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The following is an infallible and simple commercial test of the purity of white lead:
Take a piece of firm, close-grained charcoal, and near one end of it scoop out a cavity about half an inch in diameter and a quarter of an inch in depth. Place in the cavity a sample of the lead to be tested, about the size of a small pea, and apply to it continuously the blue or hottest part of the flame of the blow-pipe; if the sample be strictly pure it will, in a very short time, say two minutes, be reduced to metallic lead, leaving no residue; but if it be adulterated, even to the extent of 10 per cent. only, with oxide of zinc, sulphate of baryta, whiting or any other carbonate of lime (which substances are the principal adulterations used), or if it be composed entirely of these materials, as is sometimes the case with cheap lead (so-called), it cannot be reduced, but will remain on the charcoal an infuscatible mass.
A blow-pipe can be obtained from any jeweler at small cost. An alcohol lamp, star candle, or a lard oil lamp furnishes the best flame for use of the blow-pipe. This test is very simple and anyone can very soon learn to make it with ease and skill.
One quart good vinegar, 2 ounces butter of antimony, 2 ounces alcohol, 1 quart oil. Shake before using.
| BRONZES—COLORS. | ||
| White, | Silver, | Flesh, |
| Light Gold, | Dark Gold, | Rich Gold, |
| Lemon, | Orange, | Fire, |
| Copper, | Carmine, | Crimson, |
| Lilac, | Violet, | Brown, |
| Light and Dark Greens. | ||
Asphaltum, 2 pounds.
Boiled linseed oil, 1 pint.
Spirits turpentine, 2 quarts.
Melt the asphaltum with the oil in an iron kettle. Stir well before removing from the fire. When partly cool add the turpentine and a little good japan.
To deodorize benzine, add 3 ounces quicklime to the gallon of benzine; shake well. Let the lime settle and pour off and filter the benzine.
Take of linseed oil, 4 parts; whiting, 40 parts; rosin, 50 parts; clean sand, 300 parts; heat together in a kettle until the rosin melts; then add 2 parts sulphate of copper; the mass to be well stirred, and thinned to workable consistency with linseed oil.
Dissolve 1 pound shellac in 1 gallon 95 per cent. alcohol; then add ½ pound best powdered ivory black, 5 ounces finest emery flour, 2 ounces ultramarine blue; mix well and keep air tight. When using stir frequently. If thick enough to show brush marks, add more alcohol; work quick with a fine brush.
Stop all cracks and holes with plaster paris mixed in glue size. When dry sandpaper until all is smooth; then paper the wall with white blank wall paper, butt the edges, put on with strong paste, and be careful to rub out all blisters. When dry prime with oil paint, then sandpaper with fine paper, and put on two coats of above slating. This makes an excellent blackboard. Boards which I made in this way twenty years ago are in good shape yet, and will last for years to come with an occasional repainting.
Mix lamp black, 4 parts; ultramarine blue, 1 part, by weight, in turpentine, with sufficient good japan and a very little oil to bind it, then add one part by weight of fine pumice stone. Have it thin enough to flow on and not leave brush marks.
Melt 2½ pounds of india rubber in ½ gallon of boiled oil by boiling. If too thick, add more oil; if too thin, add more rubber, and a little japan to dry it. Apply warm.
Have some whiting on a plate, then dip a piece of flannel in warm, soft water and squeeze nearly dry, then take up some of the whiting by dipping the flannel in it, and rub the paint until it looks clean, then rub dry with a soft cloth or chamois skin.
For red stain, take Venetian red, 2 parts; yellow ochre, 1 part—both dry—and mix with skim milk. For yellow stain, use water-lime, tinted with yellow ochre. Mix as above.
Skim milk when mixed with common quicklime, Portland cement, or Venetian red, is converted into an insoluble binder, which renders the mixture waterproof, so that it will not wash off when wet; neither will it rub up when dry. Other pigments can be added, by way of coloring, up to 25 per cent., without affecting the insolubility of the paint.
