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It’s cold and I’m looking at the internet too much.
Anyone have experience using linseed oil paint? I’m thinking of giving it a try instead of milk paint on some painted kitchen cabinets. I’m wondering how well it would resist water and food stains that tend to afflict cabinets. I’ve used milk paint quite a bit—the type you mix up from powder. I find it hard to mix but it does make a painted effect that’s hard to get with anything else. Maybe I’ll order a sample and see what it’s like. Bird Cupps |
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Hi Bird,?
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Michel Brouns wrote a book on linseed paint, I found it to be a worthwhile starting point. Also, Justin Fink recently wrote an article about linseed paint for Fine Homebuilding. ?
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Based on what I've read, I'm inclined to shift over to linseed oil paints, particularly for exterior work. The appeal is the ease of maintenance, and the vapor permeability of the product.?
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Some of my local painting colleague who perform very high end work have begun shifting from Fine Paints of Europe and Farrow & Ball over to linseed paints for certain projects.?
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Brouns now has North American distribution, and my local finishing colleague has nothing but good things to say about Heron Paints.?
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I'm curious to hear what you find after some experiments.?
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Tom Gensmer Heritage Home Renewals, LLC Minneapolis, MN |
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Hi Bird, I've used the Allback offerings on exterior work for a few years now and it's pretty amazing so far.? It's easily washed off with the linseed oil soap, but I've not put it up against grease or curry stains or the like.
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It's very expensive but goes an almost unbelievably long way per can.? Very much worth a try.? If you get some, reach out and I'll give you experience with applying it.
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Brent |
开云体育I’m pretty sold on the idea of using it for window sashes. But yes, stains are the kinds of things I’m wondering about. I was wondering if it would make any sense to use a wax over the top to help with that. I think I’ll get a sample and give it a whirl.
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Roger S
开云体育I still have the scars from using this wretched stuff. ?I put it on some outside clean and prepped wood. ?I put it on so thinly. ?It still took three weeks to dry. ?Then after a few weeks linseed oil paint’s dirty little secret manifested itself. ? Mold just loves to eat the stuff. ?Soon dirty black smears started appearing on my new paintwork. ?You need to add something like zinc oxide (which is not great for the environment) to prevent it. ?OK…SLOP (stinking linseed oil paint) might be free of mold in a dry climate like Texas but in the eternally moist environment of Northumberland UK mold flourishes. ? It took me weeks to scrape the damn stuff off.My advice in one word. ? ?Avoid. Roger
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Hi Roger,?
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That's interesting to hear you experienced issues with mold, I'm curious to hear if you were using Allback linseed oil paint??
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Linseed oil paints do require a minimum percentage of zinc-oxide to inhibit mold growth (previously White Lead was used). When Allback was introduced to the US market ~2007, they offered zinc-oxide as an additive, but did not include it in the base formula of their paints, so many users experienced mold issues.?
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It is my understanding that Heron, Brouns, and most of the other linseed oil paint producers include the minimum percentage of zinc-oxide in their formulations, but it's worthwhile to confirm as an informed consumer.?
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Tom Gensmer Heritage Home Renewals, LLC Minneapolis, MN |
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Tom, I've heard about the mold issues with Albeck and others, so I never took the risk and just added zinc oxide and have not had an issue, even with a North facing set of wooden windows I made.
