Thread: Japanning Comparison - Cold Mix vs. Run (hot combining like varnish)

Yes on the turpentine - it would be a brick when it cooled if it didn't have the turpentine added. Turpentine in this case is the same amount as the cold mix and then thinned further after that, but it is thickening again.

Bill T gave me a dissertation on the mathematics of viscosity, so just relaying that - it takes a fairly small amount of turpentine to bring it back to more watery.

that's the second coat, but it's before the turpentine was out. The casting for this #80 is really really rough in terms of the surface quality and grinding of the sprue left on the back of one handle, so it's not going to look quite that smooth once it shrinks down.

Two coats of this stuff as it is now is more like four coats of reasonably thin material.

something else occurred to me at lunch today, as I also made a quart or a little more of limed pine rosin varnish over the weekend. The liming didn't work right, so it will probably never have its melting point as high as I'd want it for anything other than tool handles, etc.

so that's what it's sentenced to - utility use.

the "tarting" process on the stanley 8 left behind some previously surface rusted (more like patina level, not like big blooms) parts that I wired wheeled so they wouldn't have that kind of fake look that a deburring wheel gives or have little lettering sanded off. many of us are aware that a fresh surface like that will, in most places, develop little blooms of rust that do actually pit deeply.

after putting a third thin coat of japanning on the coarsely cast #80, I realized the thinnest coating from finger application of the new not so great varnish could also be baked on. And installed so thinly like a fine layer of oil that it won't really be visible.

It's possible that it could wear through in places over time, but it's a varnish and not a paint or typical clear finish, so it will not flake off like something else would. if it gets worn through in a spot, it won't be that garish because the transition of the worn spot won't have a cracking or loosening border that something like shellac might. The durability will be much better than shellac, though I think it's not unfavorable to apply a very very thin coat (almost not there) of shellac on tools- including brushing it on a plane where the japanning is still good, but is kind of flat and oxidized looking.