Main Discussion Area > Primitive Skills
Making natural varnishes
JoJoDapyro:
--- Quote from: WillS on June 06, 2016, 03:53:47 pm ---I'm using hard resin. It's colophony, so it's like glass but really brittle. It dissolves easily in natural turps, but is far too thin like that to be right. It needs to end up quite thick and strong as its both fixing the bindings in place as well as adding the verdigris and waterproof layer all in one go.
--- End quote ---
HAve you tried to let the terps evaporate a bit first, leaving a thick product to apply, and with firm up after further evaporation?
WillS:
No, I didn't know that worked! Very interesting. I'll give that a go tomorrow.
I found an old recipe using boiled linseed oil, turps and resin which I will try as well, but I suppose a large part of this is just finding the right quantities.
Pat B:
If I remember right the article in PA Magazine used an oil(possibly linseed oil) added to the mix. The bees wax would probably be the same as adding an oil.
Maybe use just enough turps to dissolve the pitch even if you have to keep adding the turps in small quantities. Alcohol, lacquer thinner, acetone, etc. evaporate pretty quickly and the turps probably don't so having the correct mixture would be more critical for acceptable varnish.
DC:
When I made it I put in just enough lacquer thinner to get it going. I didn't cover the pitch. As the pitch softens it sinks into the LT. You can always add more LT. Same would go for turps I would think. With LT if you add to much just leave the lid open until it looks like varnish. I guess the same goes for turps it will just take longer. I had to screen mine a couple of times to get rid of the bark and bugs.
Marc St Louis:
The stuff I made many years ago was a pain to dry but I am thinking that the mix should be fairly thick and use heat to thin it for application, possibly a fair bit of heat. Heating it would also drive some of the solvents out
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