What strength alcohol?

[Marksmomagain]

Hi does the strength of the alcohol really matter one way or the other?

 

[Triduana]

To what? To who? (I seem to be turning into an owl )

My glass of port tonight is just the right strength ...

I think we may need more info...

 

[KreativeK]

If you are referring to using it with alcohol inks, you need 91%, as the medical grade is too weak.

 

[Marksmomagain]

Thanks, sorry I was multitasking when I posted that question. I was asking about using it w watercolor, however the info re alcohol inks is much appreciated, also...

 

[ntl]

Where do you get 91% alcohol?
Ooooooh, I know....

 

[Artyczar]

Drinking while painting, or alcohol with watercolor, or both? You know, I've never used alcohol with watercolors! Only the drinking kind.

 

[ColorEnthusiast]

I know a plein air painter who puts Vodka into his water when the paints in freezing weather.
But besides this, ...
You get 91% non drinking alcohol in a pharmacy, but maybe that depends on where you live.

 

[KreativeK]

I buy 91% at the grocery, drug store, or Wally World.

 

[ntl]

RUBBING alcohol!...

 

[laika]

Where do you get 91% alcohol?
Ooooooh, I know....

Everclear

 

[Hermes2020]

It is very dangerous to just call it alcohol. Of the hundreds of thousands of alcohols, at least three are commonly used: ethanol, methanol, and isopropanol. Ethanol is the one found in our drinks. Isopropanol is also called rubbing alcohol. Methanol is extremely toxic (deadly) and should never be drunk or allowed to touch the skin; its fumes should never be inhaled. For these reasons I urge everyone to call alcohols by their proper names.

 

[musket]

Everclear

Everclear is 190 proof ethyl alcohol. I used it as a solvent for shellac (French polish) way back in my guitar building days (they also make a 151 proof but I wanted as high proof as possible short of 200 proof anhydrous, which is very expensive and not available except as a laboratory supply to qualified researchers--I had a guy at Harvard who used to smuggle out a bottle for me every so often).

 

[Hermes2020]

Everclear is 190 proof ethyl alcohol. I used it as a solvent for shellac (French polish) way back in my guitar building days (they also make a 151 proof but I wanted as high proof as possible short of 200 proof anhydrous, which is very expensive and not available except as a laboratory supply to qualified researchers--I had a guy at Harvard who used to smuggle out a bottle for me every so often).

Ha, one guy smuggled out a bottle of methanol and made cocktails for a dinner party of 6. Only two survived. Regarding the 200 proof anhydrous ethanol: it is so hygroscopic that it does not remain anhydrous for very long after you open the bottle.

 

[musket]

No, it doesn't. But if you transfer it quickly to a small plastic squeeze bottle (the kind with a red cap), and quickly close the big glass bottle, you can keep that to a minimum. It does dissolve flake lac somewhat faster, is noticeably faster for dissolving seed lac, and better for a procedure called spiriting off, the last step in French polishing. But just too expensive, if you can get it at all. Everclear is still perfectly adequate for this purpose. I don't see what use it might be for painting.

 

[Hermes2020]

Anhydrous calcium sulphate (plaster of Paris) is an excellent dehydrating agent for ethanol and other alcohols and chlorinated solvents, which cannot be dried in the usual way with sodium wire. The fine powder of the active plaster of Paris is added to the ethanol to get a fairly thick layer in the bottom of the bottle. The cap is screwed on tightly and the mixture is shaken periodically over about an hour, then left to settle. Eventually, a clear layer of almost completely anhydrous ethanol is obtained that can be decanted off very carefully so as not to disturb the powder.

 

[musket]

Wow, cool. Never heard of that.

 

[Hermes2020]

Wow, cool. Never heard of that.

I can vouch for the effectiveness of the method. I used to do it all the time.