Odorless solvent
 

Anybody heard of a thinner for artist colors, that is based on "isoparaffin-based odorless solvents".?

This sounds like an ideal solvent / thinner for oil colors. It is said to NOT contain any harmful ingredients, neither for the artist or the paint ,according to conservators.

It contains less than 0,01% aromas and evaporates slower than turps

Alan, much depends on what one's purpose for a "paint thinner" may be, in terms of oil painting. Solvents, (regardless of their composition) ultimately destroy the binding character of vehicle oils and resins by over-extending them, rather like a rubber band ultimately fails when over-extended.

"Isoparaffin based" is a fancy-schmantzy way of saying the solvent is a petroleum distillate. In other words, it's mineral spirits. Mineral spirits is basically refined kerosene. For use cleaning brushes and tools, kerosene is superior to mineral spirits, because it is more penetrating, and with a lower vapor pressure, less is emitted into the air. Odorless varieties of mineral spirits are not necessarily "safer" for the atmosphere just because you can't smell it.

Back to oil paint, pure gum spirits of turpentine is no more nor less toxic or "unsafe" in the studio environment than mineral spirits. Resin varnishes (including mastic, damar and copal) cannot be satisfactorily compounded with mineral spirits, because the petroleum product causes varnishes to be cloudy. As a solvent component of mediums, turpentine provides a different chemistry which promotes interior drying of paint films. In the main, a painter's use of any solvent is (or should be) so minute as to be less than problematic in terms of air quality safety. In all cases, the studio environment should always provide ample ventilation and fresh-air exchange.

The toxicity of turpentine has become a "hot issue" in some circles. This is probably due to the current prevalence of solvents touted as "turpentine" which are NOT pure gum spirits of turpentine. The last few years, most "turpentine" has been bulk-manufactured in the far east by steam-distilling forest wastes of indiscriminate species. Stumps, limbs, roots and slash are ground into a pulp which is cooked to yield a distillate solvent which reeks of creosote, and a number of active terpene toxins. It has no use in the studio for any purpose.

Good turpentine is the gum exude of certain conifers, tapped from living trees. The spirits of pure gum turpentine are the distillate. Rosin, colophony, and spirits of turpentine result from the process. Good turpentine smells clean, like a pine forest after a rain. That it is not necessarily "toxic" is proven by its long duration as a staple in liniments and cosmetics.

I have used something called Turpenoid, which is apparently odourless turpentine. It is, I think, no less harmful or toxic than ordinary turps, but it doesn't have a smell at all. Not sure how they make it (perhaps Richard would know). This I would use for mixing with oil paint. There is something else I use which I think is mineral spirits (it, mysteriously, has no ingredients listed on the label). I use this only for cleaning brushes as it strips all paint, dry or wet and if you used it on your painting I am sure the paint would start peeling off altogether!

Turpenoid is odorless mineral spirits, as is Gamsol, and a number of other items marketed especially to "arteestes" under clever names. The implication is there is something "sensitive" and wonderful (or ecologically sound) about materials made "just especially for us, the select few." It all comes out of the same tank-car. Know thy materials!

Re/ solvents . . . a number of petroleum distillates, including kerosene, mineral spirits, xylene, benzine and "white" gasoline are all capable of attacking the structure of drying oils and some resins. Some are more active than others, some are more volatile. These are properties that may or may not be conducive to one's ends in the studio.

Given that most of the oil paint one buys these days is mulled in safflower oil, (which requires a siccative to dry within our lifetime)and produces a polymer film infinitely weaker than does raw linseed oil, I would recommend adding at least 20% by volume of good, raw linseed oil to any solvent used to "thin" oil paint.

Richard,
it say's that "the active part is Isoparaffine 222" and that it is not the same as odorless turpentine and that it will not cause "painters syndrome".

Have I understood it right when saying that "Odorless Turpentine" is made from Mineral Spirit and not from Vegetable Turps?

Hi Alan, what in heaven's name is "painter's syndrome" ?!?
I suppose a petroleum chemist would be familiar with "isoparaffin 222". Here's the deal. Mineral spirits in all its grades and species is a petroleum distillate, and an aromatic hydrocarbon. Breathe enough of it, and you'll get sick.

IMO, there is only one acceptable "turpentine" for oil painting, and that is the distillate of gum collected from Georgia (USA) pines, and in previous times from similar conifers in Portugal.

To the best of my knowledge, no one has removed the odor from pure spirits of gum turpentine. Why would you ? It doesn't smell bad, and most of these materials nowadays are going into air-fresheners and cleaning compounds so that they will smell "pine fresh".

Turpenoid is not a "natural" (vegetable, if you will) solvent, but a mineral spirits variant.

It's the name, in Denmark, for the disease painters get when exposed to too many fumes from turps, one forgets, much like lead poisoning.

