Making Oil Paint.

[Adam W.]

I've been meaning to paint this tool chest for a while now and I was inspired to get on with it by Jacobs experiences with linseed oil paint.

It was always my intention to use a natural paint and I had purchased the pigment from Cornelissen in London some time ago.
It's a beautiful shop and if you're ever passing it's worth a visit for the interior fit out and architectural woodwork alone.

To mix the paint, I poured about 100ml of raw linseed oil into a jar, added two heaped teaspoons of bone black pigment and gave it a good shake to mix it all up.

100ml was enough to give a single coat on raw mahogany. The wood is very old, several hundred years I would imagine, so it took the oil easily. The walnut on the skirt and lid didn't absorb the oil as easily though.

The whole thing has gone a rich coffee colour and the grain is quite visible, which I like. Plus it has no build, so all the knocks and bumps can still be seen and adds an element of patina to the chest. It has already traveled over 1000 miles from London to Denmark by courier, so it picked up a mark or two on the way.

I used a 2" bristle brush and applied a very thin coat making sure that there weren't any pools of oil sitting on the surface. The bone black is made from animal bones which have been burnt and ground to a fine powder and is a very ancient natural black pigment. It smells slightly smokey when mixed with the oil but it's hardly noticeable.

I'll keep you posted when I apply the second coat in a few days time.

https://www.cornelissen.com/

 

[Adam W.]

I'd better explain why I chose raw linseed oil over boiled or polymerised linseed oil.

Firstly I wanted to experiment by trying to produce one of the purest forms of paint available, which meant using materials which have been used for painting throughout history, linseed oil and a natural pigment.

Although raw linseed oil has the longest curing time of all the available linseed oils, it hasn't been changed from its natural state by either heating it without the presence of oxygen (polymerised), or by the addition of petroleum or metal based siccative compounds such as cadmium or naptha (boiled).

Boiled linseed oil, which is also oxidised, emits some VOC's when drying in addition to its chemical additives, so that was out of the question, and polymerised linseed oil doesn't seem to be readily available here and it uses a lot of energy to heat it during the polymerisation process. I could have chosen cold pressed virgin linseed oil, but I wanted to keep the cost to a minimum and was happy to go with regular old raw linseed oil as it's cheap, I'm not going to eat it and I can buy it in the local shop down the road.

 

[Jacob]

Looks good!
I'm slightly mystified by the slow curing time of raw linseed. Used as a primer on bare wood or existing linseed oil paint it takes a few days to go off - no prob.
But I've also tried using ready mixed artists oil paints which are just pigment and oil as far as I know, but they take weeks to dry.
Doing a couple of Rietveld chairs and wanted the brightest possible vermilion, prussian blue, chrome yellow. Certainly are bright but a PITA to use.
Why is this?
PS am looking at enamel instead Enamel paints haven't bought it yet must pull my finger out!
PPS Cornelissen - looks excellent!

 

[Adam W.]

Cornelissen is indeed a truly excellent place. It's a bit pricey, but they have a street presence just off Tottenham Court Road so it's understandable really, but you can walk in and they have a massive range of artists stuff. They also give great advice for free about pigment and mixing paints.

I've looked a bit at raw linseed oil and it takes about three days to dry, but up to 10 weeks to cure. On the bare mahogany the first coat is dry after a day, but I expect that's because the wood was so old and the oil was absorbed straight away. The first coat on the walnut is still sticky after 24 hrs, so I'll wait and do a second coat at the weekend.

I'm going to paint some doors in the house and plan to use some aquamarine pigment that I have. That is a most intense blue and it almost hurts your eyes to look at it, strange stuff!

 

[thetyreman]

it'd be interesting using pure tung oil instead, I wonder if there's any difference in the final colour? I'd imagine that linseed gives a more yellow hue. I've always wondered why tung oil is not used in paints instead of linseed. p.s it looks good to me.

 

[Adam W.]

Well I'm new to all this so I couldn't really comment on that.

I think I might have put in too much pigment in my paint though, so I'll halve the amount next time.

 

[Selwyn]

You can buy Stand Oil which I think is a bit of a compromise mix

 

[johnnyb]

you can make your own stand oil. leave raw out in a glass jar in the sun. stir it every day if possible...voila stand oil.
it's basically part polymerised

 

[johnnyb]

the best linseed oil I've ever had I found on a farm. it was a 2 gallon tin called double boiled linseed oil. I've still got a litre now after many years. must be over fifty years old. it's wonderful stuff and works really well drys nicely and is thick.

 

[johnnyb]

I've really no clue as to whether linseed makes better more durable paint as I try to desperately avoid traditional painting( alkyd ) at all costs. I find the whole shenanigans to be a drawn out nightmare. certainly not compatible with making any money! I love spray painting using ankerstuy paints it's an absolute joy to use. no idea on durability atm though. the finish is just breathtaking and it dries so it can be stacked in just a few hours. water based so no nasty niffs.
do you need a muller to grind pigments into oil? I do know certain pigments work extra well with linseed( think lead minium)

 

[johnnyb]

I also think that the look of a paint trumps its durability every time in most peoples mind. that's always been the case though. an extra year say 6 years instead of 5 if the paint looks shoddy means nothing as the market will insist on that beautiful paint every single time!
I've lost count of the amount of rainforest I've burned because the varnish has cracked!

 

[Adam W.]

I like exploring the history of materials and their associated culture and the experimenting is fun too. If it doesn't work, I'm not bothered. Although I do like it if it does work, as I can happily use it in the house without poisoning myself and generally these things are cost efficient and easy to use.

Take limewash for example. I can buy 20kg of lime putty for £7.50 and it's enough material to paint the house 3 times over and it's a doddle to use.