For a brick wall, which has not been rubbed or painted, Venetian red toned down with yellow ochre, beats any glue and acid mixture for durability.
Put on with a rag a weak solution of ammonia in water, and rub to dryness.
In a gallon of water, boil a pound of wheat bran, and wash the varnish with the water.
In wall painting or otherwise, especially in hot weather, if the paint dries so fast as to show laps in spite of your best efforts with the brush, the addition of a little cotton seed oil will make the paint dry slower without hurting the gloss; or if you are using flat color, and it dries too fast, a little cotton seed oil will make it dry slower, and not make a gloss. You can, by a little experiment, determine how much of cotton seed oil to use in each case.
Red aniline (fuchsine), 20 parts; purple aniline, 10 parts; 95 per cent. alcohol, 200 parts; acid benzoic, 10 parts. Dissolve the colors in the spirit in a porcelain vessel in a water or sand bath; add the acid and boil until the mixture changes from a greenish color to a beautiful bronze color. Lay it on the bright metal with a brush.
When the paint commences to blister or scale on a door, it is very liable to keep on blistering and scaling from time to time, as long as any of the old paint is left on the door, no matter how carefully it may be repainted, because in most cases whatever caused the paint to scale off in spots, weakened the entire coat of paint on the door, making it liable to raise up, or come off in other places, whenever exposed to any extra strain, such as sun heat, or the drying of new coats of paint or varnish over it; hence, to have a sure thing on painting a scaled or blistered door, take off all the old paint. Put on a thin prime of pure white lead and linseed oil; use the priming sparingly and rub it out thin; let the prime dry and coat up with lead and oil paint, mixed with good body; put in a little turps and spread the paint out thin, so it will dry solid; rub each coat in the same way; give each coat time to dry solid. For work to be varnished, prime as above, and coat up flat. I think blistering is often caused by flowing on too much paint having too much oil in it, in proportion to the pigment, hence it does not dry solid, the oil is softened and expanded by heat, and the coating, which is more of an oil skin than a body of paint, lets go its hold on the wood and puffs out in a blister to make room for the softened and expanding oil skin. If painters will mix their paint with good body, and use more elbow grease in rubbing it out, they will have less trouble with blisters.
A recipe published thirty years ago in the Maine Farmer:
Slake stone lime by putting it into a tub to be covered to keep in the steam. When slacked pass the powder through a fine sieve, and to each 6 quarts of it add 1 quart rock salt, and water, 1 gallon; then boil and skim clean. To each five gallons of this add pulverized alum, 1 pound; pulverized copperas, ½ pound; then slowly add powdered potash, ¾ pound; then add hardwood ashes sifted, 4 pounds; now add any color and apply with a brush. This paint stops small leaks in roofs, prevents moss, is incombustible, and renders brick waterproof. It is durable as stone.
Genuine asphaltum 8 pounds, melt in an iron kettle, slowly adding boiled linseed oil, 5 gallons; litharge, 1 pound, and sulphate of zinc, ½ pound; continue to boil three hours, then add dark gum amber, 1½ pounds, and boil two hours longer. When cool thin with turpentine to good working consistency.
Genuine asphaltum (not coal tar imitation), 1 pound; lamp black, ¼ pound; rosin, ½ pound; spirits turpentine, 1 quart. Dissolve the asphaltum and rosin in the turpentine, then rub up the lamp black with linseed oil, only sufficient to form a paste, and mix with the others.
First cut it up in benzine or turpentine to a thick paste, stir well and add linseed oil; if the black is to be used as an oil paint, a little at first, stir well and you may add more. In this way you will have no trouble in mixing it with other paint, if you do it when the paint is rather stiff.
One-half ounce oxalic acid, 3 ounces rotten stone, ¼ ounce gum arabic, each in powder; made into a paste with sweet oil. Use sparingly and rub dry with flannel.
Grind dry colors in japan and turps, with only enough japan to bind the pigment. When dry varnish, use any pigment you like, or use bolted whiting and color as you like.
