Graphite question

[captcj]

I'm sold on the idea of a graphite bottom coat for shallow water/swamp boats. In all the pics I've seen, the graphite gives a black or dark grey tint. My ? is, can the graphite be mixed into a marine paint to obtain a darker color? For instance, I am hopeing graphite in a light, bright green epoxy/paint might yield a dark spruce. Any input?

 

[oldsparkey]

I'm sold on the idea of a graphite bottom coat for shallow water/swamp boats. In all the pics I've seen, the graphite gives a black or dark grey tint. My ? is, can the graphite be mixed into a marine paint to obtain a darker color? For instance, I am hopeing graphite in a light, bright green epoxy/paint might yield a dark spruce. Any input?

Not sure about the paint , never have tried it. I use the epoxy since it bonds with the graphite plus the epoxy adds a harder coat then the paint.

Backing up to my days as a Commercial Artist........(it was a long time ago , not that long ago ... early 60's ):lol:
Mixing black with any color works but with a green you would use very little of it. I would guess not enough to really do the job you are thinking about on protecting the bottom of the boat.

The main colors in a paint wheel or artists pallet are Yellow , Blue or Red with them you can make any color you want and either darken it with black ( a combination of all the color) or White ( the absence of the colors ). Either black or white takes very little to make the different hues of the color spectrum.

Yellow and red ..... Orange
Yellow and blue .... Green
Red and blue ........ Purple and the list just increases/continues from there as far as colors.

Now you can get pigment ( powder) for epoxy in different colors , mix it to your desire and have some color on your boat without it flaking off like paint does. Raka has them.

Chuck.
PS. I hope that answers your question. Back in the 60's my dream job would of been working for Field and Stream , traveling around in a camper and doing drawings for them , that got shot in the butt because I got married so I never got my dream job. Spent 10 years at the art game for J.C.Penney's , display , Ads and opening new stores. With an interruption in there , thanks to Uncle Sam and his conflict in someplace called Asia. :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[captcj]

Thanks, Chuck

Now you're talking. I really didn't mean paint, just typing faster than I was thinking - neither are impressively quick. :lol:

So, will it work? Pigment and graphite? Or is the black too much to overcome? I know 0 about pigments. What about the white alternative to Graphite I read about here somewhere?

 

[Jimmy W]

I've never tried it either, but I think that the black graphite would be too much to overcome. I have mixed epoxy with cabosil which is white and adding a small amount of graphite will turn that mixture completely black. You might be better off with the hexagonal Boron Nitride (white graphite), but I've never tried that either. I suspect that you could get a light green, but have doubts about getting a dark color.

 

[Kayak Jack]

Captain CJ,

I'm not sure at all where you're trying ot go with this color search. When you get done adding graphite-enriched epoxy tot he bottom of a boat, it is a shiny black. Before you use it, you should lightly sand it until it is a light (and very dusty) gray all over.

Since this will be the bottom of a boat, and it will be underwater when you use it, the color may not be all that important?

 

[captcj]

KJ:

Well, the bottom treatment will wrap around and up the hull a little bit, and I do want it lookong PURTY out of the H2O if possible. That will likely be the only 'colored' area of the hull, the rest being bright and 'woody', the way we like it! I guess I just kinda hoped I could throw some pigment in the mix and end up with something other than grey.

Vanity? Ya, I reckon so.