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Double dippers - cleaning tips

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Mark Forster

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Posted
Any decent tips for cleaning double dippers? I've got two pairs, one lidded, one open and I've used them for thinners, linseed oil, poppy oil and liquin. I've cleaned with solvent, I've left them overnight with solvent, I've used boiling water and still struggle with residue from previous uses. Any tips, or do I just keep going with the cleaning regime?
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Marjorie Firth

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Posted
Scraping around with a knife? Must admit I'm not scrupulous and my oil palettes get quite gunged up before I scrapeoff. I tend to use those tiny jam jars for mediums and thinners.

Syd Edward

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I think its the linseed oil that leaves a deposit that just sits there and sneers at your attempts to shift it .Some artists have palettes that are so coveredwith hardened on paint that there is no space clear for mixing but they still produce paintings .So just battle on with the dippers bearing in mind that house painters have to set fire to the hard paint in a paint can to clear it. you could try that if you dont mind blackened dippers but you cant win them all......Syd
With Sarah, Phil, Ellen, Rose the dentist, and the granddaughter whose name I forget.

Robert Jones, Napa

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Secrets time revealed - the truth about the dirty painter..... I maintain serviceable finger-nails, so that I can, in order, scrape dried bits of oil out of the dipper, scratch into paint (mostly watercolour and acrylic, scratching into oil is not a startlingly brilliant idea). I have tried all the methods you mention, and they don't work, whereas the trusty fingernail usually removes most dried oil residue. Liquin is a stubborn little devil, though the nails can remove it, and the only real answer is a) give up your old dippers as a bad job; b ) buy new, bright shiny ones with lids, so the oil shouldn't oxidize, thicken and stick if you leave any in there; c) don't leave any in there - wipe it all clean after each session with a bit of kitchen-roll and give it a sluice of solvent. But as said already, it doesn't really matter - other than aesthetically. The old oil and liquin won't mix with the new, and I bet most oil-painters hardly ever clean their dippers: it's a miracle if some of them clean their palette (I name no names, but see where my eyes rest).

Peter Davison

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Mine get cleaned when my conscience gets the better of me. I find hardened residues to be little problem for, as Robert says, they don't mix with new.

Mark Forster

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Posted
Thanks all. I'm a novice, who's been painting on and off in oils for 30-odd years. I've come back to it and managed to complete* more paintings in three months than the previous lifetime. My wife can see the improvements from one of the previous 'completed' paintings when it comes to today's offerings, but I'm having fun and enjoying the creative process. Re the double dippers, I thought I might be the odd one out. It's good to know I'm not. *Complete is a term very much open for debate!
Moi 17

Linda Wilson

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Oven cleaners or washing soda clears most oil based residue. I've never tried it on paint dippers, but I expect it would work.