In 1975, I had a small Cabinet Shop on an alley, behind a defunct Shoe Manufacturing Co., in Westminster, Md. Two brothers purchased the property and set up a furniture factory. It didn't take them long to discover me. They were nice people, gave me work making parts and finishing furniture, in my shop. They hooked me up to purchase an old commercial spray booth (I still have the prime explosion proof fan wall waiting to be installed in the lower shop's finishing booth). They also introduced me to Furniture Grade Lacquer. Holy Hummingbirds! 42 years ago!!!!

And so when I set out to please my customer base; by designing a small unique, historic, nifty WALNUT pocket knife .... it was without any doubt that several coats of clear Lacquer would do a great job. Lacquer dries fast, and hard. It's dust free quickly, and build nicely. Blends and touches up nicely. I choose Furniture Lacquer from the ancient company of Rustoleum. I applied a coat under my shop hood/exhaust fan. Great. Looks really nice. I left it set the 43 year dictated time, and coated again. It sat over night.

Then, working on other parts, I figured, I'll give it a really good protective layer. BTW, you realize Japanese Master Sword smiths have been finishing Cases, parts, coloring Ray Skin wrapped handles, etc., with Lacquer.... for a thousand years.

Well, my Walnut knife handle looked great. I carefully assembled the knife. Hand hammered the river heads on the pivot pin, atop the brass turned insets. Protected the knife .... polished the rivet heads. Beautiful. Then You recall I marketed and asked for comment.

I looked Sunday....., wrinkled texture forward of pivot, on the back side of the knife???? What???? I examine. Looks like a chemical reaction... and the Lacquer doesn't seem really hard. Odd. I taped off the area. And started with 1,000 grit. Went to 1,500 .... 2,000 .... 3,000 grit. Then rubbed it to bring back luster. Rubbbb ..., WHAT!???? It acquires the texture of rolled up adhesive from a price tag on a department store frying pan!! And it's dark, gummy, and ..... yuck.

That begans my really disappointing journey around the knife. WHAT A CROCK!!! The darned Lacquer is rubbery. It appears that the lubricating oil I dropped into the mechanism, reacted with and sort of ate the coat. "Ah Nutz .... is a close approximation of my comment to no one in particular...."

And today, I just decided to take it off market. Sand off the crap Rustoleum NOT LACQUER Lacquer. Must be IMPROVED so you can drink it or some such.

What a hideous mess. Sanding rolls it up into little snot wads and black smears. I came very close to just trashing the thing.

Once it was ALL off, I applied gun stock oil. It's baking.

I've spent waaaayyyyy too much time, here and there, on that little knife. I'd never get 75 cents an hour. So since I don't have a current knife, Kelly has suggested I might use that. I'll see.

But that's why it was on hold, and why I hate improvements of any kind.

Gary

Man Gary
That's terrible. I had that happen to a scope I got . The coating ( whatever it was ) turns to rubbery snot and I couldn't get it cleaned off . It had some kinda reaction and really messed it up . Beside sand blasting I tried everything.
Sorry that happened to you but knowing you I'm sure YOUR glad it happened to you instead of a client.

Thanks
Kurt

Gary and Kurt,

I have not had an experience just like yours but here in Asia we have bacteria that eat foam. Like the kind they pack
scopes, cameras, and expensive gear in. It gets on it and turns the nice grey foam into sticky black snot that I spent
two hours trying to get off of an expensive piece of gear. Oil, alcohol, nail polish remover, and anger, had no effect or made it worse. I thought it was just that foam in the one case but soon all the open cell foam in all my cases was turning into the dreaded snot.

Closed cell foam which is much harder with less give seems to be safe.

So Gary and Kurt I feel for you both. I have a feeling this was new and improved foam.

Larry

Hi Gary et al,
I have had a similar thing happen with the 'protective rubber shock proof coating' (new and improved, of course) that they often put on cameras, binoculars and other optical products. I HATE that protective 'great feel' coating. It will almost always, eventually, turn into the same little balls of black snot. What were they thinking??? Hang in there!
Later,
Jeff

Guys! So it IS A CONSPIRACY!!!!

They let us labor under the false impression that we have produced or acquired a few things of value. Smug in their knowledge that after our labor and money has been expended, all will turn to snot! It's insidious. The heartbreak of "Insidious Snot Infestation", or ... as we in the trade call it "ISI"

No one is free from its reach. All we can do is buy new old stock, from the 60's thru 76. BEFORE the curse of "Improvement" became baked into society. When you'd take the lid off of a product container, and the oder would jerk your head back! When "Don't get on Skin" meant what it said!

Push on Gents. It's just up ahead, in our rearview mirror. "Quality and Stability."

Gary

Stock Oil finish. Heat Cured. Looks nice.

Gary