Take 2 ounces pearlash and 2 pounds white wax. Slice the wax thin, and boil it with the pearlash in 2 quarts of water; stir until the wax is melted and unites with the water.
Put on the finish with a brush, and polish with cloth or plush.
This finish will be good only for light service.
There are numerous recipes which might be given here for making the fine elastic varnishes, but it would not be practicable for the painter to make them, even if he had the requisite skill and experience, but with spirit varnishes it is very different, and the painter can make them by a formula as well as an expert can. (For formulas for white and orange shellac varnish see article on wood finishing.) For inside work, where the family is living at the time the work is being done, the alcohol varnish is preferable. First, because it dries very quickly, and second, because it is free from sickening or disagreeable odors.
Below are several recipes for making varnishes, which dry hard and lustrous. The spirit used is wood or grain alcohol; in either case, the spirit should be 95 per cent. proof.
1. Sandarac, 1 pound; shellac, ½ pound; gum elemi, 4 ounces; Venice turpentine, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
2. Gum sandarac, 1½ pounds; shellac, 1 pound; spirit, 1 gallon. After the gums are dissolved, put in rosin turpentine varnish, 1 pint. This makes a good varnish, not as quick drying as pure spirit varnishes.
A brown varnish may be made by mixing shellac, 1½ pounds; pale rosin, 1½ pounds; spirit, 2 gallons.
1. Sandarac, 2½ pounds; gum thus, 1 pound; spirit, 1 gallon.
2. Mastic, ½ pound; sandarac, 2 pounds; elemi gum, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
3. Mastic, ½ pound; sandarac, 1 pound; turps, 2 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
These are all prepared by mixing and setting in a warm place until the gums are dissolved, then they are ready for use. Shake occasionally. For fine work strain carefully.
1. Pale manila copal, 8 ounces; gum camphor, 1 ounce; mastic, 2 ounces; venice turpentine, 1 ounce; spirit, 1 quart.
2. Sandarac, 8 ounces; mastic, 2 ounces; Canada balsam, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 quart.
3. Sandarac, 8 ounces; damar, 4 ounces; gum thus, 8 ounces; manila copal, 8 ounces; elemi, 8 ounces; spirit, ½ gallon. This is a good pale article.
4. Gum thus, 8 ounces; gum benzoin, 4 ounces; manila elemi, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 quart.
These are made by mixing opaque pigments with almost any varnish, using sufficient turps to make them spread well.
Shellac, 8 ounces; sandarac, 8 ounces; mastic, 8 ounces; gamboge, 2 ounces; dragon’s blood, 1 ounce; turmeric, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
Shellac, 1¾ pounds; sandarac, 4 ounces; mastic, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
Damar, 1 ounce; sandarac, 5 ounces, mastic, 1 ounce; turps, 20 ounces. Digest at gentle heat until dissolved. If necessary add more turps to bring down to the proper consistency.
Pale gold lacquer.—Spirit, 1 gallon; orange shellac, 1 ounce; gamboge, ½ ounce.
Deep gold.—Orange shellac, 10 ounces; turmeric, 4 ounces; gamboge, 4 ounces; dragon’s blood, ½ ounce; spirit, ¾ gallon.
Brass lacquer.—Shellac, 14 ounces; turmeric, 4 ounces; annotto, 1 ounce; saffron, ½ ounce; spirit, 1 gallon.
Shellac, 12 ounces; gum thus, 5 ounces; sandarac, 2 ounces; lamp black, 1 ounce; turpentine, 4 ounces; spirit, ¾ gallon.
Mix the ingredients, and give them time to dissolve in the spirit in a warm place. A shake-up now and then will quicken the process.
Bib overalls, large pocket in front, side pockets for rule and shears, long trimming shears, shorter wet shears, straightedge, paste board, plumb bob, rule, paper brush, paste pail, size kettle, step-ladders and rollers, some sandpaper, soft cloths and long blotting paper to use under your roller on seams, when needed, and a plank for scaffold, when papering ceilings. For common sized rooms two step-ladders are good in the place of trestles to hold up the plank. For butt edging I can recommend James Marks’ paper cutters. See description on another page.
