I've just mixed up some japanning the other day according to Hand Tool Rescue's recipe and ratios in his youtube video on Japanning. Ingredients are powdered asphaltum, turpentine, and boiled linseed oil. (50% turpentine, 30% asphaltum, 20% BLO) Going to start testing in the next day or two. Had to move an old oven into the shop for the task. It's important also to make the oven sit level. I mixed the ingredients but found it was too thin so I added some more asphaltum to it to thicken it. Hand Tool Rescue says it the consistency needs to be like honey. He says to wait 24 hours after mixing or adding anything for it to settle. Can't wait to test it out. Hopefully the finish will be used on the restoration of a 150 year old apple cider press but I will test it on a few other things first.
Going to try it out on this old wrench since I had nothing else metal to try it on. The only challenge with this is how to put the part in the oven and how to prop it up so no uncured finish is touching anything. Can't really hang it up by wire in the oven since it's a weird shape. I can't really mask it off so any over zealous globs of finish will have to be removed after.
Going to try it out on this old wrench since I had nothing else metal to try it on. The only challenge with this is how to put the part in the oven and how to prop it up so no uncured finish is touching anything. Can't really hang it up by wire in the oven since it's a weird shape. I can't really mask it off so any over zealous globs of finish will have to be removed after.