Part 1

NOW READY.

_Second and Enlarged Edition._

The Steel Square

AND ITS USES.

By FRED. T. HODGSON.

This is the only work on THE STEEL SQUARE AND ITS USES ever published. It is Thorough, Exhaustive, Clear, and Easily Understood. Confounding terms and scientific phrases have been religiously avoided where possible, and everything in the book has been made so plain that a boy twelve years of age, possessing ordinary intelligence, can understand it from end to end.

The New Edition is Illustrated with over Seventy-five Wood-cuts, showing how the Square may be used for solving almost every problem in the whole Art of Carpentry.

The following synopsis of the contents of the work will give some idea of its character and scope.

--History of the “Square.”--Description, with Explanation of the Rules, Figures, Scales, and Divisions shown on good Squares.

--Brace Rules, Octagonal Scale, Board, Plank and Scantling Rules, fully explained and described.

--How to lay out Rafters, Hips, Jack-Rafters, Purlins, Bevel Works, etc., etc.

--Backing for Hips, Lengths and Bevels of Valley Rafters. Laying out Stairs and Strings.

--How to describe Circles, Ellipses, Parabolas and other figures, with the Square.

--How to obtain Bevels for Hoppers and all kinds of Splayed Work and Spring Mouldings, by the Square.

--Bisecting Circles, Proportion of Circles, Division of Widths, Bisection of Angles, Diminishing Stiles, Centering Circles, etc., etc.

--Theoretical Rafters, Cuts for Mitre Boxes, Measurement of Surfaces, including Painting, Plastering, Shingling, Siding, Flooring, Rough Boarding, Tinning and Roofing.

--Rules for describing Octagons and Polygons of every description and how to find their angles and areas.

--Rules for finding the lengths of Rafters and Hips of Irregular Roofs, Cuts for Equal and Unequal Mitres, Trusses and Bevel Timber Work.

--The Development of Hip and Curved Roofs; Veranda Rafters, Straight and Curved; Hopper Cuts of all kinds, Angle Corner-pieces, Splayed Work for Gothic Heads, etc., etc., and many other things useful to the Operative Mechanic.

Handsomely Bound in Cloth with Gilt Title. Price ONE DOLLAR.

INDUSTRIAL PUBLICATION COMPANY.

New York.

HINTS FOR PAINTERS,

DECORATORS,

AND PAPER-HANGERS.

BEING

A SELECTION OF USEFUL RULES, DATA, MEMORANDA, METHODS, AND SUGGESTIONS FOR HOUSE, SHIP AND FURNITURE PAINTING, PAPER-HANGING, GILDING, COLOR MIXING, AND OTHER MATTERS USEFUL AND INSTRUCTIVE TO PAINTERS AND DECORATORS.

Prepared with Special Reference to the Wants of Amateurs.

BY

AN OLD HAND.

NEW YORK: THE INDUSTRIAL PUBLICATION COMPANY. 1882.

PREFACE.

This little work is intended to furnish the PRACTICAL HOUSE-PAINTER--THE EVERY-DAY WORKMAN--with information sufficient to enable him to understand his business intelligently. One of its objects is to deal with the nature, characteristics, qualities, and defects of the materials employed by the class of artisans for whom it is written; and to a limited extent this has been done with as little theory as possible; high-sounding technicalities have also been avoided wherever the author has been able to make himself understood without them.

It is thought the young painter may derive great profit and advancement from a careful study of this book, as the hints, rules, and recipes it contains are reliable, practical, and of every-day use.

The author has consulted many works on the subject, and is indebted to many of them for much of the matter contained, among which may be mentioned “Building Construction and Materials,” “House-Painter’s Hand-Book,” “Artists’ and Tradesmen’s Companion,” “Painter’s Guide,” “Chevreul’s Oils and Paints,” and several other works of more or less note. To this has been added many things discovered by the actual experience of the writer.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Preface, iii

Preliminary, 7

Preparation of Surfaces, 7

Materials Used, 8

Bases and Vehicles, 10

White Lead, Genuine and Adulterated, 10

Linseed and other Oils, 13

Driers, 14

Coloring Paints, 15

Blacks and Blues, 16

Yellows, 17

Browns, 18

Pinks and Reds, 19

Lakes and Orange, 20

Green, 21

Proportion of Ingredients in Mixed Paints, 22

Table showing the composition of the different coats of white paint, and the quantities required to cover 100 yards of new work, 23

Operations, 24

Preparing the Work, 25

Taste in Color, 30

Graining--General Remarks, 32

Graining in Oak, Mahogany, Rosewood, Walnut, Maple, Satin-wood, Granites, Marbles, etc., 36

