Traditional Paint Recipes?

[Chris Griggs]

Could any of my neander buddies (George perhaps) enlighten me on how one goes about making there own paint? I know you can buy packs of milk paint and other natural mixes that you just add water to but I'm curious about making my own. Specifically, I'm curious about traditional recipes for oil (linseed oil?) based furniture paints. What do you ya'll know?

[David Weaver]

I don't know anything about it, but I'll bet you could make some paint with the iron oxide. It wouldn't take much of that to pigment enough paint for your writing desk and then some.

[David Weaver]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLHrajfsT0c

linseed oil, but it's art paint - maybe art paint is just thicker. There is a book mentioned in the comments, The Lost Art of Paintmaking or something like that.

[Chris Griggs]

I don't know anything about it, but I'll bet you could make some paint with the iron oxide. It wouldn't take much of that to pigment enough paint for your writing desk and then some.

Funny! I was thinking the exact same thing..that or chromium oxide if I wanted green instead of red. I'd need to order more iron oxide as mine is a tiny little container already in paste form that I paid too much for from a razor supplier, but I wouldn't mind ordering a bag of it in powder form to do double duty as stropping compound and paint mix. I wonder if its really as simple as just mixing it with BLO (or maybe raw linseed oil).

[Zach Dillinger]

Stephen Shepherd's "Shellac, Linseed Oil and Paint" is an outstanding resource for this information. Don't forget that traditional paint recipes usually have lead oxides in them... not good. You can substitute japan drier to get the paint to dry.

[Chris Griggs]

This book looks like it might have some cool recipes. http://www.toolsforworkingwood.com/store/item/AQ-1151/Search/finish%27/Shellac,_Linseed_Oil,_&_Paint

EDIT: haha, Zach was posting at the same time as me. Good to know its a good book. Thanks Zach!

[Chris Griggs]

Kremer pigments (where you can get CrOx and Iron Ox suitable for honing super cheaply) as a cool recipes page. http://kremerpigments.com/info/recipes

No idea if any are suitable for painting wood or at all traditional, but the "beer glaze" sure looks cool :).

[george wilson]

Be careful with some of those pigments like chrome oxide,as well as any lead based pigments. I'd suggest Googling for info about toxicity of any of the pigments you choose. Wear nitrile gloves and don't breathe the powder while mixing them into the liquids.

I got into making violin varnishes back in the 70's and early 80's. I replicated just about every old recipe I could find. A lot of them were pure nonsense,too. Writers like Diderot would try to collect information from craftsmen who didn't want to reveal secrets,and would feed him nonsense. I didn't make paint,but have plenty of old recipes for them. Some things,like REAL turpentine are very hard to get any more. The can should say "From the living pine",or you'll get crummy stuff distilled from stumps,and it isn't the same. The real stuff has a sharp tang that the distilled stuff doesn't have. Unless you've had the real stuff,you'd likely not know the smell,though. To know the real smell,you could buy a small bottle of artist's turpentine. There's a place in New York that sells a large number of ingredients for paints used by artists. Can't recall the name. Google around. It's not Daniel Smith,I can recall that much.

Later,I'll post some old paint formulas. They didn't use milk paints till the 19th. C.. What period are you looking for?

P.S.: I see Kremer sells turpentine that looks real. Keep it off your hands. It is bad to cause arthritis. Lead on your skin a lot apparently causes alcoholism. The museum's paint shop stopped using these things several years ago.

Be specific about what you want to know.I am a slow typist.

[Chris Griggs]

Later,I'll post some old paint formulas. They didn't use milk paints till the 19th. C.. What period are you looking for?



Thanks George!

Er....? Not entirely sure but 18th century I guess, either Europe or America. I remembered you or someone else once saying that oil based paints predated milk paints and I was curious what they were/how they might be made. I know so little about historical accuracy of this stuff (learning slowly), but yes I think 18th century is probably about right.

Also, I just was thinking about finishing my lap desk and thought it might be cool to paint it with something I mix instead of oil/shellac/varnish. I guess being Shaker would make it more like late 18th/early 19th century so maybe in this case maybe milk paint is appropriate, but I'd still be curious to learn more about 18th century paints.

Indeed, I'll definitely be careful, and if it all seems more risky than I want to deal with (in my small enclosed space) I'll avoid it entirely.

[Jim Matthews]

My mentor has made his paint with Rye Flour and Zinc Sulfate.
The resultant paint looks like milk paint, but seems to be weather resistant.

It's combined with BLO at a high temperature with the other ingredients.
It must be "cooked", to emulsify the gluten in the flour.

It smells terrible, but seems durable.

http://www.earthpigments.com/oil/traditional-swedish-oil-paint-for-exteriors.cfm

[Chris Griggs]

My mentor has made his paint with Rye Flour and Zinc Sulfate.
The resultant paint looks like milk paint, but seems to be weather resistant.

It's combined with BLO at a high temperature with the other ingredients.
It must be "cooked", to emulsify the gluten in the flour.

It smells terrible, but seems durable.

http://www.earthpigments.com/oil/traditional-swedish-oil-paint-for-exteriors.cfm

Hey that's a cool resource. thanks.

[Jessica Pierce-LaRose]

Peter Follansbee showed doing a painted chest a while back in his blog, and he was just mixing powdered pigments with linseed oil. I don't remember how much detail he gave on his blog. I just remember the chest looking really neat when it was done. I thought he had some discussion of paint in the joint stool book, as well.

[Chris Griggs]

I didn't make paint,but have plenty of old recipes for them. ...

...Later,I'll post some old paint formulas. They didn't use milk paints till the 19th. C.. What period are you looking for?

....Be specific about what you want to know.I am a slow typist.

Sorry to not be more specific. I guess it didn't occur to me what a loaded question I was asking...seems historically it may have been half chemistry half witchcraft. Anyway, please don't go through too much trouble if this is too loaded of a question BUT if you have a recipe that isn't to crazy in depth that you can post as an example that would be cool (if not that's cool to as I'll probably order the aforementioned book)

For the sake of specificity (if its helpful and I don't just make this more complicated) lets use the following criteria.

Color: Red to Brown or anywhere in between
Time period: Somewhere around the mid 18th century (but really anywhere that century)
Lets say linseed oil as a key ingredient.

Not sure if that helps or hurts. Seriously, I really don't know anything about this stuff, not even enough to ask the right questions. I didn't realize how potentially complicated it was and sorta thought it would be X parts pigment + Y parts linseed oil + Z parts other stuff. I'm definitely ordering that book though, even if I decide not to paint the little lap desk, that book sounds like a great resource.

[Chris Griggs]

Peter Follansbee showed doing a painted chest a while back in his blog, and he was just mixing powdered pigments with linseed oil. I don't remember how much detail he gave on his blog. I just remember the chest looking really neat when it was done. I thought he had some discussion of paint in the joint stool book, as well.

Thanks Joshua, I always forget what great info he has on his blog. I'll definitely do a search for there.

[Jim Matthews]

Mr. Follansbee is approachable and gracious.

I would just ask him the question.
He'll save you some time - pointing out something that works.

FYI - I like the idea of these paints, in principle - but nearly everything I paint gets a layer of shellac, first.