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Nano zinc particles seem to be problematic in the environment but the form used in paints seems to be the lesser evil of all the exterior paint options where you just need to keep it away from aquatic life. |
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I find this so interesting.? "Old Paints" have often been milk (protein style binder) paint or linseed oil based. Later synthesized to be the oil based alkyds.....I have stripped?and worked over thousands of architectural items at this point in my career and have seen I hope all the modes of failure. I get historical reasons for its continued use, and the arguments made for ease of stripping and refinishing. Otherwise I don't get circling back to these old technologies when modern coatings were specifically invested with efforts,costs and regulations to overcome the incumbent system's downsides. Home Depot and Lowes stopped selling oil-based options not very long ago. I think FPoE has had such a resurgence mostly as a callback to the old oil based trim enamel days and how those products worked. I recognize that enshittification of industries has crept into paints/coatings as well, but the rediscovery of linseed oil based paints in 2025 compared to modern waterborne urethanes and acrylic solutions I am not a supporter for most applications. I can put on a waterborne DTM primer on nearly any material that once cured is virtually impenetrable, whereas a traditional BLO or alkyd system would crack and peel after certain cycles. That said, I have a few practical points of my own experience to share on BLO products: 0. Sure seems expensive for what you get in certain products. 1. MOLD/Algae/Microbes yes. Real. Pervasive. Additives provide unpredictable results and duration is questionable. 2. FIRE DANGER. BLO is varnishing, perhaps should be regarded as the main varnishing agent in many varnishing coatings regardless of their brand name, and spontaneous combustion and major fire hazard risk compared to other flammables because it generates its own heat oxidizing, smoldering sometimes hours later, and must be managed diligently.? 3. You can buy your own BLO and tint it for stains or heavily enough to be opaque for paints. You don't have to buy someone else's product necessarily. 4. BLO will yellow. 4. BLO by itself makes a great clear finish for quick hand applied sealing items like unseen sides of wood furniture, undersides of table tops, and drawer boxes. It can be built up somewhat if desired, but I'd have a hard time recommending it for an often-touched surface like cabinets or table tops because it will go gummy, it's not especially durable, chemical, or heat resistant, and there are so many better alternatives available. On Mon, Jan 20, 2025 at 7:02?AM Tom Gensmer via <tom=[email protected]> wrote:
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Brett Wissel Saint Louis Restoration 1831 S Kingshighway Blvd (at Shaw Blvd) St Louis, MO 63110 314.772.2167 brett@... |
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Brett - you posted a very interesting discussion of coatings. Would you please define some of your acronyms, such as FPoE and DTM?
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Also, what are your thoughts about shellac, as a professional and restorer? I use it frequently for small boxes, lathe-turned objects, and such because it is so fast and easy. I keep a can of Bullseye around for sealing shop fixtures such as MDF cases, jigs, or drawers, but when I want more than a maintenance coat I mix up dewaxed flakes. If it will be handled a lot I add a coat of wax just for the tactile effect.
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John Hinman Boise ID USA Kappa 450X and A941 |
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John - Sure thing. FPoE - Fine Paints of Europe . luxury paint brand. DTM - direct-to-metal. Industrial term that came about when new style coatings were developed that didn't use tradition oil/alkyd resin primers. Used to mean they added rust preventative chemicals to existing paintcoatings and they weren't always great performers in?the beginning,?but newer formulations are better than ever. Big selling point when you can buy DTM paints and use same coating as primer, undercoats, and topcoats. My experience is in moderate temps DTM style coatings stay tacky a little longer than their non-dtm counterparts. Shellac is the most versatile film-building wood coating product in existence. It is non toxic and used literally as a food ingredient and is literally?the anti-sticking "candy coating" on your M&Ms and other items. It was the standard for sealing and topcoats for a long time, but was relegated as the "old thing" once companies started focusing on marketing polyurethanes. Shellac is the only reasonable product that can be used for blocking certain kinds of stains reliably (think Zinnser 1-2-3 which is shellac and white pigments). Shellac is easily hand applied, builds fast (think French polishing), and is a reversible evaporative coating as alcohol-solvent based so it's repairable. It's downsides are that is has become incredibly expensive over the last decade partly due to supply limitations, it is not as durable as full lacquer systems for well-used items like table tops, it can trap moisture as "blush" readily, and it does tend to melt under heat (which is evident in furniture repair burn-in filler sticks). Also, because it is evaporative, it is reversible -wouldn't use for a wet bar lol. It also reputationally has a "shelf life",but really it's just the alcohol absorbs water over time and affects performance out of the can. I personally don't place a lot of value on wax/dewaxed difference in most of my use. On Mon, Jan 20, 2025 at 8:27?AM John Hinman via <jhinman1911=[email protected]> wrote:
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Brett Wissel Saint Louis Restoration 1831 S Kingshighway Blvd (at Shaw Blvd) St Louis, MO 63110 314.772.2167 brett@... |
Tom Gensmer