Thread: authenticity ... milk paint

Milk paint has been used all over the world for many centuries. It is made from the protein casings of milk, called casein. Who came up with the idea is beyond me but human beings are great adapters and let's face it, we do some bloody weird things! I have used Milk Paints on several cabinets and it produces a beautiful finish. It just can't handle anything with alkali content, like soaps and fats. Of course, you can put clear finish over it to protect it, but it sorta kills the point. Anyway, it has been used in Australia since settlement. I buy my Milk Paint from the US but I think you can get it from Porters Paints .... at the very least, Porters have paints that finish like Milk Paints..... used it today on a cabinet we are making. Cheers

You can make your own. I've done it and it is very simple. Hardest part was find the right pigments. I used cement pigment in powder from Bunnings and found it to be the best.

Homemade Milk Paint Recipe - Real Milk Paint ®

I used milk powder from Aldi to make the base. Make sure you use hydrated lime and not quick lime.

Some people finish with a coat of Danish Oil but the last time I did this I used Minwax wipe on poly because I already had some in the workshop. It leaves a nice matt finish and slightly darkens the colour. I will do the same thing the next time.

nice idea - I will give it a try ... what did you paint wit it?

Thanks for the replies, just for the intrigue of it I will be giving it a go too.
The milk paint in the dresser that started all of this really did look good.
fletty

Porter's website says that its milk paint is made with milk-products

I painted a tool box. This was a bastard collage of various bits of plywood and hardwood of unknown provenance that were lying about. The paint tied it all together. It looks rather good for what is.

I haven't come across milk paint on sixteenth, seventeenth or eighteenth century furniture and I don't know a lot about Victorian furniture and virtually nothing about later stuff, but Stephen Shepherd has this to say about milk paint:

"There is no such thing as milk paint. Examining carefully the historical record, in probate inventories, journals, dairies, advertisements and publications of the early nineteenth century in America and have not found one documented case or can or bottle or package of ‘milk paint’. There is an occasional reference to ‘casein’ paint made from cheese and used by artists as a light duty paint, but it is not milk paint. Casein is a phosphoprotein that was developed in 1841, so the history is not that old.
What people believe to be ‘milk paint’ is in fact old oxidized oil based lead paint. Testing in laboratories on old furniture and woodwork invariably come up with the results that the paint is oil based. There are old advertisements for oil paint, exterior oil paint, lead paint, house paint, etc., but not one ad for ‘milk paint’, why because it wasn’t made and sold. What people call milk paint is invariably oil based lead paint that has oxidized, if it is difficult to remove they ‘think’ it is milk paint, it is not.
If it contains milk, skim milk, dry milk or dry skimmed milk; it is whitewash. Pigments can be added to give it color but it is still whitewash. Linseed oil and turpentine can be added to it for exterior applications, but it is still whitewash. Paint is paint and whitewash is whitewash. There are many old recipes for whitewash and much was used on buildings, woodwork and even furniture but it is whitewash it is not paint.
It might seem like a fine line between paint and whitewash but I am willing to distinguish that line. The historical record shows that the preponderance of paint in the nineteenth century was paint made from linseed oil and turpentine and pigments and other ingredients not one of which was milk.
A warm ‘buttermilk paint’ finish on a piece sounds colonial and sweet but it is bunk. It became a bit of folklore, a wives tale and a myth because no one challenged it with serious research. Show me where in the historical record that ‘milk paint’ was manufactured, sold and used by woodworkers to paint their furniture, you can’t because it just didn’t happen.
Unless and until I receive some convincing documentation of its common use I am going to remove ‘milk paint’ from my woodworking lexicon. It remains a myth."

I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but it seems to me that looking for examples of the stuff being manufactured and sold is pointless, since the shelf life is only a couple of days. My assumption was that it was made up by the end user from a recipe, and was not something you went to the paint supplier for.

Some links:

Plain and pleasant talk about fruits ... - Google Books
The painter, gilder, and varnisher's ... - Google Books

Both are from 19th century books and they suggest that milk paint was in use and is not, as Mr Shepherd suggests, a myth.

Originally Posted by silentC

I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but it seems to me that looking for examples of the stuff being manufactured and sold is pointless, since the shelf life is only a couple of days. My assumption was that it was made up by the end user from a recipe, and was not something you went to the paint supplier for.

Some links:

Plain and pleasant talk about fruits ... - Google Books
The painter, gilder, and varnisher's ... - Google Books

Both are from 19th century books and they suggest that milk paint was in use and is not, as Mr Shepherd suggests, a myth.

I quoted my own personal experience and also quoted from Shepherd's now infamous dissertation with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek! He's always blowing off some controversial nonsense (à la Erich von Daniken) and on the occasion of posting the above on his blog; he received copious amounts of flack for it. Such was the heat that the post 'mysteriously' disappeared, only to come back and haunt him by way of subscribers re-posting the content in the reply section.

Milk paint (and distemper) have been used for architectural coatings for centuries, but milk paint's use on furniture is a relatively recent invention and therefore I would refrain from using it on furniture of any great historic merit (pre-Victorian).

... quoted from Shepherd's now infamous dissertation ...

Ah, well you can trust me to rise to the bait. It's the first time I've heard of him or his opinion on the subject

Originally Posted by silentC

Ah, well you can trust me to rise to the bait. It's the first time I've heard of him or his opinion on the subject

Stephen (unlike von Daniken) does try to be historically accurate. I would hesitate before disagreeing with Stephen (whereas I would disagree with von Daniken on principle).

Stephen's book on hide glue is, without doubt, the most thorough and most thoroughly researched, examination of that subject and if he says that he can't find a mention of milk paint (as opposed to whitewash) in the C19 literature in the USA, I would accept that - just as I would accept Wouldwood (aka Jack Plane) when he discusses a matter of British furniture practice of C18.

PS That doesn't mean that you can't have genuine milk paint (ie a paint made from milk product). It just means that such product is not the same as whatever it was that C19 furniture-makers put on their products!

if he says that he can't find a mention of milk paint (as opposed to whitewash) in the C19 literature in the USA, I would accept that

But I found two of them, both American and both from the 19th century, without even trying.

Perhaps what he means is that he can't find any evidence specifically of it having been used to paint furniture. But he clearly states "there is no such thing as milk paint" and he supports this argument with the fact that he could not find any evidence of it ever having been made commercially. Yet I have two easily found references that mention it specifically by that name. The formulation may not coincide with his definition of the term "paint", but that is what they called it.

Originally Posted by jmk89

Stephen's book on hide glue is, without doubt, the most thorough and most thoroughly researched, examination of that subject ...

The facts are there – some of them repeatedly. It reads like a blatently plagiarised year eleven examination paper. What he lacks in knowledge and comprehension of the subject matter, he makes up for with pretty sketches.

"There is an occasional reference to ‘casein’ paint made from cheese and used by artists as a light duty paint, but it is not milk paint. Casein is a phosphoprotein that was developed in 1841, so the history is not that old."

I had to have a chuckle at this. I thought cheese was made from milk and certainly the milk paint recipe I have requires making cheese (quark) first and using this to make the paint. And casein has always been in milk, not just since 1841. Funny stuff.

Cheers
Michael