I never use Mineral Spirit for deluding artist color, only Vegetable Turps ( also called "French Turpentine" )

I would use the Isoparaffine 222 for cleaning brushes, I think that the smell of Vegetable Turps is delicious but it can be a little too much sometimes.

Although I consider myself an artist rather than an "artiste," I use odorless solvent (Gamsol). The reason is that I became very sensitive to the regular turpentine (any form including gum). Whenever I painted with it, by the end of the day I developed respiratory problems. Odorless solvent reduces this problem dramatically, perhaps because it doesn't evaporate as fast? I'm not really sure why, but for whatever reason it works for me.

Allan, it sounds like this product might be simply another brand of petroleum-based odorless solvent.

Alexandra, please don't take my rough humor re/"arteestes" as an affront. I tend to wax a bit radical over: a. how the state of art instruction through the last 100 years or so has short-changed the physical, craftsman-oriented aspects of the art of painting, and b. those who see the dearth of painters knowledgeable about their materials as an opportunity to tout otherwise cheaply available common items as something "uniquely special" . . . at ten times the price.

Any sensitivity to even "good" turps you have experienced only proves that a definite qualitative difference between pure gum turpentine and mineral spirits exists. My father, who was an active painter all of his adult life developed a contact dermatitis from turpentine when he was in his late 60's. As mysteriously and sudden as it came on, it left him in the same manner within a few months. There are people who are allergic to roses, common house plants, pets and foods . . . of course you have to maintain your personal comfort level. That's only sensible.

The vapor pressures and hence the emissions from either odorless MS or good turpentine are so close as to be a negligible difference.

Richard, I truly wasn't offended--just a friendly jab. I couldn't resist. :D

I will buy a bottle of the stuff tomorrow and ask if they have additional information to the information in the catalog.

It is an old artist materials shop in

I bought some today and I can see that it is a petroleum product that has been treated in a way that removed the harmful parts.
I can smell that it is petroleum if I put my nose to the bottle but it's very mild.

One other question: How do you ( and others) use it for painting? Do you add drying oil to it to make a medium? The prolonged evaporation time could be an attractive function since I often mix a pile of paint that dries up before I have used it.

I usually use a mixture of 1 part stand oil, 1 part linseed oil with drier added, 3 parts vegetable turpentine.

[QUOTE=Allan Rahbek]I . . . treated in a way that removed the harmful parts. . . I can smell that it is petroleum . . .

No doubt some components are removed from the mineral spirits along with the "odor". Don't rely on that. Any aromatic hydrocarbon that evaporates into the air is harmful if the concentration is high enough.

Allan, it's just a solvent. As such, it is more or less useful to reduce the viscosity of heavier vehicles, such as stand oil. I believe you mentioned you would use it for cleaning brushes? Good idea. There is no good reason to replace pure spirits of gum turpentine with this stuff in your painting practice. Turps is better for your paint films.

The subject of mediums is a minefield. I question why you mix linseed oil (with a drier) and stand oil with a solvent (turps) ?? What do you feel this accomplishes?

In the main, a useful "medium" centers around a natural resin chosen for the spcific properties it imparts to the quality of a paint film, either for its visual character or handling. Mastic, Copal, Damar, all are capable of imparting notably different qualities when added to paint. Canada Balslam, Strasbourg Turpentine, Venice Turpentine impart yet another, but are so similar to one another as to yield near identical results, although each most certainly has identifiable individual characteristics.

A medium that includes resins needs to be balanced with enough linseed oil to remain flexible. Whether the oil is heat-treated (as stand oil is) is yet another variable.

Finally, the combination of oil and resin usually requires the addition of a solvent to control viscosity and possibly drying time.

Allan, if you are employing a mix of oils, turps and a siccative, the addition of the siccative would be the cause of your paint drying on the palette sooner than you may like to see.

Perhaps your new-found solvent is less volatile than turpentine. If so, yes, it would slightly retard the drying time of a given paint (minus the siccative in the mix). To answer this question, one need only place small equal amounts of each in open containers, and note any difference in the rate of evaporation. A clean glass palette is ideal for this test, and would have the added advantage of allowing you to ascertain whether the petroleum product leaves any residues.

[QUOTE=Richard Bingham I believe you mentioned you would use it for cleaning brushes? Good idea. There is no good reason to replace pure spirits of gum turpentine with this stuff in your painting practice. Turps is better for your paint films..
The subject of mediums is a minefield. I question why you mix linseed oil (with a drier) and stand oil with a solvent (turps) ?? What do you feel this accomplishes?[/QUOTE]

I will use it for cleaning brushes and it works fine for that.

But I came to think that, if it is only a solvent and it leaves no residue in the form of paraffin ( the white greasy stuff that never dries) I might as well use it for deluding my paint also.

