General Finishes Milk paint
#11
I used G-F black milk paint with excellent results. It is a fairly thick medium but it dries without any brush strokes. Nice product.

I received my G-F white milk paint (quart) the other day. It is amazingly thick. It does not even appear to be the same product as the black.

I stirred it for 5 minutes but you would need a butter knife to apply this stuff. I added 3 ounces of water (that is all the room in the can for additional water) but it remains as stiff as whipped cream cheese. It won't even pour. I will have to scoop some more out with a spoon. On the mixing stick it does not drip but about a 1/2" thick coating remains on the stick after stirring.

My concern is that after thinning it enough to brush on that the pigments will be diluted too and I will get poor coverage.

Does any one know why the white would be some much more viscous?

Addendum: I just wrote to G-F customer service. I will report their reply.
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#12
I would go ahead and try it on a piece of scrap. May just work out fine. I am interested in hearing what GF will have to say, but it may thicker due to the white pigments and coverage.

I have used the black and Federal blue with really good results. They done went and changed the historic colors to more modern ones which I am really not happy about.
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#13
Scoony said:


I would go ahead and try it on a piece of scrap. May just work out fine. I am interested in hearing what GF will have to say, but it may thicker due to the white pigments and coverage.

I have used the black and Federal blue with really good results. They done went and changed the historic colors to more modern ones which I am really not happy about.




The black was a spectacular paint. It looked sprayed on. Perfect. No runs, and no brush marks.

The white did not spread evenly no matter what I tried. It left ridges from the foam brush and it took three (but probably needed four) coats to cover. This was on a scrap of red oak.

The white is to re-finish my kitchen cabinets which are in red oak. The black is for the lower cabinets and the white is for the uppers. I've seen this done before and it looks very nice.

I top coated the black samples in gloss, semi-gloss and satin. The satin was unacceptable. It looked more like a white-ish coating over the black than a low gloss finish. The semi-gloss looked fine. The gloss looked too shiny for the style of cabinet I have.

Can you think of a single situation where the milk paint would be acceptable without a top coat? I can't. It marks way too easy without the top coat.

I had to fax the note to G-F. They don't provide an email address for that purpose. I'm surprised. You have to go through their social media to email and my email service is not supported by Facebook.
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#14
Maybe you should consider SW's ProClassic or BM's Satin Impervo waterborne acrylic paint. They are designed for brush and roller application and can be topcoated with a waterborne clear coat, if desired. The ProClassic is nearly as thick as paste in the can, but flows out and self levels very well. I've never used the Satin Impervo but many say it is even better. I believe they both exist in a alkyd resin version, too, which is supposed to flow out even better, but they will yellow over time and are only available in some states and I'm not sure if NY is one of them. And SW also makes the ProClassic in a waterborne alkyd-acrlic blend is supposed to flow out as well as the alkyd while offering the non-yellowing properties of the acrylic.

Might be worth a trip to one or both places to discuss your options.

If you can spray there are lots more options. I recently used GF's Enduro White Poly and it lays down a beautiful smooth finish that cures very hard and is KCMA rated. You can apply clear coats over it, too, if desired. You need a pressure assisted gun to spray it, however.

John
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#15
The first thing I would do is contact the tech guys at General Finishes. They will be happy to talk to you. They want you to be successful with their products.

My guess is that you have a defective can of finish. There is no reason I can think of why the white should be materially different from the black.

Keep in mind that GF's "milk paint" is really a waterborne latex acrylic. It's formulated to imitate true milk paint. Be careful about thinning. Just like real waterborne paint, adding additional water can cause problems. Water is not a thinner.
Howie.........
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#16
Howard Acheson said:


The first thing I would do is contact the tech guys at General Finishes. They will be happy to talk to you. They want you to be successful with their products.

My guess is that you have a defective can of finish. There is no reason I can think of why the white should be materially different from the black.

