Odorless solvent

[Allan Rahbek]

I will buy a bottle of the stuff tomorrow and ask if they have additional information to the information in the catalog.

It is an old artist materials shop in

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Alexandra Tyng

it doesn't evaporate as fast?
Allan, it sounds like this product might be simply another brand of petroleum-based odorless solvent.

I bought some today and I can see that it is a petroleum product that has been treated in a way that removed the harmful parts.
I can smell that it is petroleum if I put my nose to the bottle but it's very mild.

One other question: How do you ( and others) use it for painting? Do you add drying oil to it to make a medium? The prolonged evaporation time could be an attractive function since I often mix a pile of paint that dries up before I have used it.

I usually use a mixture of 1 part stand oil, 1 part linseed oil with drier added, 3 parts vegetable turpentine.

[Richard Bingham]

[QUOTE=Allan Rahbek]I . . . treated in a way that removed the harmful parts. . . I can smell that it is petroleum . . .

No doubt some components are removed from the mineral spirits along with the "odor". Don't rely on that. Any aromatic hydrocarbon that evaporates into the air is harmful if the concentration is high enough.

Originally Posted by Allan Rahbek

How do you ( and others) use it for painting? . . .
I usually use a mixture of 1 part stand oil, 1 part linseed oil with drier added, 3 parts vegetable turpentine.

Allan, it's just a solvent. As such, it is more or less useful to reduce the viscosity of heavier vehicles, such as stand oil. I believe you mentioned you would use it for cleaning brushes? Good idea. There is no good reason to replace pure spirits of gum turpentine with this stuff in your painting practice. Turps is better for your paint films.

The subject of mediums is a minefield. I question why you mix linseed oil (with a drier) and stand oil with a solvent (turps) ?? What do you feel this accomplishes?

In the main, a useful "medium" centers around a natural resin chosen for the spcific properties it imparts to the quality of a paint film, either for its visual character or handling. Mastic, Copal, Damar, all are capable of imparting notably different qualities when added to paint. Canada Balslam, Strasbourg Turpentine, Venice Turpentine impart yet another, but are so similar to one another as to yield near identical results, although each most certainly has identifiable individual characteristics.

A medium that includes resins needs to be balanced with enough linseed oil to remain flexible. Whether the oil is heat-treated (as stand oil is) is yet another variable.

Finally, the combination of oil and resin usually requires the addition of a solvent to control viscosity and possibly drying time.

Allan, if you are employing a mix of oils, turps and a siccative, the addition of the siccative would be the cause of your paint drying on the palette sooner than you may like to see.

Perhaps your new-found solvent is less volatile than turpentine. If so, yes, it would slightly retard the drying time of a given paint (minus the siccative in the mix). To answer this question, one need only place small equal amounts of each in open containers, and note any difference in the rate of evaporation. A clean glass palette is ideal for this test, and would have the added advantage of allowing you to ascertain whether the petroleum product leaves any residues.

[Allan Rahbek]

[QUOTE=Richard Bingham I believe you mentioned you would use it for cleaning brushes? Good idea. There is no good reason to replace pure spirits of gum turpentine with this stuff in your painting practice. Turps is better for your paint films..
The subject of mediums is a minefield. I question why you mix linseed oil (with a drier) and stand oil with a solvent (turps) ?? What do you feel this accomplishes?[/QUOTE]

I will use it for cleaning brushes and it works fine for that.

But I came to think that, if it is only a solvent and it leaves no residue in the form of paraffin ( the white greasy stuff that never dries) I might as well use it for deluding my paint also.

Real vegetable turpentine leaves a small amount of oil / resin which is good for the thinned paint.
If I use the Petrol with Stand Oil the two elements will balance each other. The Stand oil is "partly dried Linseed oil" and will not wrinkle when drying, it leaves the dry oil paint more glossy than raw Linseed oil does.
I also use 1 part of Linseed Oil with siccative because I use Titanium White that takes forever to dry.

Ps.
I tested Mineral Spirit, Odorless Solvent and Vegetable Turpentine by letting the three evaporate from my glass palette. Only the Vegetable Turpentine left something on the glass after the solvent had evaporated.
Anyway, it seems that the OS would be harmless to use in a mixture and that is also what the label said.

