Flake white . . . mull your own?

[Richard Bingham]

When I was learning how to paint, Dutch Boy White Lead was still a paint-store staple, for painting houses and making putty. My dad (and many other painters we knew) liked it for priming canvas, and used it on the palette as well. When I was in school, I found two 50# tubs of it in a local paintstore on close-out. That was nearly forty years ago, and between us, used out of that stock for nearly thirty years. By then, as you might imagine, I was pretty used to it as a studio "staple".

As true flake white (basic lead carbonate) continues to disappear from common use, and as even ten years ago, the lead whites that were available were not to my liking, I began mulling my own lead white.

It's a small chore, and it does take time away from the easel, but the effort is worth it to me, and I have succeeded in replicating the handling character of the old canned lead white.

One problem is to guage the amount of material, so that you can fill a large tube without waste. I use the following proportions:

400 grams of white lead, mulled into 62 grams of black oil fills one large studio-size tube. I work the pigment and oil first with a large palette knife, then use a muller and slab. I like to have the mass set overnight, then mull again before tubing.

Whiting (calcium carbonate) can be an interesting additive for lead white, it increases transparency and promotes a loopy, ropey texture. Of course it's not necessary to mull in black oil, any good quality linseed oil will yield excellent paint.

[Allan Rahbek]

Thanks Richard,

It is a problem to get the Flake White in my country because somebody think that I eat it, or something

I will try to make some lead white powder following an old recipe. It should be quite simple since it has been done for thousand of years.

I have to go now, it's late, but I will follow up on this tomorrow.

[Allan Rahbek]

Lead white powder has been made for more than 2000 years and basically the same way.

You take a thin sheat of lead and roll it loosely to fit into a ceramic pot. The buttom of the ceramic pot is filled with vinegar or acetic acid and the lead roll stand on something so that it don't dip into the vinegar.

The vapour from the vinegar attack the lead and erode it. To promote the process the ceramic pot is placed into a heap of farmyard manure that will produce heat around 40 - 50 degrees Celcius for 4 - 6 weeks. The manure also produces carbon acid that helps the eroding process.

This process was going on in big scale with many pots and in small rooms so that the acid could work on the lead.
The lead will turn into white powder and only a thin core of lead will be left.

What we need is: lead, ceramic pot, acetic acid / vinegar, carbon acid, heat 50 degrees and a box around 1 cubic meter.

Any suggestions?

[Richard Bingham]

Rather than a sheet, thick wire was looped in a loose spiral, or "buckles" of lead were formed and suspended. This increases the surface area. I'm no chemist, but I think what is formed is lead acetate, which was referred to as "sugar of lead" because of its crystalline structure. Many of the ancient caveats regarding which pigments discolor and fail, or which cannot be mixed with lead white originated because of the acidic nature of lead whites prepared this way. I believe what you outline was known as the "Dutch process". Kremnitz white owes its name to the variations on the process that were employed in that middle-European city.

The "buckles" need to be scraped of the efflorescence of "white lead", and the precipitate washed thoroughly, then pulverized before mulling. Working this process will expose you to possible absorption of lead in a way that painting at the easel with lead white never would, so be very careful handling the material, so that you don't breathe the dust. Wear protective gloves too..

Although I have a 25# brick of lead, this is going deeper into the problem than I'd care to. I sure wish you could simply obtain dry pigment, Allan. Good luck!

PS- no problem obtaining plenty of manure, though! . . . ha ha ha.

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Richard Bingham

PS- no problem obtaining plenty of manure . . . ha ha ha.

I can see my self standing in it, to my knee's, trying to make fine art.

I imagine that I can find or make an isolated box or maybe I can place the system beside my heater. I have an oil burner in a separate room with a rather high temperature. I think that I will try that first to see how it works.

Then there is the problem with the smell of vinegar, but maybe it is not that bad.

The final factor, adding Carbon Acid, can be overcome with a small fermentation system. The gas from the fermentation is Carbon Acid that can be lead into the pot via a tube.

I don't have to fill the house with manure then

I imagine that I can take the lead under water to brush the powder of. I will be very carefull when I handle the lead.

It's great troubble to find out how to do it the first time, but I think that it is simple to do again later.

I will not be able to buy lead powder anywhere around here, so I will have to keep a high spirit for my self.

[Carlos Ygoa]

Allan,

If I am not mistaken I can buy white lead pigment in the place I buy my calcium carbonate and other pigments. I think. I have heard they sell it in pigment form because in paint form (Flake White, Cremnitz White or any other name it comes in) it is also prohibited (funny how our laws can be sometimes). If I can procure some, would there be a problem for it coming into customs of Denmark? Or do we also have to place them in small packets and hide them in tissue boxes or underneath coffee ground?

[Allan Rahbek]

Originally Posted by Carlos Ygoa

Allan,

If I can procure some, would there be a problem for it coming into customs of Denmark?

Carlos,
thank you for being so helpful, but I am afraid that there would be a problem with customs.
I asked my Artist Materials Shop if they could get some Flake White from W& N in England, they ordered it, but got the measage that W& N was not allowed to send it into Denmark.

I am not optimistic about the costums.

A few years ago I bought some Litharge (Yellow Lead powder) at the local pharmacy. I have used it to cook Black Oil.
Maybe I should ask them about White Lead Powder, it won't hurt.

Othervice I think that I have found out how to make my own Lead Powder in an uncomplicated way, I even got some pieces of ordinary lead foil/plates, so that should not be a problem.

[Richard Bingham]

Allan, I'm really wishing there was a way to send you white lead pigment. I'm sure before long, it will become unavailable in the USA too, so looking ahead, I bought a sizeable quantity, and I feel like some kind of miser. I'd gladly share with you, if I could just send it without red-tape. With all the concerns of terrorism and drug trafficking, it surely wouldn't do to tempt the authorities with contraband pigments!! (Honest, officer . . . it's not cocaine . . . too heavy! See? - Hey! Put down that gun!)

It just occurred to me that depending on what you're using for a source of lead to make your own might not be pure lead ? For example, automobile wheel weights and fishing sinkers are usually alloyed with some zinc, sometimes tin and antimony too. I don't know how that would affect the reaction.

Do you happen to know the wherefore of the reaction that results in lead carbonate? Reaction with the acetic acid in vinegar will make lead acetate, I'm sure . . . yet this is how the "old masters" did it . . .

[Allan Rahbek]

Richard, thanks, I'm afraid of guns too

The lead that I have is a roll of plumbers lead, it's soft. I am not very knowledgeable about chemistry, so I have no way of knowing the contend of the lead but I suspect that it is fairly clean lead.

The vinegar is not a very strong acid and I guess that it erodes the lead because the lead is basic. It will take 4 - 6 weeks before the sufficient ammount of powder is formed.

I found the recipy in an old Danish encyclopedia and figured out how it should be made with the possibility's that we have now a day's.

My plan is to get a large plastic bucket + a smaller one to place inside it. This small one I will place the lead and vinegar into. I will make holes in small squares of lead and hang them on a stainless steel string resting on the top of the small bucket, so that the lead is hanging over the vinegar.
I will place a lid on the large bucket and conduct the carbon acid, from the fermentation, into it.

And cross my fingers

[Ant Carlos]

Hi Alan.

Please, after you start the process let us know what's going on, will you? I am always curious about chemistry. Especially when it comes to pigments.

Good luck.

Ant