In Finland, we still use a lot of self-made traditional red paint with the red pigment hematide (iron oxide III), which is common and costs around 1€/kg. That's why there are so many red houses here (you can google for the images). One of the common paint recepies includes fat-free milk (1 liter), 400g of pigment and 200g of porcelain cement. Just mix well and paint. I used it in the last summer and it worked great, looked wery similar to what you've got on the video.
Rex, milk paint is very durable if you mix tung oil into the paint. Traditional milk paint was develop as a wood coating that actually wear off over time. When used outdoors on a barn it very slowly washes off with the rain storms. This quality allows the wood to breathe. Sealing wood with commercial paint such as latex gives the appearance of protection but that "rubber envelope" only seals one side which traps moisture inside the structure. This creates mold, mildew, rot, etc. I love milk paint and when used with a small percentage of tung oil thinned with real turpentine dries to a very durable semi-gloss finish. I learned about using milk paint on period furniture about 40 years ago from an "old guy" that built in the Early American style.
What I love about your videos is I always think "Oh, I know this information but it'll be nice to get a refresher with a Rex flair". Then, you show me stuff I didn't know, I get more of a "real world lens" rather than my stuffy books, and there's little tips along the way. Thanks for what you do.
I'm happy for the beetles. I reckon they would rather not be killed for a paint that can be made without animal products. Basically every study we have done, including on insects, has confirmed that living things can feel pain, terror, anger, betrayal, etc. Just saying.
@@d.w.stratton4078 and you work with wood, which also comes from a living organism, that supports a multitude of life, so every joinery project you do, has most probably killed thousands of insects already 🤷♀️ just saying
It’s funny how much you DON’T want to touch the curdled milk. The easiest way to separate with the curds from the way is put it in the muslin... wrap it up... squeeze.
Maybe i can share some of my experiences with linseed oil here, since i've done a lot of testing with it. I've experimented a lot with raw linseed oil (no additives whatsoever). And linseed oil really wants DIRECT sunlight, if you want it to dry quickly. In the summer one good day of direct sunlight can be enough to dry it. But it might also up to three days if you don't have direct sunlight. I've also added iron oxide as a pigment and it worked just fine as long as you put it into the sun. I also experimented with casein glues and because of that i also know how milk based paint turns out right. Basically if you use milk you want to use fat free milk, because the fat in the milk will give your paint a greasy feel. But actually you really don't want to go through the trouble of buying milk and isolating the casein, by adding some kind of acid. It's easier (especially with your bad experiences with curdled milk) to just buy casein. They sell this stuff to body builders and you want to get the unflavoured stuff without additives (calcium caseinate for example). To disolove the casein you need some kind of base. Calcium hydroxide (lime water) is quite traditional for this purpose. You mix it really well in the right ration with water and this basically gives a casein glue that is fairly water resistant, but you would use the glue as a base for your paint obviously. I've also successfully experimented with traditional violine varnishes consisting of just linseed oil and spruce resin (requires a whole process to produce the varnish and can be quite dangerous).
Rex, about 20 years ago, milk paint was a kind of obsessive subject on the old "hand tools mailing list", AKA The Porch. There were a bunch of recipes kicking around, and none of them called for curdled milk. I developed one that I used for a toy box for my kids. That toy box has lived on a screened porch for 20 years, has been kicked, knocked against, subjected to NJ winters and summers - and that paint will probably still be there to find by archeologists in 1000 years - it's stronger than the wood. If you're interested in the formula, let me know and I'd be happy to share it. You won't need a respirator... :D
Considering Rex doesn't even want to use the pre-made powder again, I think his main turn off is just how much work it takes to make and dial in the color you want. It's either spend a few hours trying to get a color you might like, or going to the store and getting the exact color you want in 15 min.
