by turnip on Sun Jan 05, 2014 12:30 am
[quote="Epsy26"]can any of you give me a run down on xylene? i ordered some smash bubblegum once, and it was by far in the top 3 best inks i have ever used. I am just curious how i would come about making some, or a recipe that can help, or even a direction would be nice. i understand this is the mop and marker thread but there doesnt really seem to be any threads just on inks and paints.
xylene is a non polar solvent like mineral spirits ext except is has a benzene ring making it an aromatic hydrocarbon solvent. boiling point is around 140degres Celsius. good luck making smash ink but its really not that difficult i suppose. you wound need your solvent, in this case xylene, pigments, something to hold the pigments suspended in the xylene. that's basically paint though. smash uses dyes as well and im sure they also add some sort of hardener/fillers and another solvent other than xylene to hold the dye. you will probably have a hard time finding pigments fine enough to pass through your nibs though i believe artists pigments may be to large depending on quality. Oh yea xylene melts some plastics to so be careful what kind of container you use.