Linseed Paint and Oil E-Book

Michiel Brouns

• Herausgeber: The Crowood Press
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 190

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

Linseed paint helped protect wood and iron for many hundreds of years. Since the advent of petrochemical paints, however, the industry has largely forgotten the value of traditional alternatives. This book provides an insight into the benefits of linseed paint for architects, professional decorators, restoration professionals and DIY enthusiasts alike. It describes in detail the unique role linseed paint plays in the preservation of historic buildings, including: What linseed paint is, what the ingredients are and how it is made, the benefits of linseed paint and how it functions on a molecular level, how linseed paint can play a pivotal role in reducing microplastics and making the building and restoration industries more sustainable and detailed step-by-step instructions for applying linseed paint to a variety of surfaces

Leseprobe

Dedication

Veur Pap

‘… the world is not given by his fathers, but borrowed from his children.’Wendell Berry, Unforeseen Wilderness: Kentucky’s Red River Gorge

‘Take proper care of your monuments, and you will not need to restore them.’John Ruskin, The Seven Lamps of Architecture

First published in 2023 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

[email protected]

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2023

© Michiel Brouns 2023

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 0 7198 4226 9

Cover design by Blue Sunflower Creative

Acknowledgements

The Brouns & Co. Team

Katie Anderson-Morrison

Ian Stokes

Shona Munro

Arja Källbom

Ruth Miller

Peter Galloway

Everett Schram

Dr Benjamin Stern

Dr Richard Telford CChem CSci FRSC

Belinda Whitehead

Contents

Introduction

Chapter One The History of Linseed Paint

Chapter Two Different Uses of Linseed Oil

Chapter Three Why Does Linseed Paint Work So Well?

Chapter Four A Short Guide to Pigments and Colours

Chapter Five A Short Guide to Timber

Chapter Six Tools and Accompaniments

Chapter Seven How to Apply Linseed Paint on Timber

Chapter Eight Applying Linseed Paint on Metal

Chapter Nine Masonry, Internal Walls and Other Specialist Applications

Chapter Ten What to Expect Once a Project is Finished

Chapter Eleven Frequently Asked Questions

Chapter Twelve Linseed Paint: Past, Present and Future

References

Further Reading

Index

Introduction

The value of old buildings is indisputable. Thompson M. Mayes’ Why Old Places Matter1 is an excellent work on this. It highlights the worth of historic buildings not only in terms of their economic and environmental terms, but also in the way that they contribute to our sense of continuity, identity and belonging. Whichever way you choose to look at it, old buildings matter and we need to ensure that we do everything we can to keep them habitable and usable. Linseed paint fulfils a much bigger role in this than is generally understood.

Of course, caring for old buildings can consume our time and our money. For many people, so-called ‘historic buildings’ are synonymous with the idea of cold, damp money pits. It’s difficult to come up with a definition for historic buildings without evoking images of listed buildings and the associated complex regulations. In the context of using linseed paint and other traditional building materials and techniques, I find it most useful to describe properties as ‘historic’ or ‘modern’ on the basis of whether they’re built using solid wall constructions or wall cavities. This difference is really what determines the requirement of the building in terms of breathability, water absorption and retention. Obviously, there is a time and a place for modern building materials, but very few are compatible with historic solid wall structures. Personally, I do not believe there is any necessity for plastic or chemical materials in these structures, as arguably they do more damage than good.

In recent decades, the UK has experienced something of a boom in the understanding of traditional building materials and how to care for old buildings. A great deal of knowledge has made its way over from Scandinavia, the Netherlands, France and Germany, where many of these skills, products and techniques are very much still in common use. (Though, of course, even in these countries, traditional fabrics and materials have been relegated to the periphery since World War II, when the general industry focus switched to plastics and quick fixes.)

And yet, despite this growing understanding, linseed paint still remains in the dominion of specialist knowledge. Browse any bookshop or architectural library stocking DIY and restoration titles and you will find a wide selection of titles dedicated to lime paint, lime wash and lime tender, but I am yet to find a single publication on linseed paint. Even Coen Eggen’s seminal work Vakwerkbouw2, about Tudor-style wattle and daub constructions, only dedicated one paragraph to linseed paint, though almost every piece of timber in the buildings discussed would have been treated in linseed oil, stand oil or linseed paint.

It’s true that linseed paint has a very specific application, but it was also far more widely used than its little-known reputation might suggest. It is historically accurate, completely environmentally friendly and – perhaps most importantly – incredibly effective. The aim of this book is to share knowledge about linseed paint, its history and its correct application. I am grateful for the opportunity to add my little bit of expertise to the ever-growing world of building restoration and preservation.

