Cannabis Study House - ＵＳＡ・ヘンプ・ミュージアム、ヘンプ溶剤、ヘンプ溶剤サンプル

ヘンプ溶剤サンプル

When I learned of varnish being made of hemp, I started looking in antique and junk stores for old cans of varnish. I came across one in Willits, CA, not far from where I lived in Mendocino County in Northern California. It was a square can with a round opening stoppered with a cork, made by the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. I guessed the can to be of 1900-1920 vintage (I still have not researched this), but when I shook the can I could tell the varnish was still good. The can is shown below (right) and compared to a quinine can of Civil War vintage.

Varnish can from the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. The tinned iron can of Civil War vintage is the closest relative of the varnish can in the Hemp Museum.

I had purchased a set of encyclopedias from the turn of the century for the hemp paper I thought it contained, and looked up varnish in it. They had a description of varnish made of boiled seed oil and copal resin, among others. I then set about tracking down the copal resin, which I learned was sold as a incense like liquid amber or frankincense. Copal is a mined fossilized tree resin found in various parts of the world.

I boiled hemp seed oil purchased from the Ohio Hempery in 1991 (shown left), for 45 minutes, which left my cabin filled with smoke. The copal was melted in a small frying pan and the oil stirred in gradually. I do not remember the quantities used, but the result was a fine looking varnish. I later sanded some scraps of oak flooring and applied a coat of the varnish. It seemed like it took a long time to dry (I didn't try to thin it), but dried to a hard shiny coating. Several of the small boards, and the jar of varnish were labeled and added to the U.S.A. Hemp Museum. Photo: Bill Bridges

In the array of paint and varnish goods shown on the left, are from left: 100 year old varnish can, six hemp-oil-based paint cans from Germany, Jar of curator's homemade varnish, German made hemp furniture polish andvarnish. Photo: Bill Bridges

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