Cycling UK Forum

Has Hammerite changed, or am I imagining it?

Once upon a time there used to be a company based in the North East called Finnigans (sp?). They used to produce various industrial protective finishes for oil rigs and so on.

At the retail level, their products included Hammerite (a paint for metal which magically produced a hammered stove enamel type finish) and Waxoyl underseal. They then brought out a smooth version of Hammerite called Smoothrite.

Their adverts in Exchange and Mart seemed to make outrageous claims - a bit like hair restorer, slimming potions and creams to enlarge parts of the body. In fact, the claims were 100% accurate and to steal somebody else's catchphrase. 'They did what it said on the tin.'

I only ever used their stuff a couple of times 25 years ago. I greatly increased the value of my old Landrover when I sold it with appropriate liberal applications of Hammerite and Waxoyl. I made an old hack frame look as good as new (if you didn't look two closely ) with Smoothrite.

In an attempt to fortify Thirdcrank Towers after the burglary I've had some security gates installed. These came in grey primer so naturally I beetled of to B&Q on Wednesday (10% discount for grumpy old gits day ) and I find the company is now part of ICI and Smoothrite has become Smooth Hammerite - a contradiction in terms. I can cope with an oxymoron so long as it does the job.

I'm sure that with the old stuff the instructions recommended one coat and lay it on thick. Now it's two coats and watch out for it sagging (running if you lay it on thick.) It just doesn't seem to cover like the original stuff.

There are certain smells - Proofide, Swarfega, Plusgas, meths (priming the PRIMUS STOVE not for drinking ) which take me straight back but this even seems to have a different smell.

Previously, I would just have used a cheap brush then thrown it away as the thinners / brush cleaner is as dear as the paint itself. I see they now do an 'electrophoretic spray' for £40 which claims to do the job a whole lot better but you have to buy what looks like an aerosol of the paint which is even dearer than the standard stuff. Seemed a bit OTT for an occasional fence painting job.

Does anybody know? :-

Has this stuff changed fundamentally or is my memory playing tricks?
Is the spray worth it?

(As it needed more than one coat I bought a cheapo pack of brushes and threw them away after use.)

Hi TC

I last used Smoothright about 12 months ago when I made a set of ladders for a mine shaft at Alderley Edge, I've just had a look in the Workshop and I've got a couple of tins of Hammerite. The address is Prudhoe (no mention of ICI). I've just looked at the web site and your right in small print near the bottom it says ICI ? I've not noticed any difference in the product though, and I have used quite a lot of it over the years.

One thing about cleaning brushes, I get a 5ltr tin of cellulose thinners to clean the brush, cost about £8.00 but if your doning a lot it will pay to keep the brush in the thinners. the other thing I use the thinners for is cleaning old paint brushes the cellulose attacks the oil based paint. give then a good soak and rub out the rubbish with a wire brush. takes a bit of doing but its cheaper agian than piant brush cleaner

I've never used the spray so can't comment on that one.

Malc

About 20 years ago I made a number of attempts to use the original (dimply) version with remarkably little success - I always seemed to get the original surface showing through in the dimples. (I did discover that it was possible to get a respectable result by thinning it and using a spray gun.) Attempts to apply a second coat always seemed to result in a really blobby and unattractive surface. If it's been modified to make overpainting easier it could be an improvement, IMHO.

A totally unscientific reply.
My handlebars were looking rusty, (probably as my bike is stored in under some concrete stairs and is never in the dry). I bought some black smooth hammerite to paint them and it does not seem as good as it used to be. It took 3 coats and a lot of wet and dry in between to get a reasonable finish but it does look solid and weatherproof.
I also got it at 10% off at B&Q as it is great to be an old git

Thanks to everybody. I did google this and the world is full of car restoration forums where slagging off Hammerite seems to be the norm. Anyway, my new wrought ironworks are almost fully painted (two coats - cheap brushes) and phase II will be application of the anti-climb paint

I've used it on and off for years and I don't think it's changed...

Surfaces are best roughened, like all paints it doesn't like grease, so a quick rub with course wire wool works a treat.

Thick coats work best but it does run, usually the things I paint can be rotated to help prevent it running, usually it'll stop trying to run inside a minute or two.

You can apply multiple coats - but they need to be done straight away or left for a day or two. Once it starts to cure another coat just results in a mess.

I painted my gates with it 10 years ago and they're still (relatively) rust free.

I used it on my boat's launching trolley - regular dips into salty water and it has lasted fine...

A few years ago someone told me that various chemical-based products that are used both at home and industry have changed their formulation at least once during their existence.

Basically speaking, the products originally used chemicals which due to modern health/safety/environmental laws are now deemed too hazardous for some reason (perhaps due to the waste produced as a byproduct of production), therefore the manufacturers had to come up with alternative chemicals for the formulation. However those original 'toxic' chemicals were what made the product really effective in the first place, therefore any substitutes used may result in a product that isn't as effective as it used to be.

iF i remember the old adverts used to say "One coat Hammerite, two coats Smoothrite".

Wickes - which I think is a Belgian company does its own version which is water based. Probably not as effective, as mentioned above, but probably safer. I recently bought some paint stripper from Lidl. Quite useless when compared with Nitromors but from the label, seemed to be from a decent German company. Probably assume everybody is using water-based paint

Thanks again to everybody and if I can recall the Hammerite ad from a few years ago where the knight in the suit of armour used the stuff

"I thank you"

thirdcrank wrote:Wickes - which I think is a Belgian company does its own version which is water based. Probably not as effective, as mentioned above, but probably safer. I recently bought some paint stripper from Lidl. Quite useless when compared with Nitromors but from the label, seemed to be from a decent German company. Probably assume everybody is using water-based paint

Thanks again to everybody and if I can recall the Hammerite ad from a few years ago where the knight in the suit of armour used the stuff

"I thank you"

Funnily enough, last week I met a chap with a rust problem with a suit of armour only he didn't regard it as a problem. He's a full time professional Roman Centurion and the outermost layer of his undergarments was a rusty red from his steel chest plate.

He reckoned that the romans used red undergarments to disguise the rust stains rather than mask the blood stains from battle wounds.

I think he should investigate the use of Hammerite

Vernon

Kurust

I always understood that Romans used bronze for their armour. I don't know if that corrodes but I should have thought that if it did, it would be verdigris rather than rust.

You might not have thought it but the Romans were a bit before my time.

thirdcrank wrote:Vernon

Kurust

I always understood that Romans used bronze for their armour. I don't know if that corrodes but I should have thought that if it did, it would be verdigris rather than rust.

You might not have thought it but the Romans were a bit before my time.

Roman armour was iron chain mail, lorica hamata or steel plates lorica segmentata. Their cavalry and possibly some later infantry did use a scale armour which was I think bronze but the Infantry armour in use from around 150BC to around 50AD was hamata and then segmentata was used by Legionarries and hamata by Auxilliaries. The idea of red tunics to hide the rust is feasable.

byegad

That's what I like about this forum - if you can't find the answer to the technical stuff on Sheldon Brown, there's usually somebody on here with the necessary info. Perhaps the fact that Finnigan's - the original Hammerite people - are based at Prudhoe, not far from Hadrian's Wall when marching in a straight line, might be historically significant. Never heard of any archaelogists finding empty cans, but being Europeans, perhaps the Romans disposed of them responsibly...

i live a mile from factory and they reckon it aint changed, was finnegans 20 odd years ago but they sold it, he origonally started makin it in a bucket so the folklore goes.