JacksonMaberry

Most of us do, if I'm not mistaken

I agree with this, only thing about the frog i'd say does influence the behavior of the stick overall is it's mass (impacting the balance and total mass). If a replacement frog is a more comfortable shape and the same weight, all good.

Hahaha, well that's fair!

I use an air stone, otherwise do it exactly as Steve said. I haven't ever thrown suds or precipitate, but I wash my oil with a borderline insane obsessiveness.

I wondered about that one when I found it on a chem page. I will look into better figures. Thanks for this. What's your figure on hide?

That's a good point! I did not gather these numbers myself, but gathered them from what I felt to be good sources. That said, please do share your figures if you like, I'd be glad for another perspective.

I think I've heard of that being done at least once. Both are hygroscopic, so I'd rather not use it, but many out there use hygroscopic grounds.

Sometimes folk use just the yolk, or an emulsion of yolk and linseed oil. That looks pretty nice.

My experience, fwiw, has been the same with pmv11 that others here have stated - after grinding away the crumblier factory edge, they're fantastic. I've had that come up with some other tools as well (narex Richter chisels). After that though, no complaints whatsoever.

If a protein ground is desired, I prefer calcium caseinate for the reasons the Davids were getting at - I don't like the idea of a ground which is water sensitive. While casein size can be prepared with any base, only the calcium variant has substantial water resistance of the easily prepared caseinates. Presumably, egg white could be modified to become more water resistant with some calcium salt, but I have not investigated this and therefore can't recommend it unequivocally. My opinion only - I think that, optically speaking, it's difficult to beat a ground/size made either of resin in solvent (such as color-cooked larch in pure gum spirits of turpentine) or a very short oil varnish. The latter, if nice and stiff at room temp, can be used alone or mixed into a paste with Marienglas (calcium sulfate dihydrate) or similar inert filler of RI ~ 1.5-6. RI (refractive index) matching is important to ensuring that light passing through to the wood is disturbed as little as possible. You can see the difference with the naked eye if this matching isn't close. This is the same consideration made when assembling compound lenses for telescopes and microscopes, selecting optical adhesives for the task. Here's some RI numbers for common materials: Wood: ~1.55 Egg white: 1.35 Casein (unmodified): 1.34 Hide glue (gelatin): 1.53 Rosin: 1.54 Linseed oil: 1.48 Calcium sulfate dihydrate: 1.53 Most things you'd want to try, you can easily Google the RI.

Forgive me, but I'm not interested in the "warnings" of an armchair authority. I have dozens of gallons of experience with this technology, which I did not create but adopted from over a century of actual documented expertise.

Thanks, Steve. Two things have helped me most in figuring out what little I know - reading stuff and sharing notes with cool cats.

I don't have any experience with mekp, what's the story there? Always interested in learning more. I haven't tried tin! I wash my oil with manganese sulfate these days, and aside from whatever metal ions remain after washing several times with distilled water after the salt cycle, haven't added anything further before cooking varnish. If it's of any interest, my process as it stands is - Tank the oil for a year Wash the oil with manganese sulfate until it doesn't throw mucilage (saturated solution greater than the volume of the oil) Wash 4x with distilled water greater than the volume of the oil Heat to 300C for an hour Blow with air at 90C for a few days. Nearly all the yellow color falls out during this stage. Hold until needed for varnish. Everything I've made with this oil feels good to apply, applies easily, dries well and quickly. This is not THE way to do it, it's just what I like to do at this stage in my life and gives me repeatable, enjoyable results.

Bubbling ordinary air through the oil is exceptionally useful, and not at all dangerous. Bubbling ordinary air while heating the oil slightly works even faster. It also has an interesting effect on the color, causing it to go substantially paler.

Alchemy was a common "hobby" of the nobility across Europe too, interesting thought.