This is probably a very silly question, but......

[alesoun]

... have you ever had one tube of paint that drives you mad?

I have a tube of Mars Black acrylic paint that I've needed to use pliers to open from the very first time I used it. I don't have this problem with any other colour, and I treat all the tubes the same; try to avoid spills, let the paint settle back in the tube before I put the top on, loosen the top a quarter or a half turn after I've tightened it. It's a 60 ml Windsor & Newton Galleria tube, and it's still more than half-full, so I don't want to junk it but the tube is twisting so much that I have visions of it splitting and black acrylic paint going everywhere one of these times when I try to open it.

Anybody any ideas as to why this happens or what I can do to avoid it?

[Hyskoa]

Put the entire tube in a seringe.
Make sure there's no air inside. And whenever you need some paint, push some out. And your problem will be solved.
And it happens in the manufacturing process, parts of the paint or medium escape, come into contact with air and become sticky.

[alesoun]

Thanks, Hyskoa.

[phiq]

Yeah, great idea Hyskoa. Now... where to buy syringe? :(

[Jacob Kobryn]

Yeah, great idea Hyskoa. Now... where to buy syringe? :(

I'll geev you de hookup mang...

[mir]

I think you could dip the tube cap in some hot water and it would loosen the cap.But I am not sure if it is right.
Could you just put the paint in a little container from another paint.

[walnut]

Yup; hot water tends to loosen up whatever junk is stuck under the cap. One other thing you could do is to just massacre the tube and use all the paint as a background. Depends of course on how big the tube is and how much paint you have left, and in any case it's more interesting on larger surfaces. It's not the best course of action, i know, but sometimes it can be fun to just play with paint and experiment a little.

[TASmith]

I just figure pliers are standard for all paint sets.

[Mebiusu]

I have had the same problem with that color and it also happens with the deeper shades of blues and reds. All of these colors have different mixtures of materials. I am with TAS, I keep pliers and I am also careful to remove excess from the tube mouth and the cap interior before re-sealing the tube. I also recommend cleaning those parts with a thing called "The Masters" brush cleaner. It cleans any paint, even oils.

[Qitsune]

Some stores also sell empty tubes for ppl who make their own paint, you could transfer into those. Stores like Kama Pigment (http://www.kamapigment.com/index_en.html) (except this one in Montreal based, so maybe not so useful for you) that sell paint making supplies. (There are also paint making demos on the Kama site!)