"G.R. Patterson III" wrote in message
...
Paul Sengupta wrote:

White spirit is a synthetic version of turpentine (or at least it's
used
interchangeably with turps). It's used for cleaning off wet or recently
dried paint from things. It's a solvent and I think it can be used to
thin oil based paints, but not sure.

Thanks. Turpentine is used here for thinning and cleaning oil paints (as
in the
stuff Rembrandt used), but little else. Not sure if I've ever seen a
synthetic
version on the market. I think the real stuff comes from pine trees, of
which
we have plenty.

White Spirit may not be a synthetic version. Maybe I thought that
because it's sometimes labelled "Turpentine substitute".

http://www.tipking.com/Tips/publish/tip_475.shtml

So "mineral spirits" is the same?

Ah, been google-ing. From:
http://www.peg2003.org/hardwood_gard...niture_uk.html
HARDWOOD GARDEN FURNITURE UK : Turpentine is
a derivative of pine oil which is the proper solvent for varnish.
Mineral spirits are a derivative of coal tar distillates and white
spirit pertains to naptha which is also a coal tar derivative but
containing benzene which may be banned in your country.

Other websites say it's the same thing, including:
http://www.inchem.org/documents/hsg/hsg/hsg103.htm
which says "mineral spirit" is a synonym for white spirit.

So I guess we can use it! :-)

Paul