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Two Roads to 'GREEN' Finishing
When it comes to environmentally friendly finishes, the choices are basic: water, or natural ingredients
By Tod Riggio, Staff Writer, WOODSHOP NEWS, August 2000

In the current age of environmental responsibility, finishes are often marketed as "friendly," "green" and "safe," or simply as alternatives to solvent-based products. Water-based products have made the biggest splash, while historically traditional finishes - made "naturally" from plant oils and waxes, plant-based solvents, earth and mineral pigments, and other natural resources - are attempting a comeback.

Manufacturers of water-based finishes say their products have proven their worth. But first, manufacturers had to improve the quality of their water-based products and change some negative perceptions.

"Where we are today compare to 10 years ago is not even close," said David Fuhr, senior chemist at Fuhr International, a manufacturer in Winigan, MO.

We had to re-create the wheel, in a sense," said Jeff Weiss, owner of Target Coatings, a manufacturer in Rutherford, NJ. "There was a learning curve for both sides - users and manufacturers. A lot of the furniture makers had been burned by other (finish) manufacturers whose products weren’t very good because their raw materials weren’t very good. Over the last eight years, raw materials have improved."

There were also issues with application technique and equipment needs. But the manufacturers say water-based finishes are no more complex than any other finishing products, as long as education is addressed.

"Customers have to heave a level of understanding," said Bill Boxer, who performs distribution and technical support duties for ApolloCoat, a division of Apollo Sprayers Inc. based in Visa, Calif. "There are lots of mistakes that can be made, but if you know the parameters, then those mistakes can certainly be avoided.

"The bad rap usually comes from the Monday-morning quarterbacks and a lot of it is bad publicity. But I think a lot of that has passed, as people become better educated."

Au naturel
The marketers of finishes with natural ingredients realize their glory days are over, but point to a niche demand. The rub against their finishes, especially compared to solvent-based finishes, include longer curring time and inadequate protection.

"In the last 200 years we’ve gone away from [natural finishes], because they don’t work as well as the finishes we have now," said Bob Flexner, a writer and finisher in Norman, Okla. "Cabinet shops want harder finishes. They want at polyurethane finish."

But they still have their place, according to professional finisher Jeff Jewitt, owner of Homestead Finish Products in Cleveland.

"In my view, both shellac and pure linseed oil provide an acceptable finish, particularly when shellac is applied over linseed oil on figured woods," he said. "They are both edible, provide a good-looking, fairly durable finish, and come from renewable resources. These at least are criteria that are important to me personally.

"The other aspect of these two finishes is that we know a great deal about how they wear over time, their chemistry, and positive and negative aspects. This satisfies both my empirical and scientific requirements."

Natural finishes are used more often in Europe, according to Eugene Dunlap of Sinan Co., a distributor of Germany’s Auro organic finishes in Davis, Calif.

There are some demands for natural finishes in the United States, particularly on the East Coast, Dunlap said. However, "the problem is cost," he said. "A lot of people who would like to use them - a family with small kids - just don’t have the money."

The added expense is caused by importing the products from Europe, where an unfavorable exchange rate and higher labor costs exist. Dunlap makes no claims that Auro products are better than petroleum-based finishes. "They’re not stronger than polyurethane," he said. "But I think they look better, feel better and are easier to touch up."

Auro offers both oil-based and water-based finishes. The oil-based finishes are citrus-based turpentine’s, using the oil from orange peels. The water-based finishes are a more recent development, and a difficult one, since linseed is used mostly as the binder, according to Dunlap. Oil and water don’t like to mix.

Milk Anyone?
Before commercially prepared paint was available, paint was made at home, based on formulas handed down from generation to generation. Milk paint was made from curdled milk or cottage cheese, lime and earth pigment for color, according to Dwayne Siever, owner of Real Milk Paint ®, a milk paint manufacturer in Quakertown, Pa. While it doesn’t sound very tasty, milk paint can provide a desirable antique-looking finish to period reproductions.

"We also get a lot of requests from chemically sensitive people," Siever said. "The only emission from milk paint is water, and it really has no odor at all."

Siever describes milk paint as a more traditional paint, which has its advantages over a water-based latex paint, for example.

"Latex paints form a plastic skin, and with exterior applications it will eventually peel off as moisture works its way in," said Siever. "Milk paints stay permeable. The moisture passes back and forth and the paint won’t peel. It actually gets stronger. The colors are also very intense and vivid."

Milk paint is best applied to raw wood and does not stick to well to new metal surfaces, plastics or oil-based paints or finishes. On the other hand, Siever said, almost any finish can be used as a topcoat over milk paint.

Drawbacks to milk paints include the hassle of mixing and the 20 minute wait that follows. Once mixed, milk paints only have a shelf-life of two to four weeks. They also sell for about $44 a gallon, compared with as little as $10 per gallon for some latex paints.

Price is also an issue with water-based products. Although water-based finishes are becoming more competitive with solvent-based finishes, according to Weiss, they usually cost more than traditional solvent-based products because of the raw materials used.

"There are many water-based solvents that cost $10 a gallon in raw materials before you ever go into production," said Fuhr in reference to the small amount of solvents that water-based finishes actually do contain.

Wave of the future
Water-based finishes are "definitely the wave of the future," according to Fuhr, who believes the environmental laws which brought about their introduction will only get tougher."

"There are so many advantages to switching to water-based finishes. We can make an environmental impact and the finish is better," he said.

Water-based finishes have improved because producers have specialized, according to manufacturers.

"We sell performance because the customer cares about what it looks like and what it feels like," Fuhr said. "We also back it up with technical support. We want the customer's first experience with water-based finishes to be a good one."

Apollo, a longtime maker of HVLP spray equipment, added water-based finishes to the company’s product line about five years ago because of customer demand. At Apollo, the marriage between equipment and finishing materials is extremely important.

"The biggest problem is [people] not understanding the application equipment," Boxer said. "The amateur wants the same result as the professional, so we try to provide strong sales support. We’re very accessible. My phone number is on the side of the can. The main thing is accessibility, and in my opinion, that’s been the general weakness in the industry.

This fall, Target plans to introduce hybrid oils and new varnishes. Fuhr, meanwhile, recently developed a conversion varnish equivalent and a primer that adheres to wood and plastic.

"This is just the beginning, the tip of the iceberg," Weiss said. "We’re looking for the bigger ships, but at this point, they’re pretty much locked in with the solvent guys."