Turpentine,white spirit,Turpentine substitute??completely confused

[beetee]

As a newbie to oils,I have been reading things and trying to slowly purchase a few bits and pieces of kit.
I was in a DIY store today and saw turpentine substitute as well as white spirit these were way cheaper than turpentine in an art store……
so the question is…………………can turpentine substitute be used or be useful in oil painting(can it be a sub for turpentine)
http://search.diy.com/search#w=turpentine&asug=

http://search.diy.com/search#?p=Q&lbc=diy&uid=943306021&ts=ajax&w=mineral%20spirit&isort=score&method=or&view=grid&af=cat1%3adecoratingsupplies

Hopefully you can educate a complete greenhorn:thumbsup:

Cheers
Brian

C & C most welcome!
Brian.

[refract]

I notice you’re from Ireland.. well you probably went to Homebase for the turpentine subsitute, I found that ok too it’s more slipperier than others a bit like a mineral oil and takes longer to evaporate.. pop into woodies if you want a real turpentine and look for “rustin’s pure turpentine” which is real gum turpentine but for me I prefer the woodies 2 litre of odorless white spirits.

There’s tests which you can to on a piece of paper to see if any turpentine/spirits will evaporate and leave any residue and all those don’t leave any residue.. so I think they’re just as good as the artist brands.. but as you said a lot cheaper.

People will warn you to use only artist brands and such because hardware stuff will have gunk in it but I think distilling became better or has a higher standard now anyway.. so maybe years ago they were less pure than the artist grade.. as long as you don’t pick up actual mineral oil or kerosene then you’re grand.

So.. if it evaporates without leaving a residue it’s fine to use.. And also if you’re using resins like dammar you need to use real turpentine as it won’t fully dissolve in mineral spirits as it being a slightly weaker solvent.

[Don Ketchek]

The first question I would ask myself is what solvent do I want to use in oil painting. The major solvents used in oil painting can all be somewhat hazardous to your health. The general consensus is that turpentine is the most toxic, followed by white spirit (or mineral spirits as it is known in the US) and then odorless mineral spirits (usually referred to as OMS). For this reason, many folks – including those that run AMIEN (Art Materials Information & Education Network) recommend staying away from turpentine and using the less toxic OMS. However, many painters do use turpentine without any difficulties. If one is using damar resin in their medium, then turpentine is recommended as the best alternative to completely disolve the damar.

All of these solvents require adequate ventilation. Some people react to some or all of these solvents and paint solvent free.

Perhaps you have already done some research or tried some of these solvents and you have already decided what you want to use. But I thought it an important enough topic to bring up. Forgive me if you already know all of the above!

All of these solvents should evaporate completely without leaving any residue. I think one can be sure that the artist grade solvents will do that – but not sure about the DIY store varieties. I don’t use turps at all, but when I have used OMS, I have recycled the it by using a second (or third) glass jar to empty the dirty OMS into. The paint particles sink to the bottom, so you can pour out fairly clean OMS to use again and again. So, even though the initial cost can seem high, the OMS can last for a good while. I’m assuming that one can do the same thing with turps – hopefully someone else will respond with the answer to that!

Don

[beetee]

Thanks refract,it was B & Q stuff I had looked at ,but I probably meant any DIY store.
The difference in price would lead me to believe there is a great difference in the two ,but I will invest in some of the ‘cheaper’ stuff and try it out.
Thanks you Don for the reminder on health issues.
Hopefully I can find more guidance on the characteristics of DIY turps versus art store turps

Cheers
Brian

C & C most welcome!
Brian.

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