Our Man Graham....PW Writer Extraordinaire!

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Nice one Graham. I like the tool chest article. For some reason I tend to find ordinary functional stuff (warts n all if there are any) more interesting than the posh stuff we are supposed to admire.
What happened to the bickering about thous? I was hoping to join in!
 
Cheers Jacob,

I guess I'm kinda similar in that respect, I admire the skill and the design of the "posh" :lol: stuff but I'm not sure if I would want it surrounding me.
 
Graham I realy enjoyed the article, the tool chests were often apprentice pieces and a real source of pride for young craftsmen. You have done them justice!

I fully understand what you are saying Jacob but I do like to stretch my design and making skills, although below is an example of when this doesn't workout.

I made Sarah an eight seater dining table as a wedding present.
It was made from Sycamore with a veneered 32 piece bleached Birds eye maple segmented top. It was stunning even if I say so myself, but we sold it after a few years and I replaced it with a solid Pippy Oak table following the same overall design.
It's far more practical and really is part of the family.

Cheers Peter
 
Can't transfer the link from FACEBOOK to UKW tonight for some reason but the article on handmade linseed paint that's just been published is fascinating...

Post a link for me mate?

Jimi
 
That table sound super Peter. I find it good to surprise folks with gifts. If I tell 'em I'm going to do something it can take years for it to be done!
Glad you like the linseed oil paint article Jim.
 
Linseed oil paint is brilliant stuff for external joinery. I haven't used anything else since I discovered it (Holkham Hall paints). I wish I'd found it sooner and am embarrassed about the rubbish shortlived modern paints I used on all my earlier joinery work
 
At the moment I am experimenting with milk paint, but that linseed stuff seems to be worth a try too!

Great writing, really like it.
 
I'm a fan of the Holkam stuff Jacob. My main issues with it are client's being patient on drying times. People seem less patient these days.

Thanks Corneel, I think you'd like linseed oil paint. When I trawled through any older text (nicholson in the blog but there are others) you don't find anyone using casein paints. Linseed oil paint is perhaps the most authentic woodwork paint.
 
Indeed milk paint seems to be a 19th century thing, originating in France during the French Revolution when oil was scarce. Have you read this document? http://www.historicnewengland.org/preservation/your-older-or-historic-home/articles/pdf153.pdf. It is very interesting, it also has some paint recipes. Funny to see that they added oil to the milkpaint, which now often is just milk, lime and pigment.

Another interesting bit of information is here: http://www.milkpaint.com/about_history.html. They state that they reintroduced milk paint in 1974 to make a paint that was ecologic and because it is a good reproduction of the faded and weathered look of antigue painted furniture, even if that furniture had been painted with oilpaint originally.

Another interesting paint recipe used before the 19th century was "glue paint". Pigments dissolved in hide glue. The quality of this paint was very low, it easilly rubbed of.

So, to put paints on a (rough) timelime. Milkpaint was know allready in antiquity. Then in the late middle ages oil paint replaced much of the milk paint uses. Probably for cheap stuff they also used glue paint at that time. Early 19th century, milkpaint has a comeback as a wood finish. Then with the invention of the paintcan in 1868, paint didn't need to be prepared on the job anymore, you could buy a tin of paint in the shop. This was always an oilpaint, with increasingly complex chemical structures. Then finally in the hippy age, milkpaint comes back again.

Always fun to delve around a bit in the history of things.
 
Corneel,

Thanks for this and nice to hear you're finding out stuff about Milk Paint. I did a bit of lightweight digging on line when I painted my tool chest but had not found out how the French were pioneers on woodwork. I can see how a bit of oil would help milk paint work better. My biggest issue with the milk is how to do neat work, however that might be more to do with my approach rather than the medium.
 
I have to say here Graham..that since you have started writing for PW...the quality of the articles has been exceptional.

I think your contributions so far have been a landmark in their content towards the traditional and broken many borders.

I look forward to each one with huge interest...they have all so far kindled fires of research into things that are right up my street!

Cheers mate

Jimi
 
Graham - I'm sure you've found this out already, but years ago I read about the paint specifications used for coachpainting in the big railway workshops. One of the ingredients they mentioned was 'terebene dryers' (or 'terebine' - I've seen both spellings). A bit of googling reveals that they could be added to speed the drying of linseed oil paints, especially during humid or cool weather. There is a slight downside in that they can reduce the service life of the finished paint film, but I suppose if it's a choice between getting it dry or getting it washed off by the rain, it's a no-brainer!

They're still available - there's an example here with a bit of background information, including the quantities to add - http://www.decoratingdirect.co.uk/viewp ... NE_DRIERS/

By the way, the railway specs stipulated several coats of varnish to finish. Up to ten coats on the 'best' coaches and locomotives, but the latter in particular were (still are!) a very harsh environment for paint finishes!
 

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