porters milk paints

[astrid]

does anyone know of a cheaper way of using porters milk paint than using their underseal and over seal,
I love the look, but it seems not to like shellac as a sealer and if you dont seal it it shows every fingerprint.
to buy their sealers makes most of my jobs not very proffitable.

astrid

[Greg Q]

Boiled linseed oil makes an effective sealer for their paints. It does however give the finish a more even and glossy look which may or may not be what you had in mind.

Greg

[astrid]

should you put this on raw timber.?
last time i sealed with shellac and it went blochy, must have been the water in the paint reacting with the shellac.
in the end i sealed with wax but wasnt entirely happy
astrid

[Greg Q]

The best results are to apply the paint over the freshest timber possible (ie, timber freshly sanded is better than timber sanded a month or so earlier).

Two coats are usually required to get an even coverage, although this might vary with how thick you mixed the paint. After the paint dries brush on linseed oil, allow it to soak in, wipe off (carefully!) the excess. For an antique look you can wipe a bit more vigorously in areas where it would be normal for some wear to show, causing the paint to be mostly wiped away.

When the oil polymerises (fancy word for hardens) in a couple of days the finish will be reasonably durable and have a 'period' look.

Greg

[astrid]

thanks greg
thats great, my first use was on a stripped bakers cupboard, lovely thing in baltic lots of drawers
I think the mistake was sealing with shellac although the bloke at porters said it would be ok
next time i'll put it on raw sanded timber,
the look I like is the farmhouse look, carefully rubbed back in appropriate places

ta
astrid

[seriph1]

I haven't used it since doing Porter's finishing course but from what I know of those folks, if they say 'use this or that' I would .... I am sure there would be many methods for sealing milk paints and I guess the web will reveal them .. (BTW I bought milk paint from the US for cheaper than I could here) but when it comes to their paints, I reckon they know their stuff inside out.... actually, I think they make their paints themselves.

I have been researching making kitchen cabinets with Milk paint finishes and was advised against it due to the soaps and fats causing greasy blemishes. From memory, it was suggested that I use polyurethane of some sort to seal it. Haven't had time to trial it yet.

FInally... and I am NOT saying anyone here does this, but I have seen far too many jobs when ppl try to age things, with totally unconvincing results ... For example, many people rub back the middle of each door panel on a dresser... I just can't imagine a circumstance where this is likely to happen, or where a surface is dented with the same dent and the same spacing ... I use this simple rule - can I imagine a story about the piece of furniture, that makes sense of the rubbing, scrapes, 'repairs' and dings? We eat at a 250+ year old scrubbed pine table - at some stage in its history, a candle had burned right down to the wood and left a blackened, divot ... over time the divot has been rubbed by hands and polish cloths etc. and has left it the shiniest part of the top ... whenever folks visit and we eat at the table, their fingers invariably trace the lines of that burn .... it is one of those so called imperfections that make our table perfect

It is a real challenge to re-create a period look and feel convincingly .... when it's well done, it really is spectacular

[astrid]

re your comment on artificially distressing,
I totally agree, it takes skill and sensitivity to age a restored piece.
the other is called shabby chic

astrid

[woodhunt]

if the shellac was properly thinned down to seal it shouldn't have presented any problems...
If you still have the shellac on and don't want to remove it, just try keying it with rough wool to hold the paint evenly.
I had this problem with not thinning the shellac enough and water based stains

[markharrison]

First of all, I am not an expert on this. I am merely regurgitating what I have read in various places...

You might want to refer to an article on using Milk Paint by Mike Dunbar in Fine Woodworking Issue 136.

There is only one change that I know about. Mike apparently now uses Danish Oil as a finishing sealer.

You may want to consider using products other than Porters or even making your own. There are plenty of recipes on the internet.

The Old Fashioned Paint Company in the US sells milk paint in powdered form. I imagine there would be no problem shipping this here as there are no nasty solvents.

[seriph1]

I get Old Fashioned Milk Paints powdered paint delivered to Oz.

[seriph1]

re your comment on artificially distressing,
I totally agree, it takes skill and sensitivity to age a restored piece.
the other is called shabby chic

astrid

...and isn't "shabby" being extremely kind to most pieces called thus?