I worked for a shop at one point who experimented with adding very small amounts of blue tint to hot coat resin (epoxy specifically) to give the appearance of being “whiter” than normal. Does any one else do this or is it just crazy talk. If this is your practice, what’s your ratio?
That’s an old painters trick to mix a little blue directly into the white paint. It works on walls.
Does it work with resin coatings? No idea.** Edit:** it could work - explanation next post.
udo
Funny, your question got me thinking.
To me it always was a given fact that if you add some blue to white you get a “whiter” white. Never thought about** WHY**. Add blue to white to make it whiter? Doesn’t make sense, does it?
I had some time thinking about it while painting my windows(brown) today and remembered some lessons in science 30 years back...
Short answer;
White is a composition of 6 colors visible to the human eye; blue, red, green, yellow, cyan, magenta. Blue, red and green beeing the base colors.
Changing the amount of blue in the mix **is** changing your white.
Find the right mix and procedure and your boards might look “whiter” after adding some blue. But be careful. Add to much and you’ll end up with a completely different color since every color visible to human eyes can be composed out of the three base colors(blue, red and green).
I guess there is a field test in order to find the **your** right ratio.
udo
Very Interesting. I know it works because I have seen the comparison next to another board w/o the tint and the one with it was noticeably “whiter”. I just cant remember the amounts used. Time for some field testing. Looks like I am going to have to build myself some new boards. To much…not enough…F#*% that one up… Ahhh just right!
I’ll keep my eyes open for special deals on boards with an interesting new color, hehe.
Do you have a friend running a body repair/ paint shop? The better one’s should be equipped with a device to measure colors to match them.
Figuring out what kind of white your are dealing with after glassing your boards should give you a good starting point.
Udo
Thanks for your input. Trial,error and the infamous learning curve can lead to new and unexpected triumphs! Plus this is a good reason to build some new sticks for myself. I will report back with whatever info I can come up with…
There are a lot of epoxy resins that have an “optical brightener” already added. Generally for polyester resins, 1oz of blue tint is added to an entire 55 gallon drum. Just make sure to strain the resin before you use it if you’re mixing it by hand and always have fun…it’s a surfboard afterall!
You may think this is bull and admite It does soud to me also.
While getting some help with a colour match i questioned about white tints and effects
touch of RED tint added, while wet you’ll be concerned, once dry it’s somewhat different…
Pink, well yes if over tinted, if you think yov’ve added to much you Have, mix half and even then a touch less
Try a few test mixes and see how go, results may suprise.
worth a look
Yes Fiberglass Hawaii making very very good resin . I saw it all happening. their “white resin” merely has optical brightner added as well as blue tint. I can add my two cents and its much easier to take a few cups of resin add the 1oz of blue tint stir very well using blender than strain this into the drum than stir drum using masonary blender… this avoids having to strain the whole drum . cheers …
Yes Fiberglass Hawaii making very very good resin . I saw it all happening. their “white resin” merely has optical brightner added as well as blue tint. I can add my two cents and its much easier to take a few cups of resin add the 1oz of blue tint stir very well using blender than strain this into the drum than stir drum using masonary blender… this avoids having to strain the whole drum . cheers …
Here is the reason why a touch of blue makes a white seem whiter. natural light has a touch of blue in the light. Look at any daylight corrected light blub and it is a blue tint glass. It's all about reflected light.
When I was on the test team for AST resin (now gone under) we use to put a 10 drop of blue for a quart.
it gave the effect of making the board whiter, got to be careful to not put too much.
its a totall illusion, kinda like when you watch cartoons, they always draw the reflection of the snow with some blue. gives the illusion of extra white in our brains and it doesn work.
for polyester i mix a bit of blue tint with styrene to be able to mix it. when the board sit on the rack beside other brands, it definitly look whiter.
Ok let me get it straight… is it blue tint or purple tint added …hmm coulda sworn it was purple…help…
Arctic Foam (Foam Corps) came out with “Arctic Blast”… this was to promote a whiter blank that would resist yellowing for a longer period of time your board is subjected to ultraviolet rays.
The original formula was very white to begin with, but as I started getting batches of the Arctic Blast you see the difference quite easily if the blanks are sitting next to each other.
The ‘Blasts’ have a bluish purple tint to them and the earlier foam looks yellow. BOTH net very white boards, but your eye easily picks up the difference when looking at them side by side.
…they are fricking pain in the arse to ding repair if the board is clear…
Yeah, it’s a pain in the ass to fix a flat tire after you buy that new car or replace an engine in your truck, but sh-t happens.
Suck it up and get to work.
Nothing stays new forever… including us.
…hey DS, I m referring a ding repair on clear ultra White boards so you put white pigment or tint on the paste and the final result is not so good like a normal White; that s what Im talking.
Just a little bit of blue works, I do it in the lam, not hot coat.
Hey guys, I’m sorry… a ding is a ding is a ding… I had THE busiest repair in SB for years, a near monopoly becuz no one wanted to hassle with waxed boards and tar (SB remember?). It was a gold mine and it exposed people to my boards because their builder sent them to me.
If you want to make them look like it never happened, and go to those lengths of repair, then I SALUTE YOU.
Respectfully,
BF… retired ding repair man. lol.
