I’ve always been a little dubious about vegetable oils as they don’t dry and I get concerned that small amounts mixed in with paint might be problematic. Linseed oil (otherwise known as flax seed oil and available in health food stores) is non-toxic unless you happen to be allergic to it. It works fine for me. Best to store it so that it doesn’t contact oxygen, or it will harden. One good way to do that is to keep adding marbles or small stones to the container as you use it up.

Best wishes,

David

Thank you, and looking foward to hearing your response.

I haven’t used a wide range of their paint, but it seems generally similar to Doak’s stuff. I imagine it would work OK.

Thanks for the info on your process. Hope it turns out well.

2 jars:

Edwards flax oil and compared with Barleans unrefined flax oil:

Both jars i put my attempt to wash the oils further:

PErrier water

salt

sand from our local beach(rinsed with water in cheescloth)

A gave it a good shaking and it is now sitting on a hot plate. I just don’t want to deal with silica and dont know if and how to clean sand for this oil washing process.

On D

Just spoke to someone else in customer serviece and here is some clarification:

Convention flax is highly refined as the process states in my early post above with a mechanical method of filtration
the ORganic Flax is refined w/ org compliance
the steaming does not exceed 120F

walnut oil is Expeller pressed w/o compromise quality refined by alkali

They are distributors but, buy from the same suppliers for consisten product Their drums are nitrogen purged and re-purged whenever opened to protect from air. and same with gallon jugs which are in opaque HDPE #2 plastic — heavy duty enough to stand on.

Have you checked out the Jedwards oils ? There prices are so good — I have just bought a gallon flax and gallon walnut. They are very responsive and good customer service . $25 for a gallon of flax oil

Jedwards International, Inc. — Plant Oils:

http://www.bulknaturaloilsstore.com/plantoils.aspx

Their flax oil — that they often sell as pharmaceutical grade for encapsulation — is not unrefined though:

refined first to remove particulate & debris (i’m not sure if this includes mucilage) then bleached with the D-clay
then Deorderized by steaming

their process of refining seems harmless and close to what we artists would do at home.

the head space of gallon jugs are nitrogen purged

this sounds highly refined

just confirmed the pressing of the seeds is cold –for their organic and conventional

But, they have been around for half-century and one of the few on the east coast.

The walnut oil is alkali refined which they say is not caustic and just basically salt and state it is meant for food grade as is all their oils.

I’m not a materials expert. That being said, I know of nothing in oil paint that can cause harm just by breathing (unless you have a specific allergy). It’s still a very good idea to have adequate ventilation when you paint.

Using just oil paint when painting is just fine. Avoid big areas in which you paint with a lot of lean (low oil) pigments over fat (high oil) pigments. For example, don’t paint a lot of raw umber over a lot of ivory black. Other than that, you should be just fine.