What is Linseed Paint?

Linseed paint is a type of paint that has been used for many thousands of years. It is made by combining linseed oil with a range of natural raw earth pigments.

Unlike the ingredients typically found in modern paints, linseed oil is made using naturally occurring ingredients. It’s made by pressing the dried, ripened seeds of flax plants (Linum usitatissimum), which belong to the Linaceae plant family. This family also includes plants used to produce linen, though flax plants grown for fibre tend to be tall, early maturing plants, while those grown for seeds are usually shorter and need longer to mature fully.

Field of flax.

Flax plants produce flax fruits, or ‘bolls’, that are made up of five cells. When these have fully matured, they will contain ten seeds. The seeds can be warm-pressed or cold-pressed. Warm-pressing seeds gives a higher yield, but cold-pressing is usually a better option, as it results in fewer impurities.

The oil that results from this process is extremely versatile and has a huge number of applications, from DIY to health food supplementation. It even plays a role in the making of linoleum flooring. Linseed oil is classed as a drying oil due to its high content of di- and tri-unsaturated esters. This makes it even more versatile, as it means that it can be effectively combined with other oils to create an even wider range of derivatives.

According to historical records, flaxseed was first used around 8000/9000BC in Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Syria. Nowadays, it is grown in more than fifty countries. The biggest producer is Canada, followed by China, the USA and India.3

Linseed Paint and Me

I grew up in South Limburg, which is the southernmost part of the Netherlands, wedged in-between Germany and Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium. Because of this, I was brought up surrounded by an eclectic mix of architecture, where Modernist buildings happily sit beside – or even within – thirteenth- and fourteenth-century churches. To see this in action, I’d recommend a visit to Maastricht to see the Kruisherenklooster, a gothic, fifteenth-century monastery that now houses a luxury hotel, and the Dominicanenkerk, a thirteenth-century church turned destination bookshop.

Field of flax ready for harvesting.

However, the most typical historical buildings found in South Limburg are the vakwerk farms and houses. These are typical timber-frame, wattle and daub Tudor-style constructions – just like the ones explored in Coen Eggen’s book Vakwerkbouw.4 Though Limburg has been firmly part of the Netherlands since 1830, this was not always the case. Geologically, culturally and even linguistically, it forms part of the Euregio region, which spreads across the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The vakwerk cottages are a part of this region and are an offshoot of the far more ornate Fachwerk houses found all over Germany. This type of wattle and daub construction is also found in relatively large numbers in the UK, mainly in southern England.

Michiel in front of the family vakwerk.

My father’s grandparents bought a vakwerk cottage in the hamlet of Termaar in 1921 and it stayed in the family for two generations. As a child, I lived close to it, passing it each day on my journey to school. As such, this type of architecture became part of my DNA and is one reason why I developed such a great interest in history and architecture and the various ways in which they intersect.

One of my first jobs was in the sales department of a ceramic tile manufacturer in Maastricht. I used to take the bus to work, which meant I had a fifteen-minute changeover in the town of Gulpen. While killing time on the high street, I decided to go into a shop called Kwarts & Co. for a look. Inside, I was awestruck by everything on offer, including ironmongery, encaustic tiles, lime plaster, timber flooring and linseed paint, and right there and then I asked the owner, Haske Van Zadelhoff, if he was looking for any employees. As it happened, he was. I started there a few weeks later and it very much changed the course of my life. It was as far removed as possible from the corporate world I had started out in. Haske taught me almost everything there was to know about the use of traditional building materials and techniques, including the use of colour and pigmentation and the practice of resolving damp issues in historical buildings. I learned far more in the three years I worked there than I could ever have done in any other setting.

Shortly after moving to the UK in January 2006, I decided to set up Histoglass, a company specialising in insulation glazing designed to be installed in existing historical windows. This really thin double glazing was a product that Haske used to sell at Kwarts & Co. and I anticipated that it would be of interest to people in the UK. To begin with, I targeted architectural practices, giving presentations to thousands of architects all over the UK and, within five years, Histoglass Ltd was the leading supplier of thin double glazing for high-end residential and commercial properties.

One of the main questions I’d be asked at the end of these presentations would be something along the lines of: ‘When we’re restoring windows to put in these glazing systems, which paint would you recommend?’ I’d assumed that every architect (particularly restoration architects) would know about linseed paint, but whenever I suggested it, I was usually met with blank looks. When I realised that such a valuable, historically correct paint wasn’t widely known, I knew I had to do something about it.

