Bloxygen Newsletter

THE LATEST BLOXYGEN NEWS (June 26, 2011):

We'd like to welcome a new vendor! System Three Resins is one of the premiere suppliers to the boating industry and they sell the highest quality adhesives and coatings to woodworkers, boatbuilders, and industry and they've done it for almost 30 years! Bloxygen can be used to protect their leftover hardeners, catalysts, and, of course, their Spar Urethanes.

Well, after about five years, we have finally decided to raise our suggested retail price. Clearly, we don't want to do this, but even at the highest suggested retail price, Bloxygen is still about 16 cents per use in quarts. The cost of raw materials, shipping, and fuel have driven us to an update. We are sill 100% made in the USA and we still offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

We are now on Facebook! Please "Like" us by clicking the link below. Every once in a while, we will keep you posted on Bloxygen progress, finishing tips, and we'll keep a log of the progress our small business makes. It'll be fun for sure. If you have popup protection, you may need to hit <ctrl>+click to make it work.

We uploaded videos on our homepage, added facebook, and we are getting ready for the National Hardware Show. Please review our videos. One explains Bloxygen as a product and the other is a finishing "Best Practices" video that we hope will help folks. Special thanks go out to Jeff Lewis for all his work.

The April 2011 issue of Woodworker's Journal contains a great article by Michael Dresdner called "Finish On Your Shelf: Use It or Lose It" which calls Bloxygen the "best choice" to prevent in-can curing of saved finishes. Michael notes that the EPA has estimated at 65 MILLION gallons of paint per year are thrown away in the USA.

SATOP. SATOP? The Space Alliance Technology Outreach Program is a wonderful program that allows US businesses to receive up to 40 hours of free technical assistance in solving and answering technical issues. NASA helping Bloxygen! They employ some of the world's best scientists and engineers, including NASA, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and academic professionals. We were curious about a way to provide more gas for our customers in our standard cans. Using activated charcoal and the physics of ADsorption, we proved that the concept worked, but we'd have to fill the entire aerosol can with charcoal and it'd be cost prohibitive. The expert in charge, however, said that this technique would work well for storing more gas per unit volume (at a given maximum pressure) when cost was not a concern...like a space mission. Cool, eh? Here is the article.

Andy N from Vermont writes: "Hi Steven, I first saw your product in a "Woodworkers Supply" catalog and bought a can. I was very happy with the way it preserved my opened cans of finish. The Bloxygen can is nearly empty now and I will need more soon but I bought a case because I want to give some to my friends. When I find a product I like I try to promote it. I can tell people about something over and over but they will probably not buy it, but if I give them a sample they will use it and that way I have help promote something worthwhile." How cool is that?

Thank you to Sail Magazine and Don Casey (my personal hero and the go-to guy for boat repair and maintenance techniques). Don wrote a nice editorial response in the March 2011 issue of Sail recommending Bloxygen over a writer's idea of using a Pump N Seal to pull a vacuum on his leftover finish containers.

Since 1962, the Val-Test Buying Group has been a productive Buying and Marketing Group for Distributors in the Hardware, Paint, Plumbing, Electrical, Housewares, Marine, and now the Decorative Arts Industries. At their annual show in Naples Florida, Bloxygen was named Best New Product. Wow! We are honored!

Best In Show

See http://www.val-test.com/ for more.

Welcome AUSTRALIA! P Square Agencies in Australia imported a shipment of Bloxygen and is selling it on their site. The folks there are absolutely wonderful to work with and we are having a ball serving all those customers 'down under' that have 'enquired' about Bloxygen for the last couple years. Yea! I think I should plan a trip there to check stock levels...

Alan Noel, a friend from groop days, wrote a nice article on "Saving Money (and the Environment!)" that was posted on the Wood News website c/o Highland Woodworking. Check it out here.

Bob Flexner, one of the big names in the finishing business, wrote an article on 10/13 called "Flexner on Finishing: Storing Finish Materials" which featured, you guessed it, Bloxygen. He says "There are a number of methods to extend the shelf life of varnish, including: ...Displace oxygen in a container with an inert gas (by using Bloxygen, for example)."

