OK i had a splurge at the weekend and bought a few blanks from across the pond....question is...i have bought some polymer clay blanks....now i presume these will need spinning and can i then sand these? What with(best)? and what if any finish?
All help gratefully recieved....please
Yes they will require some lathe worth and not that much. They are really easy to do in fact. With Toni's blanks there is at most some light sanding with a super super fine grit and even this part is OPTIONAL. This sanding is 800-1000 grit and its to help clean up surface blemishes if they exist, it's not required as most are near perfect and this is not needed. Sometimes there can be surface imperfections like finger prints, dust or the like that can show up.
As you may or may not know 'polymer clay' is not a true 'clay' in the sense of earthenware clay (pottery) but more like a plastic, in fact it is made up of PVC, once it is baked it's very durable.
What we recommend is a good CA finish, using thin to coat everything then use medium to thick to fill in low spots and provide even coverage. Then you just sand it as you normally would a CA finish and vola! your Toni Ransfield polymer clay pen blank is done and ready for assembly.
One thing that I would like to point out is do *NOT* spray the blank with accelerator that contains acetone. Acetone is an evil product and it will eat plastic and metal alike. Put the CA down *FIRST* then spray with accelerator.
Also with the launch of Toni's new site I have taken the liberty of adding some info to the site. Some very well researched technical info can be found here. Also I have most of the sanding article complete and there are links to that on the site.
Some eye candy of things I am working on and hopefully will be finished today!
