[Tom White]

Something has come to my attention that I took for granted and have never really covered well and that is surface prep. for application of transfer media.

All of the surfaces we work on have been exposed to some waxes or oils be it from our hands or polishing compounds like rouge it is bound in wax and most all polishing compounds are bound in some type of oil or wax.
Gun parts and a lot of the other things we cut are exposed to oils in manufacture and for surface protection.

The best cleaner you can use is IPA it is safe and works well that is why it is the choice of the electronics industry. You need to get the highest percentage of isopropyl alohol you can find most good drug stores will have at least 95%.

Now what you clean with is also important and what you think is a good applicator may not be, Paper towels are oily and do not work well at all, facial tissues are sometimes oiled or scented and not too good either. What you need is toilet paper plain white unscented you want to scrub and clean each surface at least 2 times and use a new piece of TP each time. Then do not touch the surface apply the solution of your choice if you use Transfer Magic use a cotton swab and use a new one each time.

For those of you who have had a hard time transferring to polished surfaces an unclean surface is most likely the problem. You need a clean surface for any transfer media to have enough surface tension to stay during the burnishing process.

Remember IPA and clean clean clean before you apply any transfer media and you will have much better success.

Tom White
Transfer Magic