Beat up four pounds of sifted wheat flour in cold water sufficient to make a stiff batter; beat out all the lumps, then add enough cold water to make it like pudding batter. Then pour in a little hot water and stir, then pour in hot water fast, and stir until the paste swells and thickens, and turns darker. It is then cooked. To keep the paste from “going back” and staining the paper, add about two ounces of powdered or well pounded alum to the boiling water which you pour on the batter. This will make three-quarters of a common wooden pail full of paste. It will do better and go further if you let it cool before using. Turn a little cold water on the top to prevent it skinning over while you wait for it to cool. When ready to use it, thin with cold water, until it works easily under the brush, and according to the wall. A very rough porous wall needs a stout paste and plenty of it, while a hard, smooth wall should have the paste thinned and less of it. I have known paper to crack and fall off from a smooth wall, because too much or too thick paste was put on. Just enough to cement the paper to such a wall is best; a body of paste between the paper and plaster will decay and peel off, and take the paper with it. The other extreme must be avoided also. Some hangers prepare this paste without the alum.
If hanging paper on a glossy painted surface, leave out the alum and add one-half pint of nice clear sirup to each gallon of paste.
In a kettle mix some flour in water in the same way as in the above formula, but make the batter thinner. To each gallon of the batter add one ounce of powdered resin. Set the kettle on a moderate fire, and keep stirring it until it boils and thickens, and the resin is melted into the paste. When cool, thin down with a weak solution of gum arabic.
Fine glue dissolved in alcohol makes a nice binder for fine water colors.
Lay the glass flat and flow heavy alum water over it. Let it dry.
One pound good white glue, 1 pound good bar soap, 2 pounds pulverized alum. Dissolve each separately in one quart boiling water, having first soaked the glue. Mix the glue and soap water, and then slowly add the alum water, stirring all the time. Add cold water to make one gallon.
Wash with a solution of bi-chromate of potash and acid water. One ounce to a quart of water.
“Anybody can do it!” Yes, but it takes an expert to do it right. It is not a difficult matter to make paper stick to whitewash, but the whitewash splits as far in as the paste goes, and a part of it invariably sticks to the paper when it comes off and a part of it is left on the wall. As a rule, if you size whitewash with flour paste and let it stand a few days it will crack and roll up. Now, pure glue size does not have this effect upon whitewash, but, on the contrary, it not only acts as a binder, but as an intervening coat between the paste and the whitewash. In other words, the glue size will stick the whitewash fast without causing it to crack, and the paste will adhere to the glue size without bad effects upon either. Now, in order to bind the whitewash, the glue should penetrate as far as possible. Hence, the size should be put on warm, and the room should be warm, otherwise the glue will get cold and stiff like jelly before it has time to penetrate; hence it will remain on the surface instead of going into whitewash as a binder. The idea is to get all you can into the wall and leave as little as possible on the outside. Another thing to look after is the quality of the glue. Very much of the white glue found on the market is not genuine glue. Some of it is adulterated with starch and white clay, some of it is not glue at all. A glue which will dissolve in cold water is not good glue, or if it melts readily in hot water without being soaked an hour or two in cold water, it is not first-class. If it has a dead white look it is not good. Good glue should be glossy and semi-transparent, and should soften and swell in cold water, but not dissolve in it. When put into hot water without being first soaked in cold water, it should not dissolve at once, but form into a lump and resist the action of the hot water for some time.