When Brouns & Co. first launched in 2011 (initially under the name Histocolour and then Oricalcum), the first stock order fitted on to a single IKEA Billy bookcase. I set out with the hope that the business would be a dynamic thing that would evolve over time. This has certainly been the case and the whole operation, along with the stock levels, has grown considerably over time.

Histoglass Brouns & Co. glazing and paint has been used in locations including the Tower of London, the Queen’s House National Maritime Museum, various colleges at the universities of Cambridge and Oxford, the Old War Offices, Chatsworth House, Woburn Abbey, Windsor Castle, Mount Vernon, the Olson House and various other stately homes and royal palaces. I have also worked with organisations including the National Trust, English Heritage, Historic England, Historic Environment Scotland, the Landmark Trust and Historic New England, as well as the American College of Building Arts and National Park Services. This includes work with architects all over the world, particularly in the UK and USA, as the building vernacular is very similar. The extensive use of timber in US historical buildings means that, traditionally, many of these would have been treated with linseed oil or linseed paint, which means that my knowledge tends to translate perfectly.

Over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of learning even more about linseed paint from experts including Gunnar Ottosson from the Swedish company Ottosson Färgmakeri and Thor Grabow from the Danish company Linolie & Pigment. Arja Källbom has also been incredibly generous and forthcoming with answering many questions for me over the years. I have also done a lot of my own research, including working with Bradford University to use high-field NMR spectroscopy to study samples of our paints and oils at a macromolecular level. There are some excellent historical works on paint, pigments and renovation, and I have aimed to collect as much of this research material as I can, in the original language wherever possible. This ensures that I am not relying on the thought pattern and approach of one particular locale.

For me, learning about linseed oil and linseed paint is an ongoing quest. I now know infinitely more than I did a decade ago and no doubt will learn a great deal more in the next one. Though you can rest assured that you will find everything you need to know about the benefits and use of linseed oil and paint in this book, I, like everyone else, always have more to learn.

Chapter One

The History of Linseed Paint

Linseed oil is often said to be as old as the hills. Though it probably isn’t quite that old, there is certainly enough evidence to link it back to multiple ancient civilisations, including Ancient Egypt.

In 2013, the UK’s Channel 4 aired a documentary about the remains of Tutankhamun called Tutankhamun: The Mystery of the Burnt Mummy. In particular, the documentary set out to address the question of why the king’s remains are so badly charred, and why this appears to have happened while the mummy was sealed inside the coffin.5 After much careful analysis, the experts determined that the reason for the charring was because the mummification of Tutankhamun’s remains had to happen quickly – most likely because of war or civil unrest – and those who carried out the process were therefore careless. The experts’ theory was that rags soaked with linseed oil, which had been used in the process, were left on the mummy and caught fire, causing the remains to burn inside the sarcophagus.

Not all scholars agree on this and Professor Ben Sherman from the University of Bradford had his doubts when I discussed it with him. Though it’s certainly an interesting theory, whether or not linseed oil was used on that particular occasion as part of the process is more or less irrelevant. What does matter, and what is known without any doubt, is that the use of linseed oil and paint can be traced back for thousands of years.

How is Linseed Paint Made?

Historically, linseed paint was mixed in individual quantities by hand. In the 1723 book, The Art of Painting in Oyl, John Smith wrote:

Lay … two Spoonfuls of the colour on the midst of your Stone, and put a little Linseed Oyl to it, … then with your Muller mix it together … ’till it come to the Consistence of an Oyntment … and smooth as the most curious Sort of Butter.6

In essence, modern linseed paint production has not changed a great deal from these instructions. Though, of course, when making linseed paint in industrial quantities, a muller and stone is obviously not an efficient way of doing things. On an industrial scale, the muller and stone are replaced with a triple roller mill. Though significantly larger and more sophisticated, a triple roller mill still achieves the main purpose in exactly the same way – by grinding pigment into boiled linseed oil to form a paste.

Quicker production methods do exist, such as using high-speed machinery to stir oil and pigments together to disperse the pigment. However, this does not result in the same smooth, fine texture as is achieved by the grinding process. Another method involves what is essentially a big column drill with an extended head that uses ball bearings to grind pigment into oil, but this method would only be able to create the correct consistency with days and days of work. If that wasn’t reason enough for this method to be considered unworkable, the pressure released by the drill would heat the oil and pigments to such an extent that they would need to be left to cool every couple of hours. Arguably, this is one of those instances where the original method just can’t be beaten, though obviously it’s been refined over the centuries as new technology and equipment has come along.

