Q & A at your service!

Hi everybody,

New category starting here. 

Q & A - Stamping Questions Answered

You ask a question and I’ll find you an answer!    Well…some questions anyway.   Since this is a stamping blog by a Stampin’ Up! Demo how about we keep the questions mostly confined to that area?   Not sure I’m up to answering the meaning of life and all those other complicated middle of the night questions.  Though if you insist I’ll take a stab at it.   No promises you’ll like those answers though.    Don’t know as I’d win on Jeopardy either with trivia unless they had a Stampin’ Up! catagory….Yes Alex the answer is…Who is Shelli Gardner!  What…I only won dollars and not a complete remake of a Stamp Studio?  Oh well….never mind!  Just kidding, after all those dollars would buy more stamps right?  LOL!  Wicketcat and I ♥ new stamps!

To ask a question simply email me at: jlfstudio@live.com or leave me a comment in any post.

So on to todays question about burnishing.

Don’t you love when someone asks you a technical stamping question?   I think I found an answer to the latest one that came across my screen that’s just a little too technical.

Question: 

What is burnishing?

 – note:  I’m really bad about throwing around such technical terms with no explanations…thus the need for this new catagory.

Answer:

Oh my I had fun when I decided to google the term instead of giving you my off the cuff explanation.  So many possible uses for this term.

This was my fav: 

Burnishing is the plastic deformation of a surface due to sliding contact with another object. Visually, burnishing smears the texture of a rough surface and makes it shinier. Burnishing may occur on any sliding surface if the contact stress locally exceeds the yield strength of the material.

Not exactly helpful for our purposes – though if you want to giggle or be informed try inputting burnish into a google search field.

When most of us say burnish what we mean is rub – usually with your bone folder – from the back or front to insure (or is that ensure?) solid contact between the adhesive and the paper surfaces you placed it on.  The “burnishing” helps spread the adhesive around a bit more and also, the heat generated acts as an added activator for many types of glue.  Sticky strip for one, if you read the product guide, has that as a recommended step to insure the glue on the strip is fully activated.    Mostly you want to do this rubbing from the back side so you don’t make any DSP overly shiny or showing rub spots as can easily happen.

Chances are you’ve done this unconsciously.  I’ve watched many stampers give their joined pieces a quick rub across their grid paper or table surface.  Same with licking an envelope…most of us then give it a quick rub against a surface to make sure it “sticks”.

I’m sure there are better explanations but I try to stick with ones that don’t involve deforming anything.  LOL!

*****

That’s our first entry in the new Q & A answer section.  Have a question?  Send me an email or leave me a comment and I’ll try to find you an answer we both can live with.

Hugs and blessings and have a joy filled weekend! – Jean