I'll get my coat. And another coat. And another. And...

Well progress progresses, albeit in such a boring way as to make Blogging about it a pointless exercise. I'm making a terrible dent in my rag stash as I wipe on coat after coat of shellac, then abrade it back with 500g, and wipe on again. Endlessly. The edges of the tops are giving me the most grief of course, so I've gone down to quite a dilute mix to avoid the dreaded drips while still trying to get sufficient coverage on the arrises. But in an effort to show I've not been idle, and in case my readership misses me..., I got round to boring the recesses for the Sixpences. Wonder of wonders the 3/4" forstner bit from the el cheapo Chinese set I bought eons ago - with the intention of replacing the sizes I use most with better quality ones when these ones bust, but have yet to need to do so - is a perfect match for the coins. Huzzah! So a quick test run on a off-cut and then zip, zip and two perfectly sized 'oles for the coins. A wee dab of epoxy as insurance and they're all done. Inspired by this sucess I decided to tackle the pilot holes for the screws to fix the buttons too. And they didn't go wrong either... I tell you, it's unnerving. 'Course I forgot to take a pic of them in situ until after I'd put another coat of shellac on the tops, so that'll have to wait now. Still nearly three weeks to go until the deadline, so now I'm wondering where I'm going to keep the blessed things safe for that long...

In other news I'm trying to put in some time with the diamond paste. At the moment I'm most impressed with the coarsest and finest; the former for back flattening quick-time and the latter for a really sharp edge. The middle grades have been less wow-full, and as it happens they were from a different source, although the syringe type suggests they're all from the same manufacturer. I know said maker does make different grades for metal removal as opposed to glass, gems etc, so maybe they're slightly different composition? Ach well, no matter, and it's still early days.

Oh, and the less said about the first Test the better. Huh. Even the English weather can't do a decent job...