3 years late, but in case anyone is still interested... There's a recipe from the "Real Milk Paint Co." based in Tenessee that fits dinosilone's description. Two, in fact. Recipe one: Take 1 quart of skim milk and 1 ounce of hydrated lime (as in construction lime, NOT fruit). Slowly mix in milk into the lime until a paste forms. Once a paste forms, add the rest of the milk. Stir well, then add a lime-proof pigment. If the paint is too thin, add up to 2.5 pounds of chalk powder. Continue stirring the paint while applying it to the piece. Be sure to test before using on a large project, as the colour is likely to change while drying. Unused paint can be stored in the fridge. If the milk goes sour, throw out the paint. Recipe two: This is more weather resistant, apparently. It requires "dry curd cheese", which can be made (according to the recipe) by hanging cottage cheese to dry in a cheese cloth. Cottage cheese will still work, but might become smelly. Take 5 parts of dry curd cheese (cottage cheese, dried of cream and without flavouring) and 1 part hydrated or slaked lime. Mix water with lime to create a paste, and stir in the cheese well. Leave this mixture for a few hours to allow the cheese to dissolve completely. Thin with water, thicken with powdered skim milk until it reaches desired consistency. For an even finer paint, strain the paint through a fine cloth, such as an old stocking. I haven't tested either of these, but I wanted to know since I've been thinking of making my own paints for artistic purposes. Have fun!
Whaaaat, you didn't make your own pigment?! Really, Rex! No, just joking. Excellent and very funny video! Love what you do :^) And, yes, I've tried drinking old milk ... It took me off milk for a long, long time.
I recently completely renovated a large early 1950's box coffee table with two opening top leaves giving access to internal storage for a long established client of mine (over 20 years). It was well finished and proportioned but the actual timber was not attractive - and some of the unseen base frame joinery was obviously done by a new apprentice (very poorly cut dovetails and so on). Two coats of pastel chalk paint and a coat of wax transformed it into a beautiful piece of furniture that retains its traditional look but blends into a modern home. It has the typical period solidity of form, fine details, subdued tonal colour and waxed sheen that probably increases its value several times over. I am a furniture maker and carpenter of well over 40 years and I love clear finishes but my thought is 'if it's unattractive, paint it - sympathetically'.
About 35 years ago my wife and I were moving out of a rented flat and we needed to paint a room before handing back the keys. I only had white emulsion and the room was pink (this was the 1980s !). I mixed red food colouring into the white paint and painted the whole room. It looked AWFUL, so had to go out quickly and buy pink paint to repaint it the night before handing back the keys when I should have been packing. Never, ever use food colouring as a pigment!😁.
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it but heating the milk and vinegar will separate the curds faster and save you the time and a lot of the smell. It will separate within about 20 minutes completely.
If anyone else is looking to try making their own oil paint, you’ll probably want to look into a drying agent or alkyd rather than pure linseed oil. I use a walnut alkyd mixed with walnut oil for fine art paint (much higher pigment load and more paste like than fluid). A little of the alkyd goes a long way and adding more turps will get you faster drying as well. But artist paint is definitely a different kind of animal.
That’s beautiful Rex. That paint actually has a nice old sort of look to it. Nothing wrong with painted furniture IMHO. I just built us a small medicine cabinet for our meds and vitamins with a wallet/pocket contents cubby underneath and keys hooks below that for near the back door in our kitchen. My wife wanted it painted to match our white vintage kitchen cabinets. Looks like it’s been in the room for 75 years. Lovely.
Your a real treasure Rex. Love everything your doing here. A real inspiration, a genuine man and loving Dad. Everyone can see that. Salutations good Sir!!!
Thanks for another fun and informative video, Rex. Something I like to do to add that touch of color to my wood projects is to use thinned water based acrylic paints. The color intensity can be adjusted by adding more or less water and you can still see the grain. Thanks for helping to keep us shut-ins sane.
Not something I ever considered and now it is something I won't consider ever again. Thanks again Rex, saved me a whole load of potential misery and as always, good video. Totally unique take on things!
