Hammerite Aerosol vs Paint In The Tin

BillDL

Has anybody used Hammerite spray paint for anything in recent years?

I have used smooth Hammerite from a tin with a paintbrush numerous times in the past for a variety of things from metal to MDF to wood, and it has always dried really hard and formed a very resilient coating, for example on the white handle of a metal double-glazed back door, on kitchen cabinet doors and cabinet cornices, bathroom shelves, and so on.  As has happened with a lot of different types of paint over the years they obviously reduced the amount of harmful solvents in the paint-on Hammerite but it still seemed to be pretty good to apply and dried just as rock-hard. Compared with other "gloss" paints Hammerite seems/seemed to have a much higher grade of solvent that smells more like chloroform than ordinary cellulose thinners or turps.   I've never used aerosol Hammerite though, and I would guess that being an aerosol they may have changed the formulation more than the paint in a tin.

I want a very hard coating on the top of a round drop-leaf table that sits in my kitchen and was damaged by hand sanitiser leaking onto it when we were right in the middle of Covid.  It ate into the top layer of whatever the fake wood covering is made from, presumably plastic of some kind rather than a "formica" type layer.  I was thinking of filling in the bits that were eaten into with wood filler or similar, then applying a thick undercoat and sanding it smooth, then using something like smooth Hammerite to give it a really hard-wearing glossy or satin coating.  When gloss paints were all really smelly and with lots of solvents I found them much easier to paint with a brush and achieve a finish free from overlap and brush strokes, and Hammerite was great because it took a while to dry and "sagged" back down and self-levelled even if you applied it quite thickly.  Some of the paints with the reduced solvents (often called "water-based" even though they still have a bit of solvent) seem to dry faster and it's harder to get as smooth a finish.  That's why I was wondering about aerosol Hammerite.

Anybody used aerosol Hammerite recently that can give their observations?

Winny_Pooh

I have used Hammerite Aerosol on a pedal recently and it looks great. It's convenient mainly and goes on smoothly.



But are you not perhaps after something really tough? Ronseal hardglaze? IIRC or maybe Envirotex lite (epoxy type finish, tough as nails) for a table? 

BillDL

Thanks @Winny_Pooh. I had thought about epoxy type coatings, and there are also the "melamine" type of hard finishes, but I don't want to spend a lot and mess up because I'm unfamiliar with a product and how best to apply it for the best results.

Has the paint on your pedal dried rock solid such that your thumbnail doesn't leave a dent in it?

I wonder how "hammered" paint would look on a guitar body?  I like that colour.

Winny_Pooh

Yeah, it's dried pretty hard and I've also used it on a plastic fronted guitar and it looked stunning. Wood will need a good primer though.

BillDL

Thanks @Winny_Pooh 

Reverend

Used to love the smoothrite cans back in the day but its nothing like as good as it was when it was fully poisonous. 

BillDL

That's the same with a lot of paints and other products @Reverend.  When Dulux came out with their water-based "gloss" that dries a lot quicker than the solvent/oil-based gloss paints, they had to offer training to seasoned painters and decorators to teach them how to use the paint effectively.  The first tin of it that I bought was like trying to paint mayonnaise with a toothbrush.  It was so shite I complained to Dulux and got a voucher for a tin of the proper stuff that worked a treat as expected.  They suggested it may have been part of a bad batch, but I think it was just the nature of the beast.  The downside is that oil/solvent-based gloss paint or varnish yellows over time whereas the water-based stuff stays white or clear for longer.

I would hazard a guess that the brush applied Hammerite probably dries faster than the older stuff full of volatile solvents and may be more difficult to get as good a finish.