01-14-2019, 03:26 PM
When someone says "white spirits", I think of "white gas", which is highly refined kerosene. You can get it at walmart in the camping section, as Coleman lantern fuel. Pretty expensive, super flammable. I've also seen liquid paraffin called white gas. It's another lantern fuel, harder to find, more expensive. I don't use it on knives because of the expense, so I don't know it's knife properties.
I use many different kinds of thinners, and normally start with the least volatile. Pure alcohol or mineral spirits are usually pretty effective. I use alcohol more than anything because I think it dries cleanest. Mineral spirits are a little oily, but safe for all plastic like alcohol. I use 50% mineral spirits, 50% mineral oil to clean and protect knives and handles after sharpening. Great for removing compound. Mineral spirits evaporate, leaving a little mineral oil for protection and the "wet" look. I use it in place of "Japanese knife oil" for kitchen knives. Works the same for a fraction of the price.
Naptha is "hot" paint thinner, also called VM&P (varnish maker & paint) thinner. Zippo lighter fluid is naptha. Cleans better, won't harm plastic, dries quicker with no oily residue like regular paint thinner.
Now we start getting more volatile. Some of these will melt some plastics. I use pure acetone most because it's pretty hot and clean drying. There are two brake cleaners and two electrical parts cleaners- volatile and lower volatile. I don't think low volatile works as well. The volatile stuff leaves no residue.
B-12 and other carb cleaners are much like lacquer thinner. Spray cans are nice sometimes, but a can of lacquer cleaner is safer to use and less expensive. Volatile, potent smell, hard on plastic, but cleans well. I'm not as sure about these leaving no contaminants.
Since I use a lot of acra-glass epoxy, I use a lot of acra-glass thinner. They work perfectly together, of course, but it's expensive. Same thing with Barge cement and Barge thinner. These specialized thinners are very high quality, and do a great job of cleaning, leaving no residue.
MEK is potent stuff, but sometimes it's the only thing that works.
I use many different kinds of thinners, and normally start with the least volatile. Pure alcohol or mineral spirits are usually pretty effective. I use alcohol more than anything because I think it dries cleanest. Mineral spirits are a little oily, but safe for all plastic like alcohol. I use 50% mineral spirits, 50% mineral oil to clean and protect knives and handles after sharpening. Great for removing compound. Mineral spirits evaporate, leaving a little mineral oil for protection and the "wet" look. I use it in place of "Japanese knife oil" for kitchen knives. Works the same for a fraction of the price.
Naptha is "hot" paint thinner, also called VM&P (varnish maker & paint) thinner. Zippo lighter fluid is naptha. Cleans better, won't harm plastic, dries quicker with no oily residue like regular paint thinner.
Now we start getting more volatile. Some of these will melt some plastics. I use pure acetone most because it's pretty hot and clean drying. There are two brake cleaners and two electrical parts cleaners- volatile and lower volatile. I don't think low volatile works as well. The volatile stuff leaves no residue.
B-12 and other carb cleaners are much like lacquer thinner. Spray cans are nice sometimes, but a can of lacquer cleaner is safer to use and less expensive. Volatile, potent smell, hard on plastic, but cleans well. I'm not as sure about these leaving no contaminants.
Since I use a lot of acra-glass epoxy, I use a lot of acra-glass thinner. They work perfectly together, of course, but it's expensive. Same thing with Barge cement and Barge thinner. These specialized thinners are very high quality, and do a great job of cleaning, leaving no residue.
MEK is potent stuff, but sometimes it's the only thing that works.