Recent auction site purchase: Flicker Vacuum Parts Catalog:

[crevicetool]

I've visited some finishing websites. Most say to spray the finish coat onto the wrinkle paint BEFORE it starts to dry. It makes for a more even-wrinkled finish.

Disclaimer: I have not tried this technique to date and cannot guarantee results.

 

[DysonAnimal]

That decanter is beautiful! If I had something to decant, that's what I'd want to be decanting it from!

 

[aeoliandave]

Gonna have to get me some from the different brands and experiment. Never seen anything wrinkly at Canadian Hardware stores such as Can Tire, Home Hardware, Lowes, Rona, Home Depot, etc.
So, next time I'm stateside it's on the list.

I have found 'hammer' finish spray cans from Kryolan and Tremcco but the colours leave a lot to be desired, vintage-wise.Unless you want brown (which looks fine on an old Filter Queen except they never get scuffed patches. LOL), bronze, black or Charcoal. The silver is ok. But of course it's not true hammertone look or depth.
If they can make these colours you'd imagine vintage tones in blues, reds, lilac, greens would be a no brainer with all the Nostalgia Decorating going on these days. And for us 3,837 worldwide Collector Dorks.
Or at least offer an additive you could add to custom colours for airbrushing.

I did once try a blue and green transparent candy coat over silver hammered paint but sadly the paints were incompatible with disastrous results.
I know you've done experiments in this area, Rick.

So wrinkle appeals to me if I can get a decent texture that could be overpainted in the correct tone, like for Hoovers, Singers, GEs, and Compacts.

(I wonder if the white speckled effect on Tristars is a two part process or one coat? It looks to me like artfully applied toothbrush spattering but so evenly distributed as to be supernatural magic!

Not that any of this is essential - we take our vintage vacs as we find them and give 'em the best spa makeover we can and call them gently used with real world 'patina'...but wouldn't it be nice to have those old paint textures and colours readily available for those really sad cases?
Well, never give up.

 

[portable]

Dave --- and Rick -

I remember being told to HEAT the part(s) being painted with wrinkle finish before spraying them. And then after spraying them. They wrinkle a lot better. I did the base of a Hoover 28 that way once. It worked pretty well.

 

[electrolux~137]

That's true. The "real" factory-done hammertone is done by baking the metal parts in an oven. The heat also tempers the paint, hardening it and bonding it to the metal. That's why you hardly ever see a scratched-up old Electrolux with the original hammertone finish. The ones that are "dunked and dried" by bojack shops, that's a different story. The paint on those machines starts flaking off even before you begin using the machine!