An extract from a circular issued by the manufacturers of these letters:
Having thoroughly cleaned the window and freed it from grease, draw with white marking chalk on front of it the plan or arrangement of outline it is intended to adopt—straight or curved, as the case may be. A rule is used for marking the straight lines and a piece of twine for the curved lines. Now divide these guide lines up into as many spaces as there are letters to go on, carefully proportioning them. Then apply the cement to the back of the letters with a knife, laying on equally around both the inside edges. Place the letter upon the window in the space marked for it and work it up and down, back and forth, pressing against the glass, so as to expel the air and secure a good adhesion, and taking care to press equally on top and bottom of the letter, as otherwise there is a likelihood of breaking. It is advisable, in cementing larger sized letters than six inches, to leave the letters lay for an hour after placing the cement around the edges, and then to give another coat of cement and attach the letters immediately. The object is to prevent all the cement from working inside the concave parts of the letters. In affixing larger and heavy letters, small pieces of beeswax (or, in summer, sealing wax) should be employed to keep them in position until the cement sets. As soon as the letters are attached to the glass take a small stick of wood, sharpen it on the end and clean away all superfluous cement, keeping the end of the stick constantly wet. Particular care should be taken to leave no openings between the letters and the glass (especially around the top edges) which would allow water to get in between.
If wax has been used, remove it after a few days and clean with a rag. The sign is then complete for long service. The above method will answer equally well on any smooth surface such as stone, iron, marble, wood.
To make the cement, mix two parts of white lead ground in oil with three parts of dry white lead, and thin it down to the consistency of soft putty with some good furniture or copal varnish. Then take small parts of it and grind them on a stone or glass plate in the manner of painters grinding color with a bowl or palette knife. This is to be continued until the cement is entirely smooth and cornless, and then it is ready for use.
To remove enameled letters, the most convenient way is to scratch away around the edges all the cement you can from under the letters. Use for this purpose a very thin knife or a piece of thin sheet steel. You will soon reach the soft part of the cement; then cut away with a sawing motion and twist them off. Do not attempt to pry the letters off, or they may break. If the cement should be very hard, say after a number of years, use a little kerosene oil, which is applied on the top edges of the letters, so as to work in and soften the cement.
There are many things about wall sizing, which depend largely upon good judgment for success, because the treatment must be varied according to the condition of the wall or ceiling. A good size is made of good white glue, ½ pound; alum, 1 pound.
Dissolve the glue in the usual way; that is, soak it in cold water until soft, then pour off the cold water and pour on the hot water; and stir until the glue is dissolved.
Dissolve the alum in hot water.
Then stir the glue, and put in the alum water. Thin the mixture with water to the right consistency to work well.
If one coat is not sufficient, give it two; or if there are porous places in the wall, touch them up.
In many cases a simple glue size is sufficient, but if you use the glue and alum size as above directed, you will be pretty sure of a good foundation for kalsomine.
One of the most difficult things to overcome in preparing ceilings for kalsomine is the water stain, which is liable to be invisible until developed by a coat of kalsomine. If you find water stains on a ceiling and suspect that there may be others which do not show, go over the ceiling with a thin wash of whiting mixed in clear water, which when dry will develop all hidden stains. To kill a bad stain, first put on a coat of oil, japan and turps, equal parts; second, put on a coat of good heavy shellac; third, give the spots a coat of flat lead. This treatment is for dark stains; for light stains a coat or two of shellac will stop the stain. It is best to put a coat of keg lead thinned with turps over the shellac, because kalsomine is liable to scale off from shellac.
On cheap work, if the stain is not too dark, it may be kept back by pasting a piece of paper over it. If the wall has been kalsomined it is always in order to wash off the old kalsomine. If the work has been whitewashed, either take it off or first give it a wash of strong vinegar, then a glue size, which, if put on thin and plentifully while warm in a warm room, is about the best size I know of for whitewash. I have often used it successfully when it was not practicable on account of the weakness of the ceiling or other cause to take off the old whitewash. Two thin coats of good glue size on firm whitewash makes as fair a foundation for kalsomine as can be made on old whitewash.
When it will not pay you to wash off the old kalsomine, a coat or two of the wall sizing described above will make a good foundation.
To the beginner I will say: Learn the letters; get a variety of alphabets in your head; the more you have the better you will be prepared to do a pleasing variety of sign writing. A variety of letters arranged in alphabets are given in the following pages as a convenient means of reference for the painter who may desire to refresh his memory, as to the form of any letter represented, or to make a study of them with a view of acquiring a knowledge of the formation of letters generally.