DIY Blue Spotting Blues!

[Tim9]

Making Dutch Lead White :: Paintings :: Grosse is a geek

| Natural Pigments

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above are just two links I found With google of Dutch Process White Lead.
I can’t find the site I originally used but I didn’t go to the extreme degrees used by Natural Pigments website. No manure used in my kitchen made white lead. I did it about 5 years ago and made a couple pounds of white lead. It’s just not hard to do but takes a couple to 6 months depending on temperature and humidity. And acid used. I used some higher concentration acidic acid. But it isn’t hard to do. Just google Dutch Process White Lead

And, I think i just mixed my white lead with some way oil to make it a paste. I don’t use it much. Didn’t need it. Just wanted it and was curious about the process.. I think it has more to do with my non-conformist attitude than anything else. I just don’t like when something isn’t available. Want it in case I need it.

 

[Mini Cooper S]

Permatex Prussian Blue! The go to industry standard for scraping. Cheap, designed for the job, and a barrel of fun to put on the bottom of your co-workers toolbox handles!

Richard

 

[eugene13]

Permatex Prussian Blue! The go to industry standard for scraping. Cheap, designed for the job, and a barrel of fun to put on the bottom of your co-workers toolbox handles!

Richard

Telephone earpiece, inside the finger of a misplaced pair of gloves, black toilet seat, let's see how long a list we can compile

 

[pontiac428]

black toilet seat

That was supposed to be kept between me and my doctor, but it sure explains a thing or two!

 

[Janderso]

I had a very positive experience when I was introduced to hand and power scraping at Richard King's class.
One thing I notice most often when watching a scraping operation on youtube, they have their contrast media too thick.
The transfers are usually smudges. The thinner the better.

 

[graham-xrf]

The first test in the quest for the perfect DIY blue and red spotting fluid has been done. Not yet a resounding success!

The blue was the stuff from eBay used for drain leak reveal testing. The very thing that @homebrewed said was probably methylene blue. It came as a powder in plastic bag within another plastic bag. The stuff is so fine, it handles (in the bag), like a putty, but when transferred to a glass jar, it was powder.

The water-washable fluid I tried was pharmaceutical grade glycerol - or glycerine if you like. Safe enough, tastes slightly sweet, and with a little powder, immediately takes up the fine blue Canode colour. It's not as dark as the true Prussian Blue, but was a good deal cheaper. Mixed with a little methylated alcohol, and with a little shellac, it would very likely make an excellent marking fluid, but we are after the wipe-up-able, water washable, nearly non-drying spotting fluid.

The glycerine does not "spread" and stick as nice as the artists inks, and the grease that is in Permatex. We want something that will stick to the the surfaces better, spread thin, and transfer well. Glycerine ink can be spread transparently thin, and certainly wipes up easy, and washes away with water, but keeps that "slow runny" character. It is a very pure substance C3H8O3. Just looking at the formula, I can see it has a load of fuel in there, along with some of it's own oxygen, but anyway, test #1 was a bit of a bust!

Maybe something a little thicker. I might try mixing up some blue into baking margarine, or sandwich spread!

[Edit: Reading Wikipedia, it mentions in UK, a 50mg vial of methylene blue costs about £39.38. I don't think the drain dye can be that!]

 

[homebrewed]

I found an SDS for canode here. It looks like it contains pthalo blue, not methylene blue. Also some titanium dioxide (opacifier/scatterer?), "sulfonated oils", a wetting agent (the "sorbitan monooleate") and an emulsifier (the "nonyl-phenol").

So perhaps the reason canode can be cleaned off with water is because it has some built-in soap?

Regarding the glycerol's poor spreadability in your witch's brew, adding some wetting agent like Tween or Polysorbate-40/60/80 could help there. And perhaps a film-forming agent like PVA or PVAc would help keep it place better. PVAc is the primary component of Elmers White Glue, also used in "slime" kits. You want some kind of non-drying component in there like glycerol to avoid complete drying. Xanthan gum might be useful here. Another one is gum arabic, used in a lot of ink formulations. Or gelatine? All are water soluble and definitely non toxic.

