On Oct 11, 1:00*pm, "
wrote:
On Oct 9, 6:01 pm, Bill wrote:

As long as I'm getting the long version, please explain how latex paint
may or may not be an enamel. \
IN GENERAL TERMS, enamels usually have harder resins in them that make
them more abrasion resistant. *This makes them ideal for interior
trims, etc. as they will resist scratching and will stand for a lot of
cleaning.

The harder resins also made the paint more shiny and (to my
understanding) began enamel's association with glossy finish.

I think 'enamel' originally was jewelry items, fired colored glass
on copper and the like.
Porcelain enamel on steel has been common since Norman Bel Geddes
designed the first whiteware kitchen stove (1932).

To get an enamel-like paint, you need it to self-level, i.e. the
mixture has to pull its surface flat by surface tension. That means
the base has to be hard, because you can't toss lots of solid pigment
particles in; like gravel, they'd prevent the flattening. It also
means you
usually have long cure times or need to bake the product to keep
the base fluid.

Classic paint is a three-component mixtu a pigment (like burnt
umber)
and a base (gummy oil of some kind), and a thinner (turpentine).
It's hard because the pigment particles are hard, flexible because the
base
is stretchy, and goes on liquid because the thinner (which evaporates)
softened or dissolved the glue-like base.

Enamel, though, needs a hard base, usually an alkyd or epoxy. Those
don't dissolve, you dissolve the precursor compounds instead and apply
them, then they cure chemically. The pigment has to be either
loosely
packed or controlled-shape particles, if it is to support the self-
leveling,
and it's doubtful that enamel has as much pigment as paint does.