Keep in mind that GF's "milk paint" is really a waterborne latex acrylic. It's formulated to imitate true milk paint. Be careful about thinning. Just like real waterborne paint, adding additional water can cause problems. Water is not a thinner.




I wrote to them. I am awaiting a reply. They list a fax number on their website, but not a phone number. I did give them a phone number with which to reach me.

They also don't have a "contact" email. You can go through Facebook, but when I signed up they said that they were not equipped to reach my email address so I didn't finish the signup.
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#17
jteneyck said:


Maybe you should consider SW's ProClassic or BM's Satin Impervo waterborne acrylic paint. They are designed for brush and roller application and can be topcoated with a waterborne clear coat, if desired. The ProClassic is nearly as thick as paste in the can, but flows out and self levels very well. I've never used the Satin Impervo but many say it is even better. I believe they both exist in a alkyd resin version, too, which is supposed to flow out even better, but they will yellow over time and are only available in some states and I'm not sure if NY is one of them. And SW also makes the ProClassic in a waterborne alkyd-acrlic blend is supposed to flow out as well as the alkyd while offering the non-yellowing properties of the acrylic.

Might be worth a trip to one or both places to discuss your options.

If you can spray there are lots more options. I recently used GF's Enduro White Poly and it lays down a beautiful smooth finish that cures very hard and is KCMA rated. You can apply clear coats over it, too, if desired. You need a pressure assisted gun to spray it, however.

John




A Sherwin Williams store is adjacent to our office. The first thing I did when I tested the pint size G-F was to bring the sample and the can with me to S-W and asked them to match it as closely as possible. They matched the color perfectly, but not the sheen. But as I was top coating the sheen was not essential. But the S - W product did not brush out nearly as well as did the G - F product. The S-W product (which was their premium line) left more brush strokes and runs--droplets actually(I deliberately painted both samples in the vertical position to test for runs). The S-W product did not apply nearly as nicely, but was cheaper.
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#18
Which SW product did you try? If it wasn't one of the ProClassic paints, you should try one of them before you discount SW. The WB Acrylic worked very well for me with a brush and I'm told the other two are even better for flow out.

Unfortunately, GF seems to be consciously making it harder to contact them. I used to be able to call them up using the number on their website. As you pointed out, there is no phone number nor e-mail address, nor "contact us" to be found there now. But, if you open one of their product datasheets or SDS forms, you find this:

Phone no.: 262-642-4545
Toll free no.: 1-800-783-6050
Fax no.: 262-642-4707
Web: GeneralFinishes.com

Try one of those numbers and see if you reach them.

John
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#19
jteneyck said:


Which SW product did you try? If it wasn't one of the ProClassic paints, you should try one of them before you discount SW. The WB Acrylic worked very well for me with a brush and I'm told the other two are even better for flow out.

Unfortunately, GF seems to be consciously making it harder to contact them. I used to be able to call them up using the number on their website. As you pointed out, there is no phone number nor e-mail address, nor "contact us" to be found there now. But, if you open one of their product datasheets or SDS forms, you find this:

Phone no.: 262-642-4545
Toll free no.: 1-800-783-6050
Fax no.: 262-642-4707
Web: GeneralFinishes.com

Try one of those numbers and see if you reach them.

John




Thanks for the phone numbers. I used the fax number which is the only direct contact that they show.

I will have to go home to check and see which S - W finish they sold me. Wasn't cheap though. They have a camera to match color and that gizmo did a terrific job on color match. I was really impressed.

The G-F sheen was more matte than anything S-W produces.

When I get home tonight I will check to see which paint it is.
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#20
SW can color match with ProClassic, too. I've had them do it and it was perfect, just as you said.

You can apply most any waterborne clear coat of your choice over the waterborne ProClassic if you want to do that for some reason. If you just need to adjust the sheen either get SW to do it or buy the closest sheen and the one that's lower or higher, depending upon which way you need to move the sheen, and ratio them until the sheen is correct

John
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