Natural Pure Gum Spirits of Turpentine?? Finding Turp I can use inside?

[AJ]

Hi there! I’m wondering if there is a turpentine I can use indoors in a closed in room with little ventilation? I know Turpentine mostly a no for that.. but what about Natural Pure Gum Spirits of Turpentine? I read people are literally consuming this product and putting it on cuts, their acne, etc, with no ill effects?

I know there’s Spike lavender but tbh that’s expensive. I was gonna try Orange based solvent too, but not sure how that handles?

I want the the turp so it can handle good with a natural resin like Copal or Amber! I also love the way it keeps it’s shape usually. But any advice would be nice.

[Antonin]

Are you in the US or elsewhere?  I haven’t bought turpentine in years.  I bought several quart bottles of W/N before they switched production to France (back when it was in a glass bottle and called “English Distilled Turpentine”).  I’ve kept it refrigerated and it keeps it’s quality.  I bought a quart of the French packaged (can) W/N when they first produced it and it was terrible stuff smelled like anything but gum turpentine (this was probably 12 years ago).  Hopefully they’ve gone back to their original supplier.  Go to an art store and discreetly open a bottle – see if it smells pleasantly and fragrantly piney – like a pine forest.  It shouldn’t smell like Pinesol, pine oil or a harsh petroleum product mixed with methanol or xylene.

Otherwise I bought a gallon of quality turpentine from here:  http://www.diamondgforestproducts.com/~shop/turpentine/32-oz-100-pure-gum-spirits-of-turpentine/417818/?catId=34919

But their prices have gone up considerably since then (a quart now is the same price that I paid for a gallon).

Or look somewhere that sells Brazilian Turpentine – hopefully it’ll be genuine.

This is: https://www.naturalpigments.com/gum-turpentine.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc

I’ve bought Shiva (Richeson) and Utrecht turpentine in the past but I’m not sure if they’re still high quality.

Again the art store sniff test is the most reliable.  Genuine gum spirits of Turpentine should smell fresh and pleasant.  Commercial paint store turpentine is always disgusting smelling.

The orange solvents – there are two types:  the pure limonene product and mixtures of limonene with odorless mineral spirits.  The later is made to give OMS a little more solvent power.  Pure limonene is a powerful solvent – slightly more than turpentine.  It’s fragrance is powerful too.  Sometimes a little too much.  It handling quality with oil paint is pretty good but isn’t as crisp feeling as turpentine.  It feels a little oilier.

[AJ]

Antonin wrote:

Are you in the US or elsewhere? I haven’t bought turpentine in years. I bought several quart bottles of W/N before they switched production to France (back when it was in a glass bottle and called “English Distilled Turpentine”). I’ve kept it refrigerated and it keeps it’s quality. I bought a quart of the French packaged (can) W/N when they first produced it and it was terrible stuff smelled like anything but gum turpentine (this was probably 12 years ago). Hopefully they’ve gone back to their original supplier. Go to an art store and discreetly open a bottle – see if it smells pleasantly and fragrantly piney – like a pine forest. It shouldn’t smell like Pinesol, pine oil or a harsh petroleum product mixed with methanol or xylene. Otherwise I bought a gallon of quality turpentine from here: http://www.diamondgforestproducts.com/~shop/turpentine/32-oz-100-pure-gum-spirits-of-turpentine/417818/?catId=34919 But their prices have gone up considerably since then (a quart now is the same price that I paid for a gallon). Or look somewhere that sells Brazilian Turpentine – hopefully it’ll be genuine. This is: https://www.naturalpigments.com/gum-turpentine.html?utm_source=googleshopping&utm_medium=cpc I’ve bought Shiva (Richeson) and Utrecht turpentine in the past but I’m not sure if they’re still high quality. Again the art store sniff test is the most reliable. Genuine gum spirits of Turpentine should smell fresh and pleasant. Commercial paint store turpentine is always disgusting smelling. The orange solvents – there are two types: the pure limonene product and mixtures of limonene with odorless mineral spirits. The later is made to give OMS a little more solvent power. Pure limonene is a powerful solvent – slightly more than turpentine. It’s fragrance is powerful too. Sometimes a little too much. It handling quality with oil paint is pretty good but isn’t as crisp feeling as turpentine. It feels a little oilier.

 

I hope I’m using the reply method correctly! It’s kind of confusing.

But yes I’m in the US! Thanks for the links and the info!! Really helpful!

So here’s the thing, can you use these Gum Turpentines you posted… inside like Mineral Spirits? Like I said people are actually putting Gum Turpentine on their skin and swallowing it! lol. So I wonder if I can use this inside too in closed room? I won’t be able to open windows this winter! Or what do you do?
I’ve read actual Gum Turpentine to be as safe as  Mineral Spirits?? Which would be nice. haha, Also pine smell sounds lovely.

Thanks for the response about orange solvents! I was reading they can definitely be even more toxic than turpentines too! So, nice to know.

[DebWDC]

AJ –

I am not a chemist, and so rely on others to interpret things for me. Artists are NOT generally well-informed about painting health hazards. I look to actual experts to tell me about the risks and the safe way to oil paint. An accomplished artist is not usually an expert in paint safety.

That an art supplier is described as a real nice guy doesn’t mean this person is informed and well-intentioned towards his customers. That a WC member claims to use a product for a long time with no ill-effects does not mean that it is true, or even if it is true, doesn’t mean it will be ok for someone else.

HEALTH HAZARDS FOR THE ARTIST (cia.edu)

MITRA (udel.edu)

The Artist’s Complete Health and Safety Guide: Rossol, Monona: 9781880559185: Amazon.com: Books

The Rossol book is excellent. It is available for free in the US (and other countries, I suspect) through the public library system. If your local library doesn’t have it, the library can borrow it for you via an inter-library loan.

