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Have Canode upped their game yet?

Peter.

Titanium
Joined
Mar 28, 2007
Location
England UK
Has anyone bought any significant amount of Canode recently? As in 32oz bottles etc? If so where did you buy it and was it ok?

I'm still smarting after buying a bad 32oz bottle from Artco 3 yrs ago and receiving a useless bottle of slimy blue gunk. I really like the Canode but I'm damned if I'm going to fork out more money unless I'm sure that it's going to be good. I had to eat the cost of that one but once bitten twice shy. It's nice stuff to use though and easy to clean up.

So what's the latest deal with it?
 
My American sourced Canode from two years ago had a few clumps but no slime. A pleasure to use.

Not sure how quickly you go thru your dye, but I find buying a 16 ouncer every few years about right as it does go off after 4-5 years. Adding water or windex hasn’t improved old Canode for me.

L7
 
I bought 16floz bottles of Red, Yellow and Blue directly from Volk Corporation five or more years ago. There was a bit of to-and-fro because they weren't used to small foreign orders, but they worked out that the order would fit in a normal sized international 'flat-rate box'. Personally, I'm not overly impressed with them because they dry out too quickly, but do sometimes use the yellow as a contrast medium against Stuarts Micrometer Blue.
 
I don't know if it's a temporary supply issue (lots of those due to pandemic backlog) or not, but I went looking for Canode last week and 4 of the 6 places that had it in their online catalogs either said "discontinued" or "not available". I haven't bothered to contact Volk, as I don't need any in the immediate future, but if anyone knows what's up, I'd be interested in hearing about it.
 
............................... Personally, I'm not overly impressed with them because they dry out too quickly...................

Same thing I see. I've tried various things so far, but have not found one that works well yet. Most seem to lose the correct viscosity, so that there is just a small window of time between smeary and turning to "chalk".

I'm really trying to get the "HiSpot blue" performance without the hard cleanup. I give THAT a "chance"........ I don't think it will happen, but I am still trying.
 
I have Stuarts and Tuschierpaste (which I like a lot) but I like the water-based aspect of Canode.

I did report this a while ago. Artco did communicate with me over it but rather than remedy THEIR problem with the goods they supplied me they just forwarded it to Volkorp who responded very sporadically. Even though I sent ample evidence that the product was faulty, pics and vids, they wanted it sent back to them and I couldn't find a UK courier that would carry liquids for less than the stuff cost to buy, so I just abandoned it.

If it was clear that their milling issues had been resolved and they were putting out good product again then I would order up a fresh 8oz bottle but I'm not falling into the same trap twice especially given the poor service that Artco offered in not taking care of the problem right away.
 
I talked to Ed Dyjak of ES Dyjak yesterday and he said that Canode is getting harder and harder to buy as the Chemical company that made is has re-organized and moved. They will only ship Canode 6 -8 weeks delivery. He said the employee who made it retired, so he suspects quality will suffer. He also told me Volt Company or something like that tried to make their own version and it was slimy in his opinion. I have a few years supply for my own use, luckily. (Ed and I have been friends for over 40 years)
 
Richard, ask them for the details on the medium/carrier. Grease like traditional spotting compound, or thickened water-base like Canode? I'd love a recipe for the latter.

There are lots of finely ground dry artists' pigments which could be mixed into the medium. (Not surprisingly, while art pigments are evaluated for criteria like lightfastness, toxicity and staining properties, their abrasive nature is not one of the standard criteria.) Some, like Prussian Blue, are known to be non-abrasive, while others, like Red Iron Oxide, are known abrasives. I think that pigments laked from dyes onto alumina hydrate (aluminum hydroxide) will be non-abrasive. This includes most formulations of phthalocyanine blue, which is probably the most widely used blue artist pigment these days. Very dark, intense blue color.
 
Slimy is what I got too. The stuff would make a better way oil than spotting compound. They asked me to peel the sticker to check the one below for the batch number - I peeled the sticker - no batch number at all.

I suggest that anyone who has spare canode look after it. I was doubly gutted because I decanted some of the new 32oz bottle into my 8oz bottle on top of my remaining old stuff for convenience so I ruined what little I had remaining too :(
 
I heard back from Cash. Here is what he said:

Lamp black and red lead colors. These guys are out of biz. I have some left but will as well be looking for a new source. Mix with way oil. The people he was buying the powders from, he said no longer carry it. Rockwood Pigments.
 
I heard back from Cash. Here is what he said:

Lamp black and red lead colors. These guys are out of biz. I have some left but will as well be looking for a new source. Mix with way oil. The people he was buying the powders from, he said no longer carry it. Rockwood Pigments.

Here are the phots of what Rich was talking about. Rockwood out of biz, but if somebody can find another paint pigment company they should have the same colors. These show up very well. Mix with some way oil/mineral spirits to consistency of shoe polish.
 

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Cash, I’ve got about 10 lb’s of red lead. I could send you a couple of lb’s if you could use it.

Also you could go to a chemical supply house to get these chemicals. The chemical name for lamp black is carbon black and its CAS # is 1333-86-4 Red lead chemical name is lead tetroxide and its CAS # is 1314.41-6

CAS stands for Chemical Abstracts service. You can use that number to order.

On edit I see you're actually using red iron oxide. Its chemical name is iron (III) oxide or ferric oxide CAS # 1309-37-1

It is also known as rouge.
 
I used to think Dapra water based was Canode rebadged, is that not the case? I have some 15 year old Dapra in several colors that has separated a bit but mixes back up and spots as well as ever.
 
Cash, I’ve got about 10 lb’s of red lead. I could send you a couple of lb’s if you could use it.

Also you could go to a chemical supply house to get these chemicals. The chemical name for lamp black is carbon black and its CAS # is 1333-86-4 Red lead chemical name is lead tetroxide and its CAS # is 1314.41-6

CAS stands for Chemical Abstracts service. You can use that number to order.

On edit I see you're actually using red iron oxide. Its chemical name is iron (III) oxide or ferric oxide CAS # 1309-37-1

It is also known as rouge.

I only use red lead and lamp black for the terms, but I know many shops stopped using many years ago due to the chemical issues.....
 








 
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