Acrylic Paints, does it matter?

[WoodysWorkshop]

I recently received a little bit from SS, no where what I should have. I've got a lot of projects to get finished up.

Bottom line is I can't afford the stuff from the leather stores.

Amazon has a 18 color, 2 oz bottles for about the same as 2 bottles from the leather store.

The Brand is Apple Barrel.

As long as it's acrylic paint I WANT to assume that it will work. I know it will probably need thinned a bit, which is good it last longer. And I want to do some fading anyways.

Everything will get covered with several coats of Super Sheen.

I finished one the knife sheaths with poster paints and super sheen melted the paint. What a mess.

Any help (or donations) is welcome.

Thank You Kindly,

John

[fredk]

It does matter ~ a bit

Acrylic is just the paint pigment. There are three carriers used; water, alcohol and lacquer.

Depending on what dye you are using the paint will or will not react with it.

Say you use standard Feibings Acrylic dye; this can be diluted with alcohol thus an alcohol based paint will mix with the dye even though it may have dried. So you need to put a non-alcohol based barrier on before the paint or accept this and just build up the colour with multiple thin coats of paint.

A lacquer acrylic paint will not react with an alcohol based dye - if put on in thin coats, heavy coats will react badly

Check any water based acrylic paints carefully as I've come across many that are actually not. When dry acrylic paints should be water resistant, only soluble in their original carrier in the case of alcohol and lacquer paints and alcohol in the case of water based paints. Poster paints are not an acrylic even tho I've seen some advertised as such. They always remain water soluble. But there is a trick to change that.

Super Sheene is alcohol based and will soften and mix with applied paint. It is best sprayed on in light coats

I use acrylic paints meant for plastic modellers, eg Humbrol, Revell, Vallejo, Games Workshop, Tamiya  and many others.

 

[paloma]

I only use acrylic paint for finishing the edges of ALL my leather work it works very well,with the price of a " special pro specialist leather paint edge finishing " of 10cl  ( 3,38 oz ) i can re-paint my living room!  they think we're hams.!

they think we're stupid. ( The translator choose "stupid" but i would write something...)

But everyone is free to do what they want

Edited November 12, 2019 by paloma

[WoodysWorkshop]

Well Fred, the Apple Barrel says it easy clean up with soap and water. I've got a couple colors in Tandy's Cova colors and I have not had a problem.

So far, Tandy products is all I have used since they were ready available to me while I was still working. Now that they are mail order only for me, I've been watching videos from Weaver.

So far, he's only dip dyed anything he's worked on, and I am a little more colorful and customized than that. I use to do custom auto painting and air brushing, brush pin stripping, etc.

It's been a good many years since I've done any of that but I like my things to be colorful. I just can't afford enough Cova Colors to get where I need to be right now. Someday maybe, but not right now.

I'll order a Quart of Tandy's Super Sheen because I know how it will turn out.

I've also buried quite a bit in painted leather in epoxy making custom inserts for lock back and liner lock knives. Works good for a sealer before Epoxy.

If the Apple Barrel paints don't work out, maybe I'll take painting pictures for a while. I can always sell my leather working tools to buy canvas', hahaha

[chuck123wapati]

1 hour ago, WoodysWorkshop said:

Well Fred, the Apple Barrel says it easy clean up with soap and water. I've got a couple colors in Tandy's Cova colors and I have not had a problem.

So far, Tandy products is all I have used since they were ready available to me while I was still working. Now that they are mail order only for me, I've been watching videos from Weaver.

So far, he's only dip dyed anything he's worked on, and I am a little more colorful and customized than that. I use to do custom auto painting and air brushing, brush pin stripping, etc.

It's been a good many years since I've done any of that but I like my things to be colorful. I just can't afford enough Cova Colors to get where I need to be right now. Someday maybe, but not right now.

I'll order a Quart of Tandy's Super Sheen because I know how it will turn out.

I've also buried quite a bit in painted leather in epoxy making custom inserts for lock back and liner lock knives. Works good for a sealer before Epoxy.

If the Apple Barrel paints don't work out, maybe I'll take painting pictures for a while. I can always sell my leather working tools to buy canvas', hahaha

Buy one bottle and give it a try, from what I know of acrylics, I paint in oils and acrylics both,  is they are mostly the same, its the amount of pigment that make them better or worse quality. I've used them on leather with no problems.  Also you could read the msds sheets for both and see what is really in them or what the difference is.

[WoodysWorkshop]

I bought the 18 colors pack in 2oz bottles. They shrink up just like the expensive leather store brands. It does take 2 coats to get a good coverage, or dab it on really thick the first time around.

Since I do a lot of blending and shading I don't have to thin them with water as much to get the desired effects.

The only thing I wish I would have realized when I ordered them is that they came in matte finish. I was really looking for a gloss finish like the leather store brands.

Super sheen over the top doesn't bother them a bit, and you get a rather unique difference in appearance than putting super sheen over gloss. I rather like it, it's different.

The Apple Barrel Brands also comes in a 16 colors pack in gloss. They a bit more expensive, but still cheaper than the leather store brands. Especially Fieblings!

I did order some Cova Colors that were on sale from Tandy, but they wouldn't ship them! Because of the time of the year here in Michigan they said they don't ship anything that "Could" freeze in the shipping process.

So I had to have my order picked up by someone, and it took 3 weeks for them to get the stuff to me.

There is several other brands that make Acrylic Paints. I will probably try some of them, but some are even more expensive than the leather store brands!

They all fall under the owner of Plaid. If you go to their web site you can find all kinds of Acrylics and Enamels in both liquids and paste type like painter use. They also have a wide variety of other finishing stuff.

I ordered some Mod Podge from Amazon with my paints as I was doing a coaster set and I wanted a really thick finish on them. And the Mod Podge is dish washer safe, so I knew hot drinks wouldn't ruin the coasters.

There is some other stuff called Triple thick which I almost bought, but it wasn't totally water proof or dish washer safe. It was cheaper, but I passed it up.

Any time I try some new paints or finish I'll post it here. I know probably most of you's won't venture from the name brands, but I have always been to step out of the box and try something different.

On the coasters I finished in 6 coats of Mod Podge, it actually acted like a small amount of magnification which really brought out some fine details I struggled with under my lighted magnifying light I did it with.

I wouldn't use that stuff on much of anything else but coasters...probably. But one may never know what idea's I can come up with.

One thing I really need right now is a couple of mauls. I'm looking for a 1 lb and 2 lb, and the only thing I can find is way more than I will spend.

China makes several in the 10 to 12 oz range for less than $10. I'll probably order one of those for the very small stamps.

It just seams to me that someone should figure out that they could sell a lot more mauls in the $15 range in the 1lb & 2lb.

I can't see spending $100 for a stacked leather handled maul! The handle will take maintenance in itself, and that's something I don't want to spend time on.

Give a sleeve of Polyethylene or nylon over stainless steel over a wood handle in several weights and keep them under $20!