Restoring hardened Liberon cream

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Rainbow
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Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Rainbow »

I've seen previous threads that say you can use white spirit to restore the Liberon gilt cream. Does this work on all the Liberon creams or just the gilts? I've got a Light Oak that has shrunk into a hard cylinder shape. I only need to use the slightest sliver on a very thin line but when I try to scrape a bit off, it just breaks up into bits.
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Steve N
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Steve N »

Have you tried heating it up with a heat gun / hairdryer,
There is a kit (in the USA) where there is a plug in heater, a bit like a soldering iron, where you melt the wax into the holes/scratches, I have heated uo a teaspoon with a heatgun and melted some of the creams with it, seems to work
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Not your average framer »

I'm not completely sure how well it works restoring Liberon creme by adding white spirit to it. The white spirit just seems to me to be just sitting on the top of the dried liberon creme. Working in the white spirit with a small moderately stiff pant brush works well enough and this is my usual method. Sometimes these little jars of liberon creme are already a little bit dried out when the first arrive from the supplier, but it seems a bit pointless sending them back when I can just add a bit of white spirit and it's good to go! I quite often apply Liberon creme with a brush anyway as it gives me good control of where I want to apply it.
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Rainbow »

Many thanks for both replies. I've heated it up as you suggested, Steve, and it worked a treat. All done, thanks again!
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Rainbow »

PS. I had another look at it and decided I could get an even better match if I mixed the Light Oak with some Liberon mahogany. But it re-hardens so quickly so instead of using a hairdryer, I held the spoon over a candle, and just kept mixing and heating until it was perfect. I felt like an Elizabethan alchemist :D The epitome of low-tech, but ever so convenient and effective!
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Steve N »

Withe gilt creams in jars, I have used white spirit, 1st I used a screwdriver to break up the harden cream , then add a bit of the white spirit at a time and mix into the bits of the harden cream, you can get it down to a fine paste, I did this to 3 or 4 jars about 2 years ago, they are still usable now, so yes the white spirit does work
Good to hear that the heating method works Rainbow :clap:
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Not your average framer »

I have personally never tried the heating method, but the brush and white spirit method seems to work quite well. I guess that you find something that works and you just stay with it. I also use quite a bit of Liberon's Black Bison patse wax in various colour shades. As you get towards the end of the tin, it gets not so easy to apply. I often mix water based washes into paste wax, but it does not mix very smoothly when the wax at the bottom of the tin is getting a bit to stiff.

White spirit does not always mix very well, with water based washes, it works just fine if there is not too much white spirit, but even a little bit to much white spirit spoils the effect. I have some of liberon's liming wax and also their special effects waxes, which I use sometimes. These were quite thick waxes when I got them and although you can thin them down with a liitle white spirit, it's not very sucessful as I think these contain quite a lot of solid pigment and they behave very differently when you thin them down with white spirit.

I don't very often produce liming effects with liming, or special effect waxes as the technique that I employ with water bated washes mixed into paste waxes is much easier and quicker to do and the overall effect is much more muted and subtile. I rub the wax and wash mix into the features of the moulding and then wipe away the surplus and set the wax which remains with a hot air gun, It works pretty well. I also produce my own wash over gold finishes with the same wash and wax mix over a dead matt varnish on top of the gold. It does not work over a gloss finish at all.
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Jon_Brooke »

Are these not turpentine based?
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Not your average framer »

No, the solvents are a mixture of several other solvents. Turpentine has a very definite smell and it's not the same smell as Black Bison wax. I don't know what solvents are in Black Bison waxes, but I am thinking that it will be using solvents which don't cost too much.
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Re: Restoring hardened Liberon cream

Post by Not your average framer »

I noticed that Rainbow mixes light oak wax with mahogany wax. I do the same with antique pine, or golden pine mixed with mahogany wax. I tend to find that the mahogany wax is a bit too red. i like to stain and wax Obeche mouldings and try to creare a more natural looking finish. To be honest Obeche needs to be brushed a bit with a bronze bristle brush to loose the effects of the Obeche type flecks in the wood at little to make the result look believable. My favorite method of staining is to use thinned down acrylic paint and to add a soft washed effect with the wax. I just brush the wax on and stipple the wash into the wax and wipe off the surplus with a piece of disposable paper kitchen towel and set it with a hot air gun. The wash it the lightly brushed surface tends to mask the little flecks in the obeche. I don't like to polish up the wax very much as I prefer to avoid an effect which looks too glossy.

I am not a big fan on really glossy finishes on wood, if you are not careful some glossy finishes look a bit like plastic and I like my wood to look a much more dull fnish as I think it looks more natural. Both antique pine and an golden pine has quite a bit of a grey pigment in them are I find this is helpful when you want a little bit older look. As many forum member may already know, I like the muted and aged looks quite a lot and this is a bit of a trade mark of most of what I do. I'm gessing that most of my local customers already prefer the country style slightly aged look anyway and it's always been my thing anyway. I use quite a lot of bare wood pine and presenting pine to not look to much like pine is somewhat important to selling my pine frames. Double washed pine frames help me a lot in this regard, I like to add the main colour over a soft wash which reduces to impat of the pine grain showing through the paint and then add another wash over the finish to fine tune the final result.

Personally I think that dusty mahogany finishes are a really great look!
Mark Lacey

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