CANODE 2ND COLOR SUBSTITUTE - FROM WALMART

Richard King 2

Master Machine Tool Rebuilder & Instructor
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Over the weekend I was in Walmart and saw in the Crafts and Arts section and saw all these water based acrylic paints. I bought several tubes, bottles and tubes. from .050 cents to $4.99 a bottle. One that I paid .050 cents a tube worked like the Yellow Canode. 3 students like the product: one liked the yellow, another liked the orange and believe it or not one liked the Purple. We mixed it with Windex, spread it on and wiped it clean, leaving some in the pours of the cast iron. I layed the good and bad on a table. see below: Sorry I couldn't flip the pictures.

Pic. L to R first 3 pic's are the good stuff. The others didn't work and I gave them to a young guy with small kids at home to finger paint . All were water based.
 

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Hi Richard
Please forgive that there are some cultural differences, and product brand availability, between USA and UK. Sure, we have window cleaner here, ammonia-free, and one can choose the kind without vinegar, but you won't find "Windex" unless online at £23 for a squirty bottle. That's OK. This is one which I can easily experiment on, but not at £23 a go.

Children's poster paints - the right stuff!
More particularly, the difference between the paints in the first three pictures, and those you gave away, were that the ones that did not work were all the acrylics. The "Tempera" paints are the very commonly available, safe stuff used for kids poster paints. Their ingredients are starch, water, calcium carbonate, cellulose, and non-toxic pigments.

Here we mention that although the same word is used, the other "tempera" type, derived from using eggs as a binder, known since the 1600s, and still used by some professional artists, is definitely not what we mean. Depending on the pigments, these can also be toxic! They are now quite rare to find, so may not be much of a problem

Acrylics
None of these work for our purpose. The only thing they have in common with the kid's tempera paints is that both are initially water-soluble. Acrylics, once dried, like other emulsions, become bonded permanent, and depending on the additives, can dry shiny, or glitter, or matte. Acrylics can also be hard to remove.

Thus, I will be trying out the kid's poster paints. Thanks for the tip! :)

While we are here, might you have a suggestion for for a Canode "first colour substitute"?
As you may guess, that is another product hard to find in UK. I get some success mixing all sorts of colours with various oils or greases and spread thin, but the mileage varies.

I did find a low cost rusty colour artist's paint with linseed oil in it (I think), that works reasonably well. Brand name is Pébéo, and the colour was called "Ochre Rouge". I think it may be basically real rust in there.
 
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I'm telling you and you can look for it in the UK. I am telling the folks here in the USA.
There is another product that in made in France that I use, but it cost more.
here is a UK made blue. It says it's out of stock. You can locate it over there. I ordered some 5 years ago and it is water based too. I liked it. I don't know if they make other colors. How about you look and let us know./

 
Last Friday I ordered some Charbonnel from a Art Store in Maine who shipped to us DHL from the UK. It arrived yesterday late and I will be posting pictures of it tomorrow along with the MSDS sheet. I think Dykem High Spot bluing is the best, but it stains your fingers. I used to use "red lead" for the 2nd color, but OSHA banned it several years ago. BIAX Germany tells folks to use denatured alcohol to darken the iron shine. I used Canode yellow for years, but the owner of the company who made it died and they closed the company, That is why I am experimenting to find a substitute. Nothing ventured nothing gained.
 
I'm telling you and you can look for it in the UK. I am telling the folks here in the USA.
There is another product that in made in France that I use, but it cost more.
here is a UK made blue. It says it's out of stock. You can locate it over there. I ordered some 5 years ago and it is water based too. I liked it. I don't know if they make other colors. How about you look and let us know./

I found this on a Walmart site, I'm not sure it's the same stuff?

 
You have to be kidding. I'm not clicking on that. It says "Robot or Human".....
 
You have to be kidding. I'm not clicking on that. It says "Robot or Human".....
No, I'm not kidding, unfortunately, when I paste the link here it shows up as you see it (robot or human). When I click on the link, it does go to the Walmart site, not sure why it's doing this. In any event, when I looked further, the seller on Walmart is in the UK.
 
I ordered some of the ink and it came from England.

It came from: Jacksons Art Supplies
Unit J The Aqarius Centre
Edison Close
Waterwells Business Park
Quedgeley, GL2 2FN
United Kingdom Phone # 01452226374

Here is where we bought it and the packing slip names. On the safety data sheet it says The supplier is:
ColArt International SA - 6 Rue Rene Panhard - Z.I . Nord - 72021 Le Mans Cedex 2 - +33 2 43 83 83 00 - Lefranc-Bourgeois@colart.fr -
Charbonnel : Aqua Wash Etching Ink - commodity code 32159020 $13.40 cents for a 0.936 kg
 

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