Child safe fence paint?

[Mark]

Hi all...

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I have been making a rocking horse for my niece, it's nearly time to paint it. I have some rustic brown fence paint by Cuprinol I bought from Jacksons, is it safe to use this? The container doesn't say one way or the other, just "Keep out of reach of children". I presume that's a catch-all statement in case they try and swim in it or something.

It's a good horsey colour, so I'd like to use it if possible. If it's not, would I be able to use it and seal it with some child safe varnish, assuming I can source such a thing!

Thanks in advance.

Mark.

[polygonum]

I'd ask them:

08444 817 817 Our Customer Advice Center is always happy to help should you have any questions.

[ARW]

I wonder if "always" includes 7pm on a Sunday evening?

[polygonum]

Stop reading my mind... :-)

[fred]

Very good advice, a friend had a life threatening experience after sooking on a stage prop cigar that had been coloured with a varnish containing a toxic fungicide.

[harryagain]

084= ?

[polygonum]

How much is a child's health worth?

If you want to penny-pinch then they do seem to accept email as well.

[Cash]

Having made many toys etc for the grandchildren, I personally wouldn't touch any fence paints or solvent paints for these.

I always use the water based gloss or matt paints [1] - as does my daughter when she hand-paints the various cartoon characters on them.

[1] These are reasonably priced, hard-wearing and safe to use where kiddies are concerned (a toy box that I made many years ago, and has been handed down to a couple of generations is still going strong with this stuff [never been repainted]) - and there is usually a good colour range.

Cash

[Vir Campestris]

08 anything is odd charging. I think 0844 is expensive, 0845 local rate, so the extra digit matters.

Andy

[polygonum]

Last 0844 I rang was 5p per minute on BT. No choice - GP surgery.

[ARW]

[polygonum]

That looks related to my response re GP? Yes - our surgery now has a standard local geographic number as well as 0844 but you only find that out when you go there and see a scrap of paper taped on the lower part of the reception desk.

[Brian Gaff]

I found that on some woods it kind of never dried and left the wood sort of greasy to the touch, so wonder if anything would stick to it. Brian

[Vir Campestris]

I'd be careful of fence paint (does it have preservative poisons in it? is the think to check) but solvent based paints should be fine. They _used_ to have lead, so you have to be careful of really old furniture, but anything you can buy now will be fine.

Andy

[Martin Brown]

Fence paints are likely to contain pigments and fungicides that are somewhat hostile to humans on skin contact. Their primary objective is to stop rot and repel water at all costs. Garden furniture paint is a bit better but for a childs plaything indoors you probably want a paint using pigments and resins that are reasonably benign even when eaten!

Getting something to stick to the fence paint might be problematic.

Why can't horsey be a nice antique pine colour varnished one?

[Gordon Henderson]

From a standard BT line, it's services up to 5p a minute. (So could be less, depending on the telco), and could be more, typically from mobile telcos.

All in all for a bit of advice from those who know, it's not a lot to pay.

Gordon

[Cash]

Andy,

Thanks for the reply, and having been in the wood trade for more than 50 years, I'm well aware of the points that you have made, but I will *not* use any solvent [1] or 'fence' paints on the stuff that I make for use by children.

As for working on 'old furniture', I leave that to the antique repairers as I have no interest with that sort of woodwork.

As for 'buying paint' - many technical conversations with paint rep's (along with all the technical specs that they've given me over the years) has given me a fair idea of what the stuff contains (new specifications produced since my retirement excepted).

[1] For the pedants amongst us - I'm also well aware that *water* is the most prolific solvent on the planet. It is also the safest.

Thanks

Cash

[polygonum]

That is the advice I'd expect Cuprinol to give, if asked.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Just the name would put me off - Cuprinol is mainly known for wood preservatives.

[Andrew Gabriel]

They were told to stop using those numbers a while back.