A paint question

[Experten]

Hello all,
I have a quick question. I am wanting to do some gold trim on a paint job. I
use Interlux Topside Urathanes, and I am wondering if there is a good gold
enamel that will have good adhesion. I build and restore Wood and Canvas
canoes, and am getting ambitious in my paint schemes.

Mark

[Nicholas Carey]

"Experten" <expe...@aol.com> wrote...

You might want to consider gilding it [with real
gold leaf] rather than painting it. Gilding will
last much longer [A properly gilded finish can
last for centuries!] than will metallic enamel.
Metallic enamels contain metal flakes which
corrode fairly quickly and lose its luster.

Oil gilding -- the gilding technique used for
stuff outdoors, like signs -- is fairly simple and
straightforward. Basically, you paint what is to
be gilded with size (specialized sticky varnish)
and allow it to tack up and get the right amount
of sticky. Then you take your patent leaf (paper-
backed leaf) and with your your gilder's tip,
pick up the leaf and lay it down in the size.
when the size is dry, you can burnish it with a
soft cotton ball. Then you studiously don't
varnish over the leaf -- if you varnish over it
the varnish will yellow over time. Removal of the
old varnish will trash the leaf underneath. That,
in a nutshell is pretty much all there is to it.
At least, in all the detail one can muster in a
single paragraph!

Patent gold leaf and size is available from art
supply stores and sign painter suppliers in a
variety of differnt karat weights. Establishments
catering to sign painters will probably have
patent gold leaf in the form of tape of different
widths -- probably the most convenient form for
doing trim on a boat.

Easyleaf (http://www.easyleaf.com/) sells leaf,
size, gilding tools, as well as books and videos.

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/sog97/ -- the society
of gilders has a bunch of stuff about gilding as
well.

Hope this helps!

N.
--

[jax...@together.net]

Everything above is correct, however, if you do use real gold and a
varnish size, use interlux super spar 90 or some similar varnish. It has
better "tack" than the so called specialized "size" and is more readily
available. Adjust the tack time by adding slight amounts of linseed oil.
Also, while the real gold leaf may sound like over kill and really
expensive, in fact it is not. The cost is really minimal compared to
doing a shoddy job with fake metallic gold paint. There really is no
comparison.
If you don't want to go with the real gold, my suggestion is to use
gold "colored" paint. This is really a sort of yellow ochre color
and is not metallic. It is suprising how close this can look to real
gold and is much better looking than the fake metallic paint.
Sign painters often use One Shot brand sign lettering enamel ( there is
one called imitation gold) for this. Available at better art supply
stores.
If you have any questions about laying the gold let me know, Ive done a
ton of it and would be happy to offer any other tips.
Also, the book by Ray Leblanc called Gold Leaf Techniques is probably
the best source of info for laying the real stuff.
Steve Jackson

[Jim Conlin]

There used to be a gold paint in Interlux's enamel line. It hasn't been on their
color cards for a while, but a phone call might help.
It tarnished pretty quiclky when exposed to salt water. When covered with a clear
LPU (Polythane), it was OK

Experten wrote:

> Hello all,

> I have a quick question. I am wanting to do some gold trim on a paint job. I
> use Interlux Topside Urathanes, and I am wondering if there is a good gold
> enamel that will have good adhesion. I build and restore Wood and Canvas
> canoes, and am getting ambitious in my paint schemes.
>

> Mark