White gas

[Raparee]

Hello all,
Todays mail brought me a copy of Harold Enlow's book "Carving Figure Charictures in the Ozark Style". Kudos to the Fox Chapel folks for the incredibly fast delivery, by the way.
In the book, he states that he used to paint his figures with oil based paint thinned with 'white gas', but stopped this practice because of the fumes and the danger.
What is 'white gas'? Is it gasoline?

[feb]

White gas is what they used to use in lanterns and cook stoves. before they came out with propain fuel cylinders. Feb

[gene-messer]

Tim .. I havent heard that term used in years ... My grandfather use to use white gas all the time ..

Iam sure back when Harold Enlow first started writing his books .. White gas was around ..

Boy did it have a strong odor !

Thanks for bringing back memories ...

Gene

[Anthony Filetti]

...remember my dad stopping to fill up the gas can with white gas before each camping trip...never really paid much attention to the smell, but remember the smell from the lanterns and cook stoves...

..white gas was sold from a pump usually off to the side (much the way kerosene is sold today....)

[Lynn O. Doughty]

I'm not stating this as fact but if you read Andy Anderson's book on carving caricatures that was out long before Enlow appeared on the scene, he also used white gas. I would venture that that is where Enlow picked it up. No mater, I'd still stear away from that formula.

You can still buy white gas. Just go to the camping section of Walmart and look for the Red gallon can that's usually next to the propane stoves and lanterns.

[AlArchie]

You can still find "white gas" in K-Mart, WalMart, sporting goods stores and hardwares. It's now sold in gallon cans as Lantern Fuel. The old style Coleman gas stoves and lanterns will outperform those new propane units, but are no where near as convienient. Some of the better lightweight backpacking stoves burn white gas, too. The newer single burner coleman style stoves can burn white gas or unleaded...a little easier to find.

The coleman style lanters are still available.

Oooops, see Lynn beat me to it......oh, well......

There are so many other thinners available out there now, there really isn't any reason to use white gas. The thinners are much safer, as white gas is quite volatile.

Al

[Thomp]

soon as unleaded gas come out most switched use from white gas to unleaded i never noticed any difference... in coleman stoves or lamps

[Eddy-Smiles]

If anyone's interested try this link!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_gas

"Coleman Camp Fuel, also known as white gas is a common naphtha fuel used in many lanterns and torches"

[Raparee]

Thanks for the input, folks.