alternative for lavender oil???

[Drew Wiley]

Leigh - very few products like that have MSDS sheets because they're not targeted to a regulated market. Garrett hit the nail on the head. And even industrial products which do have MSDS sheets aren't required to list every ingredient, but only hazardous ones; and even some of those can be left out if they're classified as a trade secret. Gosh, until we had all this stuff on software, we kept two entire trailers of MSDS sheets just outside the warehouse due to all the military business we did. We were also surrounded by big pharmaceutical and biotech labs who also required everything up front, documented. I know the ropes. And the number on rule is, that if you don't know the effect of something, thoroughly test it first! And even if it works, make sure the next time around, the product hasn't changed due to aging or storage issues, which has also been pointed out above. Back when I was doing faux
finishing on remodels of historic homes - having to match wood grain on access holes or panels for rewiring, plumbing acess etc, I learned how various oils and shellacs age-polymerized, and induced that kind of thing to create
special matching effects.

[Mike in NY]

I think the OP was hoping for an immediately available substitute, as he didn't have the time to wait to place an order. I've always used oil of lavender, and have not come across any contemporary substitutes for the oil ingredient. However, a graduate student by the name of Jens Gold wrote his master's thesis last year, titled "The Ambrotype / Wet Collodion Positives on Glass: Treatment Challenges on Complex Nineteenth-Century Photographic Objects." He mentions that many 19th Century recipes involved combinations of not only sandarac and oil of lavender, but also shellac, mastic, dammar, castor oil, thyme oil, Canada balsam and camphor. So one might consider the substitutability of readily available castor oil, but a potential difficulty would be knowing the proportion to use, as its properties might differ from oil of lavender. But it might do in a pinch. Either that, or let the plates dry where no dust will settle on them, order the lavender, and varnish them at a later time.

[Drew Wiley]

Well, every single substitute thing you mention is also a CATEGORY of product, containing many specific options. So access to specialty dealers is equally important. Take shellac. A woodworking supplier might carry twenty different options, a scientific supplier, totally different options; a paint manufacturer has still different requirements, and in volume; a hot-melt adhesive maker, something else again; and then there's food-grade shellac. You've no doubt eaten it. In fact, See's Candy is the biggest importer of shellac in the world. Yep, you've been eating aphid Goretex all along! And the term "varnish" goes all over the map. What coats one thing well might dissolve and strip another. What seemingly goes on fine might craze atop gelatin once it cures. There are chemists who dedicate entire careers to varnishes. It's a term that embraces thousands of products, often very differently derived, and for very different purposes. And the term meant different products in the 19th C than it does today.

[mdarnton]

Mike in NY--Castor oil is a real oil (which lavender isn't--it's a solvent like turpentine) and couldn't be substituted. A few drops will turn varnish into a sloppy mess that will never dry. Its purpose in such a recipe is to add flexibility. Thyme oil is probably the lavender equivalent in that recipe, as a solvent, but I have never seen that for sale as a solvent.

[Mike in NY]

Mdarnton, I thought about that as I was falling asleep in bed last night, and realized the same thing. I thought perhaps Thyme oil might have similar properties to lavender, but I really don't know.

Drew, I don't disagree with anything you say, I just don't think it does anything to answer the OP's question. He was in a bind and needed a substitute then and there. Your observations are all accurate, but don't answer his question, so why post them?

[Drew Wiley]

Why post them? If there are nails lying all over road, would you want someone unaware of them? It's fairly common to see references to antique processes resurrected on the web or even in book form, sometimes as direct copies. I have a shelf full of this kind of interesting literature, mostly concerning photographic media I don't even personally work with. Unless someone has done their homework or consulted an expert - either a restorationist (professional conservator) or someone currently skilled in that specific process, there is likely to be misunderstanding about various things, like overcoating in this instance. Or, as we've already seen on this immediate thread, people rush to the web and discover a multitude of product listing, without understanding they're really entering a spider's web if they aren't cautious. Sure, I could mention any number of hypothetical options. But since I don't work in this particular media, I haven't tested any of them. I do own a lot of true antique photographs from all kinds of processes, and would of course have the liberty to attempt to recoat some of those. If I did happen to do that, I'd have to distinguish between photos of significant historic value, which I wouldn't want to disturb at all, and those suitable for casual wall decor which I'd be willing to compromise for purposes of display. In the latter case, I could just grab something on hand like Renaissance wax, or a microfiber cloth and some gum arabic, or go modern with true butylacetate print lacquer, which would look great but then start to conspicuously yellow in 15 years or so. And it all also depends on whether someone wants to replicate an antique method religiously, or invent some new tweak. Gosh. I know people like simple answers, and get impatient with me when I try to explain what is actually a bit of a maze. I come from a career background where I had to routinely act as a consultant to similar questions, not only concerning artwork, but very often, extremely expensive architectural restorations. Any number of these were re-dos because someone naively swallowed generic advice prior, and ended up with a nightmare. Just to be in the league of correct answers, I had to personally test hundreds of various coating and binder options. I had clients dealing with everything from Frank Lloyd Wright remodels to the most expensive yachts on earth to genuine Stradivarius violins (which I wouldn't even touch, but did know a valid expert to refer them to). And I can't automatically assume that a question on this forum doesn't pertain to something a printmaker would truly like to keep over the long haul. If it's a temporary or disposable kind of print, they should say so. The mere fact that this is a large format forum suggests they are reasonably dedicated to their craft. So now do you see where I'm coming from?

[Mike in NY]

[Drew Wiley]

If it's so important to you, Mike, run your own tests, then report back in thirty years or fifty or a hundred years, when you might have a legitimate answer, and not a sheer guess.