I reckon the chest will cost £1.00 to paint.

I didn't need to grind it, as it was already a very fine powder. Some of the earth pigments will need grinding with a muller and slab though.

 

[johnnyb]

I was exactly the same as yourself Adam I loved making stuff to use and felt I was following a long tradition of painting using oil. I even renovated some front doors using Dutch putty. homemade then brought. then starting making and finishing doors the same way. unfortuneatly the painting was a huge labour that I could never get back.
now I can paint a whole door like a mirror in half a day...finished. no more dreading the weather forecast no more August finishes for joinery.
I care that its not a traditional method but most people are oblivious.

 

[Adam W.]

I can see that commercially it may not be the best option, but there's a growing interest in natural finishes and there's always work for me in conservation, so it's worth learning.

But I'm really interested in using natural materials in my house that I'm working on at the moment which also serves as my experimental laboratory where I can practice using all of these historic materials, so that when I do go back to work I can be confident that I've got it right and I'll also have an arsenal of skills which other people in my field don't have.

 

[johnnyb]

Annie sloane has trodden this path and published a practical guide I think its called traditional paints and finishes( she went on to invent chalk paint much later. there was also a book detailing traditional clear wood finishes ill try and recall it's name. the thing I took away from it was the difficuly of making a truly light and clear finish. every development was aimed at making them clearer and lighter.

 

[johnnyb]

I've not looked into it for many years but milk paint was a really nice finish indoors and stuck with me as one of the better low tech paints. it gives an extremely low build very tough paint. a bit like a wash.but done properly it's very attractive....and only as poisonous as the pigments in the paint!

 

[D_W]

Annie sloane has trodden this path and published a practical guide I think its called traditional paints and finishes( she went on to invent chalk paint much later. there was also a book detailing traditional clear wood finishes ill try and recall it's name. the thing I took away from it was the difficuly of making a truly light and clear finish. every development was aimed at making them clearer and lighter.

It's pretty easy to make a nearly clear pine/dammar varnish, but the issue is that it's still a pine/dammar varnish that is only going to cure hard with a whole lot of sunlight (I haven't added driers to mine yet, but that's a possibility - unhealthy for someone looking to do natural).

Making varnish anywhere but outside is a no go as it hits a state mid process when it gets to temperature (not sure if it's polymerization) that it foams and the foam pouring over the sides of the vat can lead to a mushroom cloud (paying close attention and temporarily removing from heat will allow the foam to settle down and then complete in a few steps).

There's a lot on the internet about finishes, etc, but the only real way to get something workable is to get some basics and then experiment.



This guitar has a full build of varnish, and I thought it would end up with a nice aged warm color like buttonlac leave. Boy was I disappointed. Without driers, I think it'll always be possible for the finish to be marked, especially easy if whatever it's on is subjected to a warm area.


Not sure if adam is using micronized pigments (probably doesn't matter for paint), but my experience with them (sticking to earth colors is wonderful given that they're forever lightfast and they look classic and never fake) is that supplementing a stain base with them leads to superb results. Bright shiny hand planed wood will still take a very even finish and the stain doesn't penetrate as much, so you don't get unexpected dark defect areas.

(those pigments easily found on ronin colors here or other artist/japan colors- or from kremer or someone else. a little goes a long way and it ends up costing no more than the box store diluted coarse particle stains).

 

[prh]

I can see that commercially it may not be the best option, but there's a growing interest in natural finishes and there's always work for me in conservation, so it's worth learning.

But I'm really interested in using natural materials in my house that I'm working on at the moment which also serves as my experimental laboratory where I can practice using all of these historic materials, so that when I do go back to work I can be confident that I've got it right and I'll also have an arsenal of skills which other people in my field don't have.

There is one book you might be interested in about natural paint recopies. It is called "Peintures recettes maison" by Marie Vanese - ISBN: 978-2-916073-55-2. It shows you how to make paints from egg, linseed oil, casein, lime, wax. potato and rice.

Another alternative is to use Swedish Egg Oil Tempera - see www.https://www.avjord.se/

 

[Adam W.]

Lovely, thank you, I'll check it out.

 

[Jorny]

Linseed oil is fascinating stuff indeed. And a whole lot of fun to work with!


I've used a lot of linseed oil paint both for interior and exterior work. I love the fact that you can use the same paint for both indoors and outdoors and on almost any material. It is also technically superior on wood compared with "modern" paint. It also looks better and is more pleasant to work with. Did I mentiob that I love the stuff?

I usually use Ottosson's paint for two reasons. They use natural traditional pigments and grind their paint on mills just like their excellent artist paint. They also add zinc oxide to their paint which makes the paint more durable and resistant to mold and algae. Not all manufacturers do this, and adding zinc yourself when using the the paint outdoors is just an extra step i'd father skip.

The amount of driers (siccatives) vary a lot in boiled linseed oil. In a high quality boiled linseed oil such as ottosons and allbäck rhe amount of siccatives (i think they both use manganese) is negliglible from a health, safety and environmental perspective. In the cheap hardware store stuff you see a lot of internet woodworkers put on their furniture there is probably a lot of nasty stuff, since the proteins in the oil usually has not been properly retype.

Polymerised linseed oil is nothing new, different kinds of polymerised linseed oil has been used for centuries. Selder & Co make great linseed oil paint using a refined oil inspired by this.

Annie Sloans chalk paint seems just to be an acrylic paint with extra chalk added. It has nothing to do with traditional finishes.

Egg oil tempera is great stuff. We painted the interior of our kitchen cabinets with Ovolin's premixed paint. When cured it is very durable. It can also be polished using a nylon stocking or a stiff brush. Dries quickly bit takes a a good while to cure.





Oh, and the chest looks great!