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As many of you know we’ve moved to a new town 28 miles north of where I’ve lived for the last 46 years. Karen had only been there for about 20...but deserves consideration.

I headed out to replenish my supply or various products and it turns out that naphtha isn’t available anywhere near our new place and that it’s also no longer available where I used to live.

What is available is a product called Vm&p Naphtha, which from what I’ve read is a hotter version of Naphtha

Thoughts?, M

Coleman fuel is essentially naptha.
Should be able to locate some of that easily.

B

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My memory is so good, sometimes I remember things that never happened.

FWIW, VM&P means "varnish makers and painters." It's the only naphtha I've ever used and works fine as a general shop solvent and for thinning oil based finishes of various sorts. It's certainly hotter than mineral spirits.

I've been using VM&P naphtha from my local Ace store. I read that VM&P naphtha flashes off faster then regular naphtha.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Unless something has recently changed, lighter fluid = naphtha.

Stewmac also sells expensive cans of naptha.

The term naphtha covers a range of solvents and thinners. VM&P naphtha narrows it down to a more refined, more volatile, and cleaner burning type than other naphtha.

I find pure Naptha to have a more pleasant aftertaste than the VM&P's that I've tried. Home Depot ages theirs in oak barrels from what I've been told.

I've been told that Napa naptha is redolent of toluene with overtones of ketone yet reminiscent of Coleman fuel.

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Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right - Robert Hunter

Naphtha is a class of petroleum distillates that have a range of properties, depending on the manufacturer and intended use. Having built and finished guitars in three countries, my experience is they vary a lot and none were labelled simply as “naphtha”.

Lighter fluid is readily available, at least in small quantities, but a little pricey and slow to flash. Coleman fuel is cheaper, but some have complained about residues (I never found any). V&PM (varnish and paint makers’j naphtha is clean and not expensive and a perhaps a better choice — I cross over to the US to buy mine. Even better IMHO are Fuelite and Shellite, available at building supply “stockists” in New Zealand and Australia — very clean and very fast to flash off. But the very best I ever found (and dirt cheap) was sold in Kenya as “Home Dry Cleaning Fluid”! Took me almost a year to find it, sitting on the shelf of every Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi.


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"But the very best I ever found (and dirt cheap) was sold in Kenya as “Home Dry Cleaning Fluid”! Took me almost a year to find it, sitting on the shelf of every Nakumatt supermarket in Nairobi."

Another name for dry cleaning fluid type naphtha is Stoddard solvent. You may be able to find it under that name.