Identify a trustworthy source of information and read up on your topic. Good luck.

[Ron Francis]

AJ wrote:

  So here’s the thing, can you use these Gum Turpentines you posted… inside like Mineral Spirits? Like I said people are actually putting Gum Turpentine on their skin and swallowing it! lol. So I wonder if I can use this inside too in closed room? I won’t be able to open windows this winter! Or what do you do? I’ve read actual Gum Turpentine to be as safe as Mineral Spirits?? Which would be nice. haha, Also pine smell sounds lovely. Thanks for the response about orange solvents! I was reading they can definitely be even more toxic than turpentines too! So, nice to know.

You should always have ventilation when using these solvents, including the citrus based ones.
There are three that artist’s typically use, Odourless mineral spirits, mineral spirits and gum turpentine, and they are listed here from the least toxic to the most toxic.
Information can be found about this from MSDS sheets and looking at the ppm (parts per million) that you can have in the air before it is considered dangerous.
In short, no, Gum Turpentine is not safe to use in confined unventilated spaces.

Note that you can paint without using solvents at all, and it is better for your paint, and better for your health, but you would have to forgo using natural resins.
Also note that using natural resins in paint isn’t a great idea. Damar yellows and becomes brittle over time, and your paint will forever be susceptible to solvents.

Ron
www.RonaldFrancis.com

[Antonin]

OK.  If I were an abstract expressionist and painting large swath color fields on 12 ft wide canvas using a house painting brush and oil paint diluted with lots of turpentine with little ventilation – that would be terrible.  My lungs and brain would be oversaturated with turpentine.  Earlier interior house painters had to endure choking amounts of solvents in the air when painting all the walls and ceilings of rooms with oil paint and solvent.  Of course there were health issues.*

I don’t work like that.  I paint with lots of detail.  I use barely a thimble or less of turpentine per painting session.  I paint largely with smaller brushes and have the turpentine in a small palette cup (half-filled) with a piece of foil covering it.  When I paint with acrylics I have a large bucket of water to wash my brushes as I paint.  In oil I don’t have a large container of turpentine, I only have the little covered palette cup (I don’t swish brushes to clean them – I just wipe them off – maybe a little dip in the turpentine and another wipe).

There isn’t much turpentine smell in the room when I paint (of course I have a window open).  I mix the copal or amber medium into the paint blobs (not much) when I lay out the palette.  I don’t add any more medium as I paint, and only a drop of turpentine goes into the paint mixtures I’m applying to the canvas – added with the brush or a palette knife.  I like to apply paint with some body, I’m not thinning the paint out like water.  I want there to be a thick enough application of paint; the turpentine is just breaking down some of the stabilizer in the commercially tubed paint so it flows like old masters hand-ground paint.  The aluminum stearate (or castor wax) loses its gelling strength with a little turpentine added.  OMS will do this too – but it thins too much.  If you add equal-sized small drops of OMS and turpentine to equal-sized blobs of oil paint, the OMS will be too thin while the turpentine will still have body.  It’s like the OMS added to oil paint is a chaotic situation where everything is flowing around unanchored.  Turpentine keeps things in order; maybe there’s a molecular attraction between oil paint ingredients and turpentine.  Maybe it’s turpentine’s slight acidic tang!

As far as allergies, I understand.  Some people can’t eat nuts, can’t tolerate certain foods, perfumes etc.  I think anyone interested can tell if turpentine is problem for them by buying a small bottle and trying it (in small amounts) for oil painting.  For myself, Orange solvent is a little too much and oil of Rosemary is gaggingly potent.  But oil of Spike Lavender and turpentine are fresh and pleasant to me.

After all turpentine is a traditional medicine dating back to before the Romans.  Growing up in California I’d always see an over-the-counter USP version of Turpentine in pharmacies for internal and external use.  I was always tempted to buy it to see if it differed from art store turpentine.  Now there’s a revival of sorts to use turpentine to treat internal parasites, Candida yeast infections, Lyme disease, painful joints etc.  I don’t know.  I’ve never taken it internally and I don’t plan to.

>This recent psychiatric paper has some interesting things to say about the terpenes: pinene and linalool.  Pinene is what turpentine is primarily made up of and linalool (27-49%) is found with pinene in spike lavender oil.  Brain health supported by these things?

“Recently, research has begun providing evidence on the potential use of certain plant-derived terpenes in modern medicine, demonstrating anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory, and neuroprotective effects of these compounds. This review examined the effects of two key terpenes, pinene and linalool, on parameters relevant to neurological and psychiatric disorders, highlighting gaps in the literature and recommendations for future research into terpene therapeutics. Overall, evidence is mostly limited to preclinical studies and well-designed clinical trials are lacking. Nevertheless, existing data suggests that pinene and linalool are relevant candidates for further investigation as novel medicines for illnesses, including stroke, ischemia, inflammatory and neuropathic pain (including migraine), cognitive impairment (relevant to Alzheimer’s disease and ageing), insomnia, anxiety, and depression. Linalool and pinene influence multiple neurotransmitter, inflammatory and neurotrophic signals as well as behaviour, demonstrating psycho-activity (albeit non-intoxicating).”

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.583211/full

 

 

*But when you look at medical studies for industrial “Chronic Painters Syndrome” they all refer to the use of  “Turpentine Substitutes” not turpentine.  Probably because genuine turpentine is too expensive so petroleum derived substitutes like Stoddard Solvent are used industrially.

[Author]

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