After the soak test fail with the lovely Tiny Land sealer and trying a batch with 7 coats rather than 5 that won't be ready to try soak testing until mid July I am now trying with Treatex hardwax oil. So far its a much quicker process, In a weekend I have got items stained, painted and all 3 coats of sealant (and 2 might have been enough, but 3 should offer very good protection). And in a couple of days I should be able to try a soak test with it.
Its still a matt finish although after 3 coats of it, it has a slight sheen. It so far isn't changing the colours of the Tiny Land stains and paints I'm using, where as the tiny land sealer does slightly darken them. I think it has ever so slightly yellowed the white but not much. I've managed to do all my most recent prototype batch and a few other items with one small sample bottle (I bought 2 and wasn't sure it would be enough), there's still a bit left in the bottle and I knocked it over and spilt some too so a little goes a long way which is good.
However I'm struggling with the slight solvent smell (its by no means strong and it doesn't seem to linger) and stickiness on my hands (so I'll be getting gloves), this after the quite nice smelling very natural food grade solvent free oil I was using is quite a change but I feel if it works well this is a decision that has to be made to save the cost of time, it quickens up the entire process meaning I can quickly (relatively) produce a new batch or try new prototypes without it being a several month process. I'll still be using tiny land for personal projects though.
There'll be another blog post once I've done a soak test with the Treatex sealer batch and the 7 coats of Tiny Land batch and see how those have gone.
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