Rotten Bl****y scraches

[cliff cook]

G`day guys
Have just finised turning a vase out of Jacaranda and sanded to 1200 grit. To the naked eye(with specs even) no scratches were evedent however after ee cream and shellawax fine scratches were everyware. Looks like cr***.
What did i do wrong?
thanks
cooky

[JackoH]

You possibly moved too quickly through the grades of paper. I was taught too start with your coarsest grade and make sure you eliminate completely the scratches made by the previous grade before going on to the next one.(If you see what I mean!)
Take your time.
Gun Turners like Vic Wood will tellyou that they take more time on the finishing of an article than they do turning it. Aquire a copy of "A Polishers Handbook"the 'bible' written by our webmaster and Grand Poo-Bah Neil. He says the same thing only much more succinctly.

[Neil]

I take it the scratches you talk about actually look like sanding marks and not random scratches.

That being the case the problem is more likely to be your application method of the Shellawax than actual scratches.

For a vase you probably should have used Shellawax Cream or a mixture of the cream and Shellawax liquid. The liquid on its own will almost always give the look of sanding marks on bigger turned work (for spindle work bigger means anything over about 40mm diam for bowls over 100mm)

The lathe must be stopped to apply the Shellawax.

Applying too much can also have the same effect, so can applying a few coats and using a sanding sealer first.

If you apply too much you often get a build up of the polish on a new part of the rag which trys to start a second coat over the initial one, however there isn't enough shellawax in the rag to do it so the result is fine lines that look like sanding marks.

Have a look HERE for a few more hints etc.

Hope this helps a bit.

Cheers - Neil

PS It is also possible that you didn't completely eradicate the sanding marks from all of the previous grits prior to the 1200 and EEE. Using a Rotary Sander will eradicate all sanding marks prior to finishing.

[cliff cook]

G`day Niel
BINGO . Didn`t stop the lathe first DUH DUMB.
cooky