Once the initial paste of pigment and boiled linseed oil has been created, additional pigment pastes can be mixed in to achieve the correct hue. Finally, more boiled oil is added in order to reach the desired consistency. Real linseed paint should only contain a mix of natural pigments without any synthetic colourants, as these are not stable enough in boiled linseed oil. Modern linseed oil generally also contains a small proportion of natural solvents (such as balsam turpentine) and drying agents.

The Early History of Linseed Oil

Early history in Europe

It all began with the flax plant, officially known as Linum usitatissimum. This multipurpose plant is not only responsible for linseed oil, which is derived from the seeds, but also linen, which is made from the plant fibres.

Growing and cultivating flax plants is an ancient activity, as is the making of linen. Evidence of linen-making has been found by archaeologists in Neolithic settlements in the Jura Mountains of Switzerland.7 With the knowledge we have now about the ancient use of linseed oil, we can safely assume that wherever there was linen production, there was also linseed oil. Over the centuries, the growing and processing of flax became a commercially minded operation. By the Middle Ages it was big business, especially in the lower Rhine region of Germany. At the time, Germany made and exported more linen than anywhere else in the world.8

This is also the point at which linseed oil became widely used as a building product. Evidence of this can be seen at the Museum of Cultural History in Lund, Sweden, which collects old buildings from all over the country and reconstructs them together in one place for people to visit. Amongst these buildings are cabins from the 1300s, which still include some of the original timbers. There is evidence to suggest that these timbers have only ever been treated with pine tar and linseed oil.

The Art of Painting in Oyl.

We know from the paintings of Vermeer and Rembrandt that the use of linseed paint was very common in the art world by the 1600s. However, by this point it was also being widely used in building applications outside Scandinavia, certainly in Amsterdam, Delft and Leiden. By the late 1600s and early 1700s, this had spread even further and linseed paint was being used extensively in England. It was at this time that John Smith published the first known account of how to make and apply linseed oil. My copy of his book The Art of Painting in Oyl is a fifth edition and was published in 1723 (the first edition was published in 1676). Smith wrote:

The whole Treatise being to full Compleat, and to exactly fitted to the meanest Capacity, that all Persons whatsoever, may be able by these Directions, to Paint in Oyl Colours all manner of Timber work; that require either Use, Beauty of Preservation, from the violence or Injury of the Weather.9

Though Germany dominated the flax trade early on, by the sixteenth century there was a wide corridor of flax production stretching from western Switzerland to the Rhine, up to Denmark and Sweden.10 The huge trade in flax, linen and linseed oil would have meant that the people who lived in these areas were hugely familiar with linseed oil and its uses.

It’s only natural, then, that when European nations began expanding into the ‘new world’ of the Americas, the people that travelled there took their knowledge of linseed oil with them.

Reaching the New World

By the late 1500s, Sweden, the Netherlands (Holland), France and Spain were battling for dominance, both in terms of religion and land. This quest eventually led them to expand into the ‘New World’ of the Americas. Spain began to dominate the largest part of South and middle America, but Sweden and the Netherlands were more interested in parts of North America, as was France. France was on the rise as a world power and had its sights firmly fixed on what is now the Hudson Bay area, along with most of eastern Canada. The most effective way for cultures, habits, languages and architecture to spread is by the movement of people. As European settlements expanded into other parts of the world, they took all these things with them.

The later 1500s and early 1600s were a fairly turbulent period in terms of religion, with convictions and affiliations frequently changing, especially in England. A group of persecuted Protestants fled Yorkshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire to seek religious sanctuary in Leiden, in the Netherlands. This religious persecution fuelled the expansion of Protestant Northern European nations into the New World, and the Leiden Protestants set sail in 1620, first on the Speedwell from Delfshaven, in the Netherlands, then onwards on the Mayflower from England.

Map depicting the journey of the Mayflower and first European settlement areas.

The Mayflower is best known for the Pilgrims, but at least half of the passengers on board were classified as ‘strangers’. These strangers were non-Puritans simply hoping to start a better life in what they thought would be Virginia.11 Many of these individuals had been selected on the basis of their usefulness and physical fitness. This meant that they were disproportionately young men, most barely out of their teens, who were skilled in rough trades such as carpentry, thatching and general building work. Many of these strangers would therefore have been well-practised in using linseed oil and its derivatives for building applications. Indeed, on their initial voyages they took some essential tools and building materials with them, including linseed oil and pigments.

When the settlers reached America and established the Plymouth Colony, linseed oil was one of the building products they used to do this. Not only would it likely have been used for timber preservation, but Patricia and Scott Deetz also note in their book The Times of their Lives: Life, Love and Death in Plymouth Colony: ‘the house’s tiny, barely translucent windows were made of linseed-coated parchment’.12