shoe polish?

[smays]

I have only used chinese white one time.... but why doesnt regular old shoe polish work...or that stuff you can buy for decorating yur car windows, its non toxic. Is there a downfall to that stuff. It sticks really well and is kind of an opeque color on metal. I havent cut it yet but did test it to see if you could draw on it. It worked so far. Just wondering why all the concoctions for something other than chinese white.

 

[Tim Wells]

Because Chinese white can be a pain to get on like you want it every time. I am using it now and forcing myself to get the hang of it, you know the right amount of water, slobber, whatever and the right thickness and tint to the plate. It doesn't need to be "white" it just needs to be gray to kill the glare and take a pencil mark. If you get it on there completely white it's probably too thick.

 

[ron p. nott]

you can also use damar varnish , apply a light coat with your finger and then let is tack dry and then do your pencil work on that .. ron p.

 

[monk]

take this to the bank: a 50 / 50 mixture-- white liquid shoe polish like the nurses use. mix with the old
style mucilage glue that comes in the bottle with the rubber top with the slit in it. no runs, drips, errors, or flakes !

 

[hmw]

I have in the past when I was in a pinch used a can of cheap gray primer. Let it dry good and go over it with 0000 steel wool , you can draw and erase, and make cuts with out it flaking off . When I am thru, take it outside and spray it off with starting fluid.

 

[Dulltool]

I've been using a very old tin of Chinese white that I found in my Grandfathers engraving stuff. He passed away in the mid 1960's and most of his stuff (I inherited it all) was from the 1920's late 1950's. I find it way cool that I am using the same tin that still has his DNA (spit) in it. Every time I wet my finger tip and dip it in I think of him.
Remember that old WWII movie "A guy named Joe" ..... I would like to think Gramp's is helping me guide my graver. Come to think of it, my one and only son (age 6) is named Joe... Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

Dennis

 

[Powderhorn]

Dulltool:
I would have second thoughts about dipping your finger, White that old could contain lead oxide.

 

[Ken Hurst]

MONK, don't forget to add BB's to the bottle so that it will mix well when shaken. Ken

 

[monk]

thanks a heap, buddy ! i'll pull a few outta that special container atop my shoulder! actually i put a glass marble in the bottle. works good. i actually like this better than the windsor & newton. i now have enough to cover the side of a small barn.

 

[vanknife]

Chinese White

Good day to all,
I did not know Chinese white until i got interrested in engraving about a year ago, I asked the local art shop in town Jeddah Saudi Arabia (Only working here on contract) if they would have Chinese white and he presented me a small tube of the stuff Manufactured by Windsor & Newton, it is quite thick paste but the concistency works good for me. I agree if one apply it to thick it will flake but a thin layer just to tone the metal to a gray color is perfect and it takes a soft pencil without a problem.


As they say only my two cents.

Cheers
"VAN"

 

[Cody]

I tied chinese white once or twice. Don't know where the little cake got to but I don't miss it. Likely never gave it a real chance. If I'm going to draw directly on the metal, I just dab the surface with a piece of while plasticene (modeling clay). Takes a pencil line quite well, is easy to correct but is not at all durable. Just touch it and the design is gone. Just gotta be careful

 

[Tom Curran]

I think Chinese white is just titanium dioxide. It comes in a little rectangular cake, like a teenie bar of soap. It's just watercolor paint.

I could be wrong.......

if I knew any nurses, I'd try out the Monk White.

Imagination is a terrible thing.

Tom