Gotta be honest, I'd never go near curdled milk myself. I did make "paint" myself a few times, though it was more of a stain. Paint pigments were ridiculously expensive for the amount you get, so I just picked up some powdered fabric dyes & they work exactly the same way. Mix with a little oil & some shellac flakes (pre-mixed with alcohol) & it comes out very well. The only problem is that the alcohol evaporates almost instantly so you have to keep it in something airtight with an easy open/close lid & do it on a cool day.
Awesome! Heh, I used to work for a paint manufacturing company a while back. The chemisty that goes into commercial paint is... very involved. They have an entire team of chemists working on various formulations, always trying to make every aspect of the paint better.
I’m sending this to my wife to prove to her that we do NOT want to make our own paint! I’m sure that is on her list! Thanks for the great video as usual and keep up the awesome work!
One of the beauties of traditional milk paint is how easy it is to touch up and how it develops a patina with use. You really don't need to add shellac.
Mark Bernier I love Old Fashion Milk Paint and agree with your ease of touch up and patina comments to which I would add the following...one person’s patina is another person’s dirty. Raw milk paint absorbs grease/oil and darkens (even water will create a stain that cant be removed, only covered up). In a kitchen, splatters of cooking oil or high use areas like around handles/knobs will begin to look dingy/dirty. Patina vs dirty is a matter of personal taste. Applying wax, oil, solvent based poly, shellac (as Rex did), etc. are all ways of sealing the paint against this happening but at the cost of darkening the chosen color by several shades. If you like the original color there is one finish that will seal without changing the color...water based clear polyurethane. It can be brushed on but is best applied by spraying. Hope this helps.
Dude you're insane and awesome. I've always wondered how to make my own paint but have never been bothered to research myself. Though, I make quick cheeses all the time as a cook. It shouldnt be smelly, its curdled not spoiled.
A few years ago, I made all of the cabinets in our kitchen, and I did like you said: I only did natural finish. But they were too dark and you couldn't see the panel rise and bead that I worked really hard on (and was more than a little proud of). So I went and got some dark green semi-gloss that was similar to the granite counter tops and just painted the rail and center panel of the cabinet doors. It really accented them beautifully and brought it all together.
Really beautiful work, Rex! Nicely done!!! 😃 You almost made cheese there from the look of the milk! 😂 (I used to make cheese with my mother when I was a kid! 😃) Stay safe there with your family! 🖖😊
I entirely agree with your decision to use paint more often on furniture. In the near future I’ll be making a decent amount of mounding and furniture, and I’ll try the same thing. Thanks for the fantastic video/series!
Excellent video: I didn’t know we’re going to learn how to make paint AND ricotta cheese :D I didn’t know how milk paint is made, but now that I do, I’m not surprised. Violin makers sometimes use casein powder as a ground on bare wood. I assume the shellac didn’t dissolve any of the paint, right? I also liked your introduction (as always)! I applaud your approach and your decision :D
Milk paint is basically casein paint, which I only know about because the Dinotopia guy James Gurney uses it a lot for his paintings. It’s like gouache but waterproof when it dries.
Dude, you crack me up! The whole curdled milk story had me rolling! Looking forward to the cabinet build video. I'm thinking about building a dining room hutch and I'm certain to learn something from you about case construction.
One trick I learned somewhere is if you need to make something wood black, instead of painting it, dye it with India Ink. It subtly allows the grain to show, but gives you a deep, deep dark color, without near the flaking and chipping paint can have. Also much smoother.
I only know how to dye eggs for Easter. You just boil it with onion skin (the brown one) and they will take deep red colour. I guess you can do that for woodworking, but you have to cut a lot of onions to collect enough. I guess you can also colect or make rust and grind it really thin to make a red ochre too?
i dye most of my projects in one way or another (I'm primarily a luthier) leather dye is amazing on woods, and it can be cut with either alcohol or water depending on the brand/ type. another great bit of fun is adding leather dye to shellac and putting that on over black. i did a peacock colour themed body that looks black until light hits it.