[Patricia Joyce]

I am posting prematurely because I need to confirm the details with my friend and artist Larry Leach. he is a very wonderful landscape artists who also is an artist who represents Winsor and Newton. and he has been teaching and painting for over thirty years.

but until I hear back from him, this is what I remember him saying at his workshops. Turpentine and Turpenoid are no different. Our bodies absorb the fumes at the same percentages, it just that they have treated turpenoid so that it does not smell. This does not nimimize the harm it does to our bodies.

Gamsol is difference and this is where I want to get the right information for you. All I know is that the percentage of what we absorb from Gamsol is minimul compared to Turps. In many art colleges in this country Gamsol is the only solvent they allow in the studios.

Personally, I have been taught by Marvin that one only needs refined linseed oil, as the old masters used. It is natural, will not break down the oil paint and is a very good paint thinner (though if you use too much you will discover you can't work with the paint - it is a delicate balance). Marvin NEVER used solvents and his thin layers are quite thin! As for cleaning the brushes Marvin goes so far as to clean them with only walnut oil, which is quite expensive. I started to clean my brushes this way but found I could not afford the walnut oil for this purpose. So I do hold my breath and clean them with solvents, when wash them out with soap and water.

I hope this helps a bit. I will dig through my notes if I do not hear from Larry and get you more scientific information.

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by Patricia Joyce

. . . I will dig through my notes if I do not hear from Larry and get you more scientific information.

Wonderful. I await with baited breath. (just ate an anchovy)

[Patricia Joyce]

"100% odourless mineral spirits (OMS) developed by Gamblin, for use with thinning Gamblin mediums and other general painting methods including studio and brush clean up. Having removed the harmful aromatic components in mineral spirits, odourless mineral spirits are safer to use, though adequate ventilation is still required. Gamsol has a "permissible exposure level" (PEL) of 300ppm (the higher the PEL, the safer the solvent) compared with turpentine which has a PEL of 100ppm. Gamsol cannot dissolve damar or other natural resins." - Gamblin

Gamsol is made by Gamblen and can be ordered from them or Ultrecht's carries it. Thisis exactly what Larry explained to us in class. What a big difference, huh?

OK , Richard, you can brush your teeth now!!

[Richard Bingham]

Reading comprehension is always a difficulty when threads on a forum extend tail-male to some length like this one. Regarding "PELS" it would be foolish to press the safe limits of exposure to any material. Safety in the studio demands adequate ventilation it's that simple. Painting in oils just plainly does not require using an amount that would even begin to approach PEL, with the solvents commonly available for use.

A major "problem" with statements about "turpentine" (and other materials) is what I outlined earlier. While most materials are identified by a generic name, invariably one encounters a widely varying range of quality and composition dependent on origin and process. Rather as one can generically identify an "automobile" . . . no one expects a Chevy Geo to have features identical to a Ferrari, nor would they expect to pay the same for either. The same range of possible qualities and permutations obtain whether one is interested in petroleum distillate solvents or turpentine.

With all due respect for Gamblin's marketing and PR department, one may either believe or disbelieve that their operation actually entails all the extensive equipment and processes for the fractional distillation of petroleum derivatives. I guess that's OK . . . I usually tend to believe what people tell me . . . and I believe in Santa Claus, too! (I'm a little "iffy" on the tooth-fiary, though.)

Merry Christmas (Hey! I got a new toothbrush! Is that kewl, or what?)

[Claudemir Bonfim]

Richard always recommeds us to not "eat" our studio material, but in this case it is not possible to not breath them. I like walnut oil very much, but that is more expensive than usual solvents and adds to the drying, some guys like it, others don't.

[Richard Bingham]

Originally Posted by Claudemir Bonfim

Richard always recommeds us to not "eat" our studio material, but in this case it is not possible to not breath them.

Ha, ha, right you are, Bonfim! Actually, it certainly is possible not to breath what evaporates from studio solvents. First off, good technique precludes using so much that it becomes a problem in a "normal" studio setting. You just simply should not have your palette or your work-piece awash in solvent. Secondly, how much care is required to keep all containers closed up? Leaving open containers of solvents around the studio is "asking for it". Third, cleaning brushes is probably the single operation which will emit the most vapor. If you have a sensitivity, or your studio is small, confined, and poorly ventilated, do it outside. Finally, don't paint in a small, confined, poorly ventilated space. Properly managed, your chances of inhaling more troublesome toxins on a busy city street are far greater than poisoning yourself in your own studio. Merry Christmas!