Removal of gold paint from antique water gilded frames

[Junglewalker]

Over the years I have rejected many interesting antique frames that have been "gold paint bodged" by cunning vendors hoping to fool their punters with a quick bit of vandalism! I have rescued a few with a very gentle paint stripper..and even regilded on occasion.
Does the team have any thoughts on this problem?

[prospero]

I've seen a few of these and they are pretty much knackered once the paint is applied. I did do one once using some special solvent called "Art Clean" which I suspect is something like lighter fluid. Can't get it any more. Think it was banned on safety grounds. And I think that particular frame wasn't pukka water-gilded.

[Not your average framer]

I suspect is something like lighter fluid.

Lighter fluid is naptha. I think it would need to be something much higher up the solvent scale than that. Unfortunately, all the likely solvents for this probably come with health and safety concerns, but there are some solvents, which if used in commercial vapour phase de-greasing tanks, are likely to get the job done.

The main solvents used in vapour phase degreasingand paint removal are: Carbon tetrachloride, Trichloroethane, Xylene, Dichloromethane, etc. Vapour phase cleaning and degreasing tanks are quite expensive to buy and operate, but maybe you can find a plating, metal finishing, or industrial paint spraying company which still has the gear to do this.

These sorts of solvents are not safe ordinary people like us to consider using and are not easily available to just anyone, with the possible exception of Dichloromethane, which is used in some types of commercially produced cellulose paint thinners and can be purchased in this formulation. You might be surprised how quickly Dichloromethane will wrinkle and soften some types of paint, even without the higher temperatures of a vapour phase tank, but to cause the paint to just flow off the surface leaving a completely clean surface, you still need a vapour phase tank.

Although dichloromethane is more readily obtainable is the formulation of some brands cellulose thinners, it is still very dangerous to health and should only be considered for use in an open air environment, after fully studying the relevent heath and safety publications and taking the neccessary safety precautions.

[CalicoFraming]

A conservator friend says it depends what's the gold paint consists of, but basically acetone, white spirits or meths. One of those should work.

[Junglewalker]

Yes-Calico..thank you....that is the sort of thing I do. Get the cotton wool balls out and have those three on hand...and a bit of kitchen roll to remove anything that is acting too fast.Slowly does it...

[Not your average framer]

Acetone is a particularly effective solvent.

More years ago than I like to remember, I was an apprentice engineer working at a company which had it's own in house spray shop and had one of these vapour phase degreasing tanks. I had the chance to see it in action and just lowering anything in there with old paint on it, caused the paint to just disperse into the solvent vapour like smoke and slowly sink to the bottom of the tank and it all happened in a few seconds.

Applying a solvent with cotton wool balls will need a lot more care, as cotton wool can also be used to distress gold leaf, where as the vapour phase cleaning method cannot abraid the gold leaf.

I was assuming that Junglewalker was looking for an easy way of processing a significant number of such frames, which would perhaps be less practical if allowing for the time required per frame to remove the paint using a solvent and cotton wool.

[prospero]

I use Acetone to prepare gilded (the cooking variety) or varnished mouldings prior to priming with spray primer. It's not so much to strip the leaf but to clean any greasy spots to give a good key. It fetches leaf off very easily. And starts on the gesso if you aren't careful.

White spirit will neutralise the acetone. That's how varnish is removed from oil paintings. Little dab with acetone and as soon as the varnish is gone, on with the white spirit before it eats into the paint.