I suspect the really expensive methylene blue is medical grade. The stuff does have some medical uses.

 

[Richard King 2]

In My 55+ years of scraping I have used several blue / black / red/ orange / white pigments.

My Dad who had been scraping since 1940, used Permatex and red lead as he was introduced to it when he worked for Northern Ordinance in Minneapolis MN. He apprenticed under German Rebuilders who used them. Spread with hard white felt, rolled red rag taped with electrical tape, fingers. We always wiped the bluing and red lead as a final move before rubbing so we knew it was clean. You feel dirt with fingers and not a rag or air hose blow.

I started to scrape under my dad's supervision in 1964 using a Permatex bluing and making Red Lead as Benchee described.

1960's Permatex Prussian Blue -review - greasy and worse one I ever used
Black soot mixed with way oil - greasy but it worked better then Permatex
1960's Red Lead Powder
1970's Dykem High Spot Bearing Blue paste - Best of all, but it is hard to remove from hands - Red lead as a high lighter.
1980's I first used Canode 2243 at General Motors in Indianapolis who helped develop it because of pranks their employees did to each other. They banned Dykem from their plants. At first I hated it, but was forced to figure out how to use it and the secret was to roll it on. I was working for GM full time as a contractor then teaching classes at 9 divions around the USA. Once I figured out how to use it, I started to spread the word as to how well it cleaned off your hands. Sold now by DAPRA, Ed Dyjak who I informed. I have been using it
1980's to 2018 I used Canode Blue, In the 1990's after using Canode I asked the Mfg. to make the orange color. At that time they only made Blue, Black, White. Yellow, Red. The company was sold in the 1990 and at that time they stopped making Orange, Black and White.
I use the Blue as bluing full strength and roll it out with a foam roller, paint brush and hard felt.
1989 - I started to teach in Taiwan and took Canode with me. They started to buy 5 gallon pails from me once they used it. They also use a red bearing blue in Taiwan made in Japan. Itwoked great, but stained.
2016 - Am English fellow from Practical Machinist tells me about Stuarts Engineering paste bluing. I bought some from Ebay and tried it. It was water based and worked OK, but was a bit greasy. I preffered Canode
2016 - While teaching at Bourn & Koch in Rockford IL, they showed me what they use. A concrete die powder orange color they mixed like red lead of old. Also a black carbon powder they mixes like red lead for bluing. I just wrote them to get the names. Their plant is shut down /Covid.
2017 - I started to teach in Germany and took Canode with me to use.
2018 - Tom Lipton during a Vacaville class introduced me to Charbinel art engraving paint - water based. (they make a oil base but water based washes off with water.

 

[Richard King 2]

I saved it and will continue:
2018: I wrote about Charbenel on Practical Machinist and here and people started to use it. BIAX Germany purchased and had a European (forgot what it's called) approval of import to Europe for Canode. They bought cases and several gallons of it from me. They started to sell in Germany
2018 - Biax sponsored my classes in Germany and Austria and discovered it you mixed 90% Canode with 10% Charbonel paste Prussian blue and it work great, darker color a lot the dark Dykem of old but it washes off you hands.
2019: I was walking Thru Walmart arts and crafts dept. I saw some Ayrcrlic pant selling for $1.00 a tube. It worked good for as highlighter and not for bluing as it dried to fast.
2019 - While teaching a class in Austria we tested the Russian ink being sold on Ebay. It was terrible, worse then Permatex. We also tested Diament bluing sold in Germany, it worked good, but stained like Dykem, There was another German Brand I forgot the name and it also stained.
2019 to now. I use Canode mixed with Charbenel for bluing and Yellow or Red Canode deluted with Windex as a highlighter. I have some pictures I'll add.

 

[Richard King 2]

Bluing Pic. I also started thin spreading the Canode mix with hard roller brayers