Milk and vinegar ... You just made Cottage (or Farmer's) Cheese. If you had used lemon juice ... Ricotta Cheese! Seriously. Look it up! You may have had better success, though, if you had used whole milk. Less whey and more curds! Great video, as always! Keep up the great work!
Skimmed is the best for milk paint. Skimmed has the fats and some proteins filtered out, leaving all the casein, which is the only bit you need for milk paint.
Excellent, making your own paint is one of stupid ideas I would come up with at 1am after trawling the internet, you've stopped me ever following through on that one at least. :D Now, back to work on my homemade wooden shower curtain I go.
I don't think it was a waste of time even if you have decided you don't want to do it again. In any new attempt, I learn a lot that may apply in very oblique ways to future things I do. For instance in your case, you learned to keep pigment around and now you can change the colors of pre-made paint in subtle ways with them. AND you learned that you appreciate painted wood more than you realized. And you overcame your curdled milk phobia--a bit. And BTW, the color and texture of the finished project is really lovely. So, not a waste no matter what others may say about how you "should have done it this or that way."
if you put linseed paint in direct sun for 24-48h its solid dry if you introduce some shellac its more solid, and resin and ash makes it even more solid, and drier in form of metal salts like zinc, cobalt, copper (preferably in form of ready made kerosine compounds) makes sure that it stays solid, cause in dark and wet oil can reverse its polymerization unless some sicative is mixed in in casein based paints its good to use something to alkalize mixture cause casein polymerizes only in alkaline solution, can be lime, can be baking soda or borax, and to build body of paint is good to ad some kaolin there is also next option that starts somewhere around eggs and is called tamper...
oil paint is really that simple, instead of mixing you have to mechanically rub the pigment with the least amount oil possible (a drop of thinner helps), and apply oil primer and topcoat. Not different from artist paint available in tubes. The beatuy of it is, one isnt dependent on the premixed cans and a little bit mixed goes a long way. also excellent on (rusty) metal or wood outdoors. iron and manganese containing pigments also speed up drying. Oil paint is supposed to be a paste not brush able without thinning it down first, having too much oil just retards the drying from a day to weeks
I don't blame you, I wouldn't make my own paint either. I do think that painted projects have advantages over stained one though. If the finish is damaged it can easily be repaired and if the wood is less than perfect it can be covered up with a coat of paint and never be seen. Thanks for sharing this.
Hey Rex really nice video, to be fair all your videos are well put, nice, informative... excellent I mean, To your knowledge I become addicted to your content, and I want last week's video, now😛. Stay safe and keep going
I've used stains and thinned paint as a stain in the past. A few years ago I got into a thinned pine tar kick after reading about how the Finnish used it on their rifles in the Winter war period. Milk paint and Milk glue newer interested me until I saw you using shellac to seal and protect it. Thanks for the idea.
Based on your mixing jar, I like your taste in ice cream. Seriously though, where do you come up with this? I never thought I’d be entertained so much learning about making paint. You could also look into making tempura paint which is based in egg yolks and supposed to be really durable.
It's your project. Finish it how you want. I liked how it turned out. Personally, I'm not above using store-bought myself. But, I might try milk paint from a pouch myself someday.
I read that milk paint is not toxic and depending on the pigments it can be used for children's toys and stuff that gets constantly handled. I'll definitly take a look
I want paint for papier mâché and découpage projects that I can later compost; so as far as I know at this point, I have to make my own. Basically I've been repurposing boxes from Costco and now I want to make them more attractive. They last quite awhile, but not forever, and certainly not if damaged. Even further, though, is that I have design plans for my bedroom: to turn it into a redwood faerie ring (at least in appearance). I want all my failures to not be toxic waste, and for that matter when it's time to change the decor or sell the house or whatever, I'd prefer not sending a truckload of crap to the dump when it could be turned instead into compost. All that rambling said, I'd be thrilled to find paint and finish candidates that are not so diy; but they also would have to be inexpensive-I live paycheck to paycheck. So thank you for the video. I've learned from it. :)
Chop the curd, put it in the cheesecloth, tie the cheesecloth in a knot with a rope (tied together, not around) then go someplace you want people to stay away from and spin it in a circle. Cuts about 20 hours out of the draining. So, in an act of fair time you should create a metal oxide stain by hand. Don't worry, it won't stink anywhere near as bad.