Cool Tools video! Many thanks to the folks at Cool Tools who filmed their review of Bloxygen and, in episode 610, aired that review on the DIY Network on 11/26. Look for the episode called "Paintover" at 5pm Pacific, 2pm Eastern. Here's a link to the video.

Thanks also go out to the folks at SAIL Magazine who posted a review of Bloxygen in the October 2010 issue.

Welcome GRAINGER! The big boys! 600 locations worldwide.

Welcome Garrett Wade, they are back with us. A great tool source since 1975.

Welcome Pinella's Paint! See www.pinellaspaint.com for our latest customer here. They specialize in high end paint and industrial coatings.

Warnes Paint has a new website. These folks have supported Bloxygen for years and years. Thanks to Mike, Craft and Tracy for all their work. They had a great Customer Appreciation Day on Friday, March 26th. Bloxygen was there with huge discounts on product.

Thanks to the folks at the Central Coast Woodturners. I've been a member for about 1.5 years now and I'm in awe at what these guys create...just beautiful work. They let me give a talk on finishing on Saturday 3/20 and it went very well. Thanks guys!

Woodworker's Journal ran a cover story on "Top 10 Shop Annoyances and how you can put them all behind you!" in their February 2010 issue. Sandor Nagyszalanczy's solution for protecting finish is, you guessed it, Bloxygen! Thanks for the writeup Sandor.

We also had some good customer reviews posted in the Handyman Club of America's website here. I sure love when customers do their own experiments only to find out that Bloxygen works as advertised.

As we posted earlier ToolMonger posted a review of Bloxygen on their site here. Within a few hours, the folks at Cool Tools at the DIY Network called us. They did a review and filming of Bloxygen and it will air on the DIY channel on 11/25/10. Wow.

Ads: We are now also running ads in Woodworker West, Woodshop News, Soundings, Soundings Trade Only, and Sail Magazine. We also continue our advertising campaign on Google and in Popular Woodworking.

Dick Nites? The folks at the Tackle Underground have been actively raving about Bloxygen use with a premiere topcoat used when making fishing lures. Bloxygen works well to prevent the Dick Nite topcoat from skinning over. Thanks guys!

As reported earlier:

Please welcome Innate Technologies to our vendor list. They specialize in "quality kustom painting products and supplies" and have a beautiful site showing their recent paint jobs here. They've actually been selling Bloxygen for years, but now are adding it to their website. The folks there are awsome.

Last summer, we extended a welcome to Apollo Sprayers who agreed to carry Bloxygen in their new site, The Finishing Store. Also LSS, the owners of McFeely's Square Drive Screws, Gemplers, and a host of other great catalog sale outlets will be selling Bloxygen in several catalogs. This organization is very professional and extremely well organized; a pleasure to work with!

A local magazine called HomePro featured Bloxygen in a wonderful article. You can view it here.

ON THE HORIZON:

Whats next for Bloxygen? More advertising, a new point of sale display, website work, and more efforts to control costs. We're also working on even more activity on the internet. Let us know what you'd like!

CLASSIC BLOXYGEN REPORTS:

FIVE STARS! for Bloxygen from Wood Magazine

The August 1998 issue features a RAVING review of Bloxygen. The review is based on their own shop testing and resulted in FIVE stars for performance, FIVE stars for value, and the 1998 Editors' Chioce Award. We couldn't agree more. According to Wood, "Bloxygen keeps finishes fresh and helps reduce waste. It's just the ticket..."

See page 78 of issue 107 or our "Reviews" section:

Bloxygen was featured in Fine Woodworking magazine (issue #129, page 96). The article, in the Tools and Materials section, contains an article written by Jeff Jewitt, author and finishing expert. In the article, Mr. Jewitt says "The idea ... is quite simple" and "[Bloxygen] performed well on oil-based products." As you could imagine, we're pretty excited!

Our own testing continues and we are constantly looking for new samples or ideas. Please contact IronWood Designs and we'll arrange a test for you. Here's a photo of our current set of vials. One set is a "control" and hasn't had Bloxygen...the other set has been "gassed."

Bloxygen Test