Ah - the Good Old Days...

[thirdcrank]

johnonthetyne

Thanks for that, and I'm pleased to be able to report that the thirdcrank ironmongery recently installed is now fully protected (guaranteed five years ) with two generous coats of the stuff, although without any gold on the twiddly bits.

BTW, have they any testimonials / product reviews from Romans?

[simonineaston]

When me & my mates bought bikes in poor condition, we relied on Nitromors (from the funny-sounding Fishponds in Bristol, which I'm now familiar with) to strip off what was left of the paint. It worked back then - if you splashed any on exposed skin, you knew about it - any in the eye was a proper emergency! Repainting them, we often used aerosol cans (see seperate thread). But if simply needing a tough finish, for a beater or pub-bike, say, we might use Hammerite, which like Nitromors, seems to have gone down-hill a bit. Granted using it was a bit of a pain cos there weren't many solvents readily available, but when it dried it was tough and it made whatever it went on virtually free of rust.
So, today's relatively unimportant Q. is: Is Hammerite not what it was - and would anyone actually use it on their push-bike?

[Jdsk]

"Has Hammerite changed?"
viewtopic.php?t=17007

Jonathan

[simonineaston]

I thank-you Jonathan - have you ever considered a career as a compiler of indices?

[Jdsk]

; - )

Jonathan

[Bmblbzzz]

I've been told that "UV-setting gel nail varnish" is excellent for touching up small chips and scratches. Bit laborious to paint a whole frame in it though!

[thirdcrank]

Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it.

- Samuel Johnson

I've found a third kind: stuff we have forgotten (like that thread)

[simonineaston]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the original recipe included chopped glass fibre and that the paint had to have a special solvent to keep things fluid until used, hence the availability, in small & expensive cans of their own solvent, so you could clean your brushes, albeit at greater expense than 'normal' solvent like white spirit. Us teens, ever the skinflints as one is at that age, found out that you could use petrol instead.
As an aside, me and chums have had endless discussions on the subject of beer brews that "aren't the same" eg Ruddles County, Bath Ales Gem yadda yadda. Often the change can be dated to around the time the small brewery changed hands, say when it was bought up by a bigger company. They may all swear blind nothing's different but (insight provided by local brewer, here in Bristol, which is thick with craft breweries), although the recipe is the same, it may have been scaled up for larger production and made in different vessels, or ingredients nominally the same but from a different supplier, favoured by the parent company.

[gxaustin]

beer brews that "aren't the same" eg Ruddles County,

I used to know Ruddles' Brewer about 30 years ago.
Good example of beer going downhill is of course Doombar. Started off good and is now bland and boring, since production was expanded massively by Coors (who bought Sharps).
Same happened when Holt's Entire was brewed in Burton instead of Langley Green - it lost its distinctive flavour.

[andrew_s]

Things like Hammerite and Nitromors have changed for environmental and H&S reasons - the solvents etc they relied on have been banned or severely restricted, forcing the supplier to come up with a new recipe.

As an aside, me and chums have had endless discussions on the subject of beer brews that "aren't the same" eg Ruddles County, Bath Ales Gem yadda yadda. Often the change can be dated to around the time the small brewery changed hands, say when it was bought up by a bigger company. They may all swear blind nothing's different but (insight provided by local brewer, here in Bristol, which is thick with craft breweries), although the recipe is the same, it may have been scaled up for larger production and made in different vessels, or ingredients nominally the same but from a different supplier, favoured by the parent company.

My preferred "used to be good" example is Boddingtons, which, when it was all brewed at Strangeways and only available in Manchester, was a very nice quaffing pint (up to circa 1986).

My belief is that it's the changed scale of production that does it.
Wye Valley (Butty Bach/HPA) went to pot (i.e. bland) at about the same time that it started to become widely available, but there's been no takeover - just ambition and a (much) bigger brewery.

It could, however, be deliberate, with the intention of producing something that doesn't offend, rather than something distinctive (i.e. with flavour).

[axel_knutt]

Us teens, ever the skinflints as one is at that age, found out that you could use petrol instead.

When I was a kid I found that you could use neat washing up liquid to clean Humbrol and Airfix paint off brushes. You get interesting results if you use it as thinners though.

[pwa]

Hammerite definitely isn't anything special these days. I once had a conversation about this with a bloke who had a relevant scientific and industrial background and he reckoned the original recipe was very nasty for folk who breathed in the fumes. But the current stuff just isn't very tough. I find the electro whatsit stuff Spa and others use as a primer on their frames really good, but you'd be ambitious to try to use that process in your shed

[VinceLedge]

I have used hammerite and smooth metal paint on house gutters and metal garden furniture recently and it seems pretty much the same as I remember. The hammer finish always covered better the smooth and both can run after painting on, just a balance between thickness of coat and how much it runs. I just use a very cheap brush and keep it wrapped in foil until the job is finished then it bin it.