Need help understanding this recipe ...please.

[jmk89]

there is a view that there never was anything called milk paint. There was paint or there was whitewash. If it has milk in it, it is whitewash (even if it also has oil and pigment, it is still whitewash) and if it doesn't have milk in it, it is paint.
Most people think something is milk paint because it has a chalky surface and is hard to shift - apparently if you test these - it will be paint (ie no milk, just pigment and oil) and the chalkiness is oxidisation of the (often lead-based) pigments in the paint. Whitewash was used on furniture, sometimes, but most of the time our forebears used paint if they could - hence the saying "Too poor to paint, to proud to whitewash".

Stephen Shepherd talks about it in this podcast

I don't know if this is true, but it's all interesting stuff.

[jmk89]

Sounds like WW and Stephen Shepherd agree - milk paint is a modern invention

[Woodwould]

Shephard is quite definitive! I do concur with regard to the paint found on pre-19th century furniture; it consisted of white lead ground in oil (for the body), to which was added the pigment of choice. Modern oil-based household paint such as you'd buy at any paint store or Bunnings etc. is a more accurate substitute than what's sold as milk paint.

Applying straight oil paint and sanding it through is what's normally done commercially to achieve an 'antique' look, but this method is unconvincing because it doesn't exhibit the subtle feathered edges that occur with decades of people handling and sitting in the chairs. Building it up in layers and rubbing off the highlights as you go is a more time-consuming but realistic process.

The secret to duplicating any type of old finish, is to closely examine a known original, not another example which has been faked with incorrect materials.

[JDarvall]

You maywell be right. In which case I'm wrong....the impression I've got is its been used forever. Made sense because I could see old milk being an easily obtained material back then. ....not convinced I'm wrong anyway from what I've read .

When I go ahead to finish a chair, I try to make it look as appealing as can be, with what ever I enjoying doing at the time. Not duplicating anything. Not trying to pretend any chair or another to be an antique and flog it as such. I don't set out with that in mind. Like colour in places....etc etc etc. I'll try it.

[Woodwould]

You maywell be right. In which case I'm wrong....the impression I've got is its been used forever. Made sense because I could see old milk being an easily obtained material back then. ....not convinced I'm wrong anyway from what I've read .

When I go ahead to finish a chair, I try to make it look as appealing as can be, with what ever I enjoying doing at the time. Not duplicating anything. Not trying to pretend any chair or another to be an antique and flog it as such. I don't set out with that in mind. Like colour in places....etc etc etc. I'll try it.

[ubeaut]

The effect you mention is one I'll be demonstration at the Working With Wood Shows this year. The translusant evvect can be obtained by having a white wood base or spraying a white base then coing over it with a very dark (almost black colour of your choice) glaze or shellac. eg dark almost black green universal tint mixed into either regular or white shellac painted on then when dry rubbed bacl with steel wool. The rubbing back is done carefully over moldings and will give al look like glass that is thinner in sections so will show colour fron pale green right through to almost black.

Prety simplistic explanation. Needs to be seen to get the full affect which is pretty bloody good.

By the way, damar varnish is available but usually only in large quantities if you don't want to get it from art supplier, same with stand oils both long or short is available but again only in larger quantities. There are easier, more modern and far better ways of getting what you require.

[JDarvall]

The effect you mention is one I'll be demonstration at the Working With Wood Shows this year. The translusant evvect can be obtained by having a white wood base or spraying a white base then coing over it with a very dark (almost black colour of your choice) glaze or shellac. eg dark almost black green universal tint mixed into either regular or white shellac painted on then when dry rubbed bacl with steel wool. The rubbing back is done carefully over moldings and will give al look like glass that is thinner in sections so will show colour fron pale green right through to almost black.

Prety simplistic explanation. Needs to be seen to get the full affect which is pretty bloody good.

By the way, damar varnish is available but usually only in large quantities if you don't want to get it from art supplier, same with stand oils both long or short is available but again only in larger quantities. There are easier, more modern and far better ways of getting what you require.

sounds tops mate. wouldn't happen to have a picture handy ? be much better no doubt seeing it in person, but doubt I'll be able to make it to the show. don't get out much.

reackon that idea of Mikes to freeze raw linseed and pour off water to make stand oil quick would work ?

[JDarvall]

oh go on Neil .