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Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Adding Kerosene to Paint


By Jim Hingst

You may have heard that you can add kerosene to lettering enamel as a thinner. Back in the day when most signs were painted, painters added all types of things to their paint. Some of these practices were secrets of the trade. Other practices, including adding kerosene to paint, could be problematic.

Kerosene was at one time known as coal oil, because it was distilled from coal and oil shale. That was an expensive way to make the solvent. Today kerosene is distilled from petroleum.

What makes this solvent different from other solvents is that it dries slowly -- slower than any other solvent that artists and sign makers usually use. Because of this slow drying property, some of the old timers have added it to lettering enamels and other oil paints when painting or pinstriping in really hot weather.

If you are tempted to give it a try, a word of caution would be in order. Limit the amount that you use to very little. How much? Generally, add no more than a teaspoon to a gallon of paint. Adding more than that could spell trouble. Here’s what can happen. Kerosene takes a long time to evaporate, which allows a painter sufficient open time when temperatures are high. If you add too much, it may take forever and a day for the paint to dry.

Do not add kerosene to water based paints, such as acrylics or latex paints. The reason is that the kerosene could very likely cause the failure of the paint to adhere to the substrate. Only use kerosene, if you must, with oil based paints. Kerosene also has a strong, objectionable odor.

Fine artists and decorative artists have also use kerosene as a paint additive when mixing up glazes. The reason kerosene is used is twofold. First, it increases the open time of the glaze. Secondly, because kerosene is a hot solvent, it can improve intercoat adhesion between layers of glazes.

While I would hate to discourage experimentation, if you need to retard the drying of paint, there are better alternatives to use than kerosene. Thinning lettering enamel with a high temperature reducer made by the paint manufacturer makes more sense in my mind. Turpentine and mineral spirits (also called white spirits in the UK) are also better choices for thinning paint.

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About Jim Hingst: After fourteen years as Business Development Manager at RTape, Jim Hingst retired. He was involved in many facets of the company’s business, including marketing, sales, product development and technical service.

Hingst began his career 42 years ago in the graphic arts field creating and producing advertising and promotional materials for a large test equipment manufacturer.  Working for offset printers, large format screen printers, vinyl film manufacturers, and application tape companies, his experience included estimating, production planning, purchasing and production art, as well as sales and marketing. In his capacity as a salesman, Hingst was recognized with numerous sales achievement awards.

Drawing on his experience in production and as graphics installation subcontractor, Hingst provided the industry with practical advice, publishing more than 150 articles for  publications, such as  Signs Canada, SignCraft,  Signs of the Times, Screen Printing, Sign and Digital Graphics and  Sign Builder Illustrated. He also posted more than 400 stories on his blog (hingstssignpost.blogspot.com). In 2007 Hingst’s book, Vinyl Sign Techniques, was published.  Vinyl Sign Techniques is available at sign supply distributors and at Amazon. 

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© 2016 Jim Hingst


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