Home Forums Explore Media Printmaking Manganese drier for oil inks – retailers?

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  • #989446
    bridog
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        Recently I learned about manganese drier that when added to oil based inks will speed up drying time. This is not to be confused with Magnesium Carbonate that is added to ink to stiffen it and reduce sheen.
        Here is the problem. I would like to try some of this out (as an alternative to cobalt drier which has the whole highly toxic stigma surrounding that stuff). Although driers come with their own sets of problems such as discoloration or yellowing of inks over time, I am still curious to see how quickly ink drying time is actually sped up.
        I cannot seem to locate any major online retailers here in North America who sell Manganese additive. Have looked at Blick, Graphic Chemical, McClains, Daniel Smith, etc….but no luck.
        The only retailer that came up in my Goggle search was Intaglio Printmaker based in London, UK who sell 100 ml bottles.
        Anyone know of places one can purchase this here in North America?

        thanks in advance

        [FONT="Book Antiqua"]The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Emile Zola

        www.myprintmakingjourney.blogspot.com
        visit my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/borealart

        #1157650
        davidh
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            I don’t know if the purity or composition would be the same as for artist products, but offset ink providers are another source of cobalt and I believe manganese driers. Might also find it in oil painting mediums?

            #1157648
            bridog
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                thanks for that advice David
                I did get a tip about Japan drier but from what I have read that is also a bit toxic.
                There is also vanadium drier but I am not sure exactly what it is but apparently it is best suited for linseed based paint.
                Anyhow the search continues. Will post results once I find the perfect drier for printing inks. :)

                [FONT="Book Antiqua"]The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Emile Zola

                www.myprintmakingjourney.blogspot.com
                visit my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/borealart

                #1157651
                fifthhorsm
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                    bridog,
                    i hate to say it but i think your chasing a lost cause…. there’s hundreds if not thousands of metalic salts that act as driers…. cobalt, zinc, tin, lead, manganese, vanadium, etc. etc. it isn’t the base metal thats toxic it’s the other stuff in the salts. take tin… it’s a perfectly safe metal, used to line food cans etc. but the best known of it’s driers is tri-butyl tin… very nasty stuff. many years ago… like four decades ago. i did much of the research and lab testing on a cobalt excellerator for the plastics industry. very similar to the cobalt drier but not exactly same material and i wasn’t limited by percentages instead of 5% solution i was working with the pure stuff. amazing what it would do, speed up setting time from 20 minutes to 5 seconds. anyway i took what i learned there and applied it to my own work with paints, inks and wood finishes. i used coblat salts for a number of years til i discovered the tin driers and have used them for about 25 years now.
                    what you have to understand and remember is that in the cobalt drier for exap. the art supply stuff is only 5% and your only using a drop or two and diluting it a thousand times or somewhere near that…. your not putting it on your body or eating it or smoking with it on your hands… or i hope your not. so what if you get a little ink on your hands there’s so little of it in that amount of ink (unless your a total pig about it) it won’t hurt much of anything…. wash your hands and wear an apron to keep the ink off your clothes. all the metalic salts i know of used as driers, oxidizers, excellerators and catalists they are nearly all toxic or such a fire hazard… there’s one i won’t say it’s name you can get at your local drug store or feed store, not toxic, safe and very cheap but if you add too much of it to any organic compound watch out… your ink can burst into flames within seconds…. i’d say that rules it out, what say you? if you really want to use manganese salt for a drier find out which manganese salt it is and i can very likely tell you where to get the pure stuff for you to make up your own solution.

                    another little note…. hard to trust the msds on the various artists driers…. when for exam. the msds on grumbacher cobalt drier doesn’t even say which cobalt salt is used in it.
                    mike

                    #1157649
                    bridog
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                        thanks for the info. Mike
                        I may just have to accept things and stay with what I have been using or not use any driers for inks at all.
                        Some of the new water soluble veg. inks I have been trying out don’t work the same way as linseed based inks anyhow and actually dry through absorption into damp paper fiber moreso than air curing (or so have been told).

                        [FONT="Book Antiqua"]The artist is nothing without the gift, but the gift is nothing without work. Emile Zola

                        www.myprintmakingjourney.blogspot.com
                        visit my Etsy shop: www.etsy.com/shop/borealart

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