Pigmenting Varnish

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

On my 36 foot CC, I have lots of varnish... and because of that, I have been attacking refinishing in large, albeit partial refinishings. I take whatever I can out in the winter, and back to the shop where I strip, stain and put multiple coats of varnish back on, usually 8 or ten coats. I use Interlux interstain in Mahogany, (chris craft mahogany) and Epifanes varnish. I am well aware that different pieces take stain differently, but sometimes there are differences between jobs, and I am wondering if repeat coats are put on lighter areas, particularly those that have had to be done on the boat (built in stuff) whether I can pigment my varnish slightly to deepen the color. Never tried it, don't know how to do it.;)

[Singlegrandad]

I do not know about your particular products of use, but I have done this with Minwax products- specifically their polyurethane and their mahogany gell stain which I added in very small amounts, for my front door when I was redoing it. It worked very fine.

[Jim Ledger]

The product to use for tinting varnish and lacquers is called universal colors. Its made to be mixed in and will give a satisfactory result without any unpredictable compatibility issues.

Have a look here.

http://www.mohawk-finishing.com/catalog_browse.asp?ictNbr=183

[pcford]

If you are having to strip and refinish varnish as a routine yearly maintenance item, there is something wrong. I once met a guy for who I had done the finish on his trawler yacht about fifteen years previously. Same base varnish was on most of the boat. It had been recoated twice a year, which is the norm for open moored vessels. The only area requiring stripping was some horizontal surfaces.

Varnished with Man O'War. A very good varnish, but totally unhip these days.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

No, this is after 44 years in some cases.

[Wild Wassa]

The three types of traditional pigments for tinting varnish. They are tree saps, like sap from a Coastal Bloodwood or deeper coloured red resin collected from Grass Trees. Lakes, lakes are saps from plant roots like the madder root and the blood collected from battles between dragons and elephants ... most prized and of course the best.

Jim recommended a range of pigments called Universal Colours. Many of the Mohawk colours have the traditional names of artist's pigments? Vermillion, Raw Umber, Burnt Umber, Vandyke Brown, Cobalt Blue, Yellow Ochre and Burnt Sienna ... etc,etc.

Rather than spend a huge amount on Mohawk pigments until you know what you want precisely, pigments are so concentrated that only small amounts are need to be added to tint the varnish. If you go to an artist's supply store, you can buy traditional artist's oil paints in small tubes which will do exaxctly the same job.

The tip is buy transparent pigments. The pigment characteristics are indicated on each tube as transparent, semi transparent or opaque. They have a permanence rating 1 to 5 or even 1-6 which indicates less stable to more stable to UV. The higher the series number the more stable the pigment. Series 1's are very affordable, at series 5-6 they are expensive. Organic pigments like lakes and madders (S1 -S2) are prone to fading where as metal pigments (S3-S4) and the rare mined mineral pigments (S5-S6) have incredible levels of permanence/stability. Also buy artists or archival quality oil paint to tint varnish with ... do not buy student grade oils.

For the cost of one Mohawk pigment you should be able to buy several small tubes of oil paint to do your colour tests. If you are thinking about using Dioxazine Violet as a pigment (just as prized as the blood of the martars) ... take your bankcard, not all pigments are totally affordable.

Another tip PMJ, is when you are putting down pigmented varnish, the concentrated pigment that you have thinned with a small amount of turpentine before adding to your varnish and Penetrol, or adding to a clear oil paint (if you can get it) again with Penetrol, so that you are glazing not necessarily painting in tinted varnish, start with your lightest colour firstly. The buildup in value (darkness) can happen quicker than expected ... and of course paint thinly, many thin coats are better than one thick coat ... which you know of course.

I hope this helps ... or ask any violin maker, they are the experts at pigmenting varnish.

Warren.

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Thanks, that's very useful... What has happened is that when I refinished the back cockpit, the veneer plywood on some of the panels turned out slightly lighter than the solids... I need to put a few more coats on in any case, so when I do, I thought I would try and get the color closer. I suppose I am the only one who notices anyway...:)

[pcford]

A thought...since the eye is more sensitive to value (lightness/darkness than to color. It might be possible to change color by using lighter or darker varnish. Man O'War is very light, Epifanes is dark. I have used this technique before when attempting to increase contrast in adjacent woods.

Pigments do affect the clarity of the varnish.

[Wild Wassa]

One of the things that I really like about being a member of the WBF is, whenever an interesting question is asked about painting ... it tends to be oh-so topical for what I'm doing. This I find uncanny.

At the start of the week, I wouldn't have thought that I'd be needing to pigment varnish to balance tones. After stripping some wooden stuff, I find that three different timbers have been used in what I'm trying to make nice.

Do I use dye or do I use pigment in the varnish? The brightness range is too great to just select different varnish, with their different values ... the pros who I've talked to this week, conservators of fine art and antique restorers, say pigments go cloudy in varnish, "use dye." I say bullshhit they do, just select the right pigments for once ... and what is the colour of a dye ... it is a pigment.

Transparent dye would be too easy, just a bit of red and and a little bit of black to get the value right ... no fun at all. Adding dyes just doesn't do it for me.

There is an art to it. I'll be back in a few days, with some faux wood coloured stuff! I should have been born an Italian and taken up the brush, faking it would come naturally.

The timbers that I'm painting are a Mahogany looking marine ply, some Kauri looking marine ply (which could be Hoop) and something else that has the bland and sorry look of a cheap Maple. The boat was built in New Zealand.

What I need to do is lighten the dark bits and darken the lighter bits ... which is a bit like the paint that I'm removing. Something with an 18% reflectance.


http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid225/p7ffa04d333f1ee9558202bb7a5c81808/e8f429cd.jpg


Stripping a Yellow Ochre acrylic, painted over a previously grey polyurethane top coat, over a grey bullet proof polyurethane undercoat, over residues of an oil based something, ... possibly a varnish.

Additive painting using acrylic over polyurethane is common here .... as in 'very common' and a sign of an unskilled middle class.

Warren.