I think I'll stick with SHHAN, at least that's readily available and thins with acetone! Wayneb
--- On Mon, 3/12/12, Scott Bearden <scott.bear...@gmail.com> wrote: From: Scott Bearden <scott.bear...@gmail.com> Subject: Re: [VFB] To: vfb-mail@googlegroups.com Date: Monday, March 12, 2012, 8:20 PM Talk about your kitchen sink of chemicals! But that does sound like lacquer based thinners, not varnish thinners. I am coming at this from someone who has used varnishes for several years to finish bamboo rods. I even tried making my own varnish from some 200 year old recipes. Keep in mind that different countries and even different states ban certain substances, or at least certain quantities of substances. If you bought a can of brand X five years ago, I can almost guarantee that it isn't the same formula as today. Now for furniture I use shellac or lacquer but not varnish. True varnish isn't needed for the indoors and takes too long to cure. It was meant for ship building and protecting wood from UV light as well as water. Shellac and lacquer both look great, buff out to a better finish than varnish, cure much faster but don't do anything to protect wood from the elements. They really are different beasts and the best way to get to know what is in your can is look at the MSDS. What's the harm in using lacquer thinner in varnish? I suppose it depends on what you are doing. Trying to cement a head on a personal fly, probably not much. Especially if you are likely to lose it to the trees or have it wear out in a couple of seasons. Using it on a presentation grade fly meant only for display could mean that in a few years the varnish could discolor and flake off. Take your thumbnail to the head on one of your older flies and see if it holds up. Is it soft and gummy or flaky, or is it hard as a rock just like the "hard as nails" slogan? Personally I use lacquer from the hardware store for flies and save the varnish for my rods. But most of the time I just make sure I use a good whip finish and skip the head cement altogether. If you really want to pinch pennies, A.K. Best suggests in one of his books getting a quart of lacquer from the hardware store as well. Scott On Mon, Mar 12, 2012 at 4:13 PM, Neville Gosling <nev.gosl...@shaw.ca> wrote: Scott: My can of lacquer thinners lists the following as contents: toulene, methyl ethyl keytone, methanol acetone Neville (Nev) Gosling On 2012-03-12, at 12:03 PM, Scott Bearden wrote: > Neville that sounds like lacquer by the description and considering that > lingo changes from one country to the next, it is quite possible that what > they are calling varnish, we market as lacquer at least here in the US. > Lacquer thinner is nothing more than acetone or acetate or similar liquid. It > will also strip old varnish and of course that is what women use for nail > polish remover. Varnish thinners wont strip strip varnish so chemicals like > naptha, toluene, minerla spirits and the such are only good for thinning the > product and cleaning up immediately after application. Once the curing > process has begun they have no effect on actually thinning the varnish. > > Scott -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the "VFB Mail" group. To post to this group, send email to vfb-mail@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to vfb-mail-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/vfb-mail?hl=en VFB Mail is sponsored by Line's End Inc at http://www.linesend.com
