Denatured Alcohol

[Red Cent]

Research shows that "rubbing alcohol" is ethanol. "Alcohol" is a term used these days that cover a broad spectrum of alcohols. Denatured alcohol is ethanol/alcohol with additives. There are a number of additives combined with alcohol to produce vomiting, retching, or other action that dissuade people from drinking the alcohol. Why do you use denatured alcohol for thinning dyes or cleaning tools? Unless I am missing something, why buy it?

[dirtclod]

Because denatured works and regular rubbing alcohol dosen't or it didn't work when i tried it.

[Northmount]

Buy Methyl Hydrate at your paint/lumber store. Low cost, 1 gallon / 4L size. Works well for thinning alcohol based dyes.

Tom

[Red Cent]

methanol.

[TexasJack]

Oh, I knew that degree in chemistry would come in handy one day....

Methanol is the simplest alcohol and only has one carbon. It's sometimes called "wood alcohol" and it's toxic.

Ethanol has 2 carbons and is the alcohol that you find in whiskey and beer. Because you find it in drinks, it is regulated by the U.S. Treasury Department's Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms Division ("The Revenuers") and is subject to a steep tax. To get around that tax, ethanol is often made toxic by adding methanol and the mixture is referred to as "denatured alcohol". You can't boil the methanol out of the ethanol, so it's undrinkable. During Prohibition, quite a few people were permanently blinded by drinking denatured alcohol sold to them as moonshine. So now they add other stuff to it to make it bitter and (sometimes) to make you vomit to reduce the number of poisonings.

Isopropyl alcohol has 3 carbons and is the classic rubbing alcohol you keep in your medicine cabinet. It usually has a lot of water added to it, which is why it's not always a great solvent to use with oil-based dyes.

Methanol and ethanol are both pretty good solvents. Methanol is a bit more volatile (evaporates quicker), and that can be a bit of a drawback in using it, as well as being more toxic (including the fumes). Both light alcohols are very flammable, so be careful.

[TexasJack]

methanol

ethanol

Edited February 25, 2014 by TexasJack

[Studio-N]

As I understood it, denatured is free of any salts.

[TexasJack]

As I understood it, denatured is free of any salts.

You did not read my post. Denature, according to Merriam-Webster:

to deprive of natural qualities : change the nature of: as to make (alcohol) unfit for drinking (as by adding an obnoxious substance) without impairing usefulness for other purposes

Buy Methyl Hydrate at your paint/lumber store. Low cost, 1 gallon / 4L size. Works well for thinning alcohol based dyes.

Tom

Methyl hydrate is another term for methanol. Same stuff.

[benlilly1]

Thanks for the chemistry lesson Texas Jack...I just learned a lot!

Edited February 26, 2014 by benlilly1

[electrathon]

So is it good or bad to have more carbons? Is isopropyl or methanol better for thinning? You can buy 90 percent isopropyl if you look for it. Which one is a better solvent for leather dye?