Real vegetable turpentine leaves a small amount of oil / resin which is good for the thinned paint.
If I use the Petrol with Stand Oil the two elements will balance each other. The Stand oil is "partly dried Linseed oil" and will not wrinkle when drying, it leaves the dry oil paint more glossy than raw Linseed oil does.
I also use 1 part of Linseed Oil with siccative because I use Titanium White that takes forever to dry.

Ps.
I tested Mineral Spirit, Odorless Solvent and Vegetable Turpentine by letting the three evaporate from my glass palette. Only the Vegetable Turpentine left something on the glass after the solvent had evaporated.
Anyway, it seems that the OS would be harmless to use in a mixture and that is also what the label said.

I am posting prematurely because I need to confirm the details with my friend and artist Larry Leach. he is a very wonderful landscape artists who also is an artist who represents Winsor and Newton. and he has been teaching and painting for over thirty years.

but until I hear back from him, this is what I remember him saying at his workshops. Turpentine and Turpenoid are no different. Our bodies absorb the fumes at the same percentages, it just that they have treated turpenoid so that it does not smell. This does not nimimize the harm it does to our bodies.

Gamsol is difference and this is where I want to get the right information for you. All I know is that the percentage of what we absorb from Gamsol is minimul compared to Turps. In many art colleges in this country Gamsol is the only solvent they allow in the studios.

Personally, I have been taught by Marvin that one only needs refined linseed oil, as the old masters used. It is natural, will not break down the oil paint and is a very good paint thinner (though if you use too much you will discover you can't work with the paint - it is a delicate balance). Marvin NEVER used solvents and his thin layers are quite thin! As for cleaning the brushes Marvin goes so far as to clean them with only walnut oil, which is quite expensive. I started to clean my brushes this way but found I could not afford the walnut oil for this purpose. So I do hold my breath and clean them with solvents, when wash them out with soap and water.

I hope this helps a bit. I will dig through my notes if I do not hear from Larry and get you more scientific information.

Wonderful. I await with baited breath. (just ate an anchovy)

"100% odourless mineral spirits (OMS) developed by Gamblin, for use with thinning Gamblin mediums and other general painting methods including studio and brush clean up. Having removed the harmful aromatic components in mineral spirits, odourless mineral spirits are safer to use, though adequate ventilation is still required. Gamsol has a "permissible exposure level" (PEL) of 300ppm (the higher the PEL, the safer the solvent) compared with turpentine which has a PEL of 100ppm. Gamsol cannot dissolve damar or other natural resins." - Gamblin

Gamsol is made by Gamblen and can be ordered from them or Ultrecht's carries it. Thisis exactly what Larry explained to us in class. What a big difference, huh?

OK , Richard, you can brush your teeth now!! :santa:

Reading comprehension is always a difficulty when threads on a forum extend tail-male to some length like this one. Regarding "PELS" it would be foolish to press the safe limits of exposure to any material. Safety in the studio demands adequate ventilation it's that simple. Painting in oils just plainly does not require using an amount that would even begin to approach PEL, with the solvents commonly available for use.

A major "problem" with statements about "turpentine" (and other materials) is what I outlined earlier. While most materials are identified by a generic name, invariably one encounters a widely varying range of quality and composition dependent on origin and process. Rather as one can generically identify an "automobile" . . . no one expects a Chevy Geo to have features identical to a Ferrari, nor would they expect to pay the same for either. The same range of possible qualities and permutations obtain whether one is interested in petroleum distillate solvents or turpentine.

With all due respect for Gamblin's marketing and PR department, one may either believe or disbelieve that their operation actually entails all the extensive equipment and processes for the fractional distillation of petroleum derivatives. I guess that's OK . . . I usually tend to believe what people tell me . . . and I believe in Santa Claus, too! (I'm a little "iffy" on the tooth-fiary, though.)

Merry Christmas (Hey! I got a new toothbrush! Is that kewl, or what?)

Richard always recommeds us to not "eat" our studio material, but in this case it is not possible to not breath them. I like walnut oil very much, but that is more expensive than usual solvents and adds to the drying, some guys like it, others don't.

Ha, ha, right you are, Bonfim! Actually, it certainly is possible not to breath what evaporates from studio solvents. First off, good technique precludes using so much that it becomes a problem in a "normal" studio setting. You just simply should not have your palette or your work-piece awash in solvent. Secondly, how much care is required to keep all containers closed up? Leaving open containers of solvents around the studio is "asking for it". Third, cleaning brushes is probably the single operation which will emit the most vapor. If you have a sensitivity, or your studio is small, confined, and poorly ventilated, do it outside. Finally, don't paint in a small, confined, poorly ventilated space. Properly managed, your chances of inhaling more troublesome toxins on a busy city street are far greater than poisoning yourself in your own studio. Merry Christmas!