the occupants, they would spread some oil along the track of the door and this would stop the door from squeaking, now that is very cleaver and the unsuspecting occupant would be none the wiser should they live to tell the tale.

Footnote, 
Sometimes people call it "Rice paper" (since it sounds " Oriental"?), but Shoji paper really has nothing to do with rice.

Traditionally Shoji paper (washi) was made of Japanese mulberry tree called "Kozo" or shrubs called " Mitsumata" and Ganpi".  The paper was scarce and valuable because it was all natural and hand-made.

I hope that you have enjoyed this experience with me? If you have feedback is always welcome.

Thanks,

Andrew.