It's really important to wear a respirator when working with dry pigment. Many contain heavy metals and other toxic chemicals that can cause neurological damage and very sick. Also -- It's interesting and cool that we can make paint from scratch, but making high-quality paint from scratch isn't really worth the effort IMHO. Better off getting a nice paint brush and good paint. Great vid as usual. Thanks, Rex!
Last weekend I went to home box store and bought two 36 in wall cabinets. While the finish on them are nice, I didn’t like how they were constructed. I considered using a French clear to mount to ass drength. But didn’t because the wall was warped.
Yeah, I'm gonna skip making paint. The pre-made mix though looks interesting. Storing a bunch of packets looks much easier than a bunch of cans. Do they make dry stain packets as well?
great video, did you consider using a gesso? if you mix whiting with rabbit skin glue - you can apply and reapply until it's thick, then sand very good for carving it fills small imperfections really upping the finish.
Very interesting. I have played around with making my own stains, but never paint. The milk paint is really using the casein from the milk. You don't need the milk-fats at all. You can buy casein powder from lots of places, including health food stores. My guess is that the "pre-made" powdered paint was primarily a mix of casein powder and pigment powder. I will probably try making my own "milk paint" from casein powder and inexpensive pigments from sources like the mega-cheap-dollar-store makeup kits. We'll see how it goes.
if you're really going to make paint, you have to make the pigment too. Shellac can also be made from dry flakes. Oil base paint can take a very long time to dry, if it ever does. Some old master's oil paintings still have paint that isn't totally dry because it was painted over and the top layer dried but the underneath didn't thoroughly dry, which does take years to happen, or it can depends on how the paint was made and out of what. try using alcohol...when you can get it... as the carrier. it dries quickly. I suppose denatured alcohol would do the trick. um for milk paint, why not start with the milk curds of cottage cheese? Basically it's curdled milk with most of the water removed.
"Paint is a great way to hide your making sins" - Adam Savage (okay, I made that up, but I am sure he has said something close enough at some point). Not sure about milk paint or other more translucent paints closer to a stain, but thicker opaque paints can set entirely different moods to your work that you just can't get with translucent paints, stains and uncolored wood. Not because they're superior, but simply because they're different down to their texture both visual and tactile. Anyway I've ran my mouth again, fantastic job on that cabinet!
Great job Rex, I like the way it turned out. The next time you make paint from scratch, I suggest that you...oh wait, you said that you are NEVER going to make your own paint again. Never mind then...
The way I understand it, when paint was introduced everyone jumped for joy because they could have more color in their lives. And not just the darkish wood tones all over the place. Just as you described. I think this was after the pioneer or frontier times here in the US. (I'm thinking ... Ben Franklin - yes; Daniel Boone - no.) Stay safe. -Mike
Formica and MDF (referred to just as "fiberboard" or "fibreboard" when it was popular) were similarly revolutionary because of what they allowed. A hard, durable, colorful spill-resistant surface for kitchen counters and workstations, and a type of material that could be sculpted without worry about the grain. A fair few old 1920s-30s houses still have MDF panelling cut in interesting shapes.
when it comes to paint - the better quality the brushes, the better the finish. ... or just load it up in a sprayer ( not sure if milk paint will spray, but hey, give it a shot...)
The only reason I would sour milk like that would be to make quesa fresca, which is good crumbled on tacos and enchiladas with a little cilantro. Thanks for the tip about the milk paint. I have a kotatsu I'm finishing that will be painted.