Rules for Mixing Compound Colors, 41

Miscellaneous Receipts, for Painting Iron, Stucco, Glass; Gilding, Gilding on Glass, Gilding Fretwork, Painting on Gilded Panels, Gilding on Wood, Gilding Letters, Gilder’s Size, Staining Wood, Staining Floors, Varnishing, Painting Brick-work and Masonry, French Polish, Wood-filling, Rules for Painters to Observe, 43

Paper-hanging, 54

Operations, 56

Cleaning Paper-hangings, 57

Varnishing Paper, 57

The Making of Paste, 58

Useful Hints and Table for Estimating Cost of Work and Materials, 59

HINTS FOR PAINTERS AND PAPER-HANGERS.

There is a general belief abroad that anybody can execute all that is required of a house-painter. This is a very popular error; it is not so easy to prepare and apply a coat of paint in a thorough workmanlike manner as some may imagine. It is still less easy to paint in parti colors; and very few can produce a good piece of graining.

The painter should not only be acquainted with the method of applying paint when it is provided for him, and the brush placed in his hand, but he should know the composition of the colors; the manner in which they are made, and the colors which must harmonize with each other when they are associated together. These observations being of a practical nature and the result of experience, are commended for his perusal and study.

=Preparation.=--All surfaces painted should be first thoroughly dry and free from dust. All heads of nails should be punched or “set” below the surface of the wood, and after the priming is dry, the holes formed by the heads, as well as all cracks, defects, etc., should be filled up with putty made of raw linseed oil and whiting. To prevent knots or “fat” spots from showing through, they should receive two coats of shellac varnish, and when dry rubbed down with sand-paper. The shellac should be applied with a small brush. It dries soon and may be painted over as soon as dry. Shellac prepared this way is called “knotting,” and can be purchased wherever painters’ materials are kept for sale.

=Materials.=--The principal materials used for painting, _i.e._, white lead and oxide of zinc, are so well known that it is unnecessary to allude particularly to their manufacture at present. Before using them they should be mixed with pure raw linseed oil. Turpentine may be used in cold weather to make the paint work easy, as the oil is apt to chill, which thickens it and makes it difficult to apply. In warm weather, however, turpentine should not be used in priming any parts where the sun shines upon. In cold weather it is always necessary to use litharge or some other drier; or the work will remain a long time before it hardens; in summer, however, driers in most cases are unnecessary, for if the wood to be painted is as well seasoned as it ought to be there is little danger of the paint being washed off by rain, as it will mostly be absorbed in the surface.

To make satisfactory work it is imperative that all cans, pots and brushes used in painting be perfectly clean at the start, and kept so whenever the conditions will permit. A marble slab and muller will be required to grind the finer colors used. Sometimes a small cast-iron mill will be found useful not only to grind colors; but to pass the tinted color through, so that it may be thoroughly mixed. It is scarcely necessary to say that it is presumed the workman will know what brushes he will require according to the work he has in hand. His large ground paint brush, called a “pound-brush;” his half-size, for smaller work; his fitch and sash tools, duster, pallet, putty and hasp knives; oval and flat varnish brushes, varnish-pot, step-ladders and long ladders, mahl-stick, pallet-board, gilding-knife, camel and sable hair-pencils, whitewash brushes, jack for window work, cushion, tip-pole, etc., etc.

Large brushes, such as 6-0 size, should be bridled when new by winding good twine around them about one-third up the length of the bristles, and as the brush wears, this binding can be unwound. Care should be taken to use the brushes so that they will have a flat wedge-shaped point, straight on the edge. This can be done by holding the brush always in one position. If brushes are turned round and round in the hand while in use, they wear round and stubby on the point and soon become useless for fine or smooth work.

Brushes that are in use every day should be placed in water half the depth of the bristles at night, taking care that brushes containing different colors do not come in contact with one another. If they are to be laid aside for any length of time, however, they should be washed with warm water and soap after being thoroughly cleansed with turpentine, and laid away in a moist place.

As a general thing it is better to buy putty already made at a regular paint store, where you may depend upon its being made of good whiting and linseed oil than to make it. Putty should not be used until the work has been primed, for new paint holds the putty very firmly.

White lead is to be judged of by being well ground and possessing the mellowness given to it by age.

It is well known amongst painters that the best article is the most economical, as it works out with more ease, and repays the difference of cost in its better appearance and extra durability. Linseed oil is also better for having due age, for the same reasons as the white lead, working with softness and advantage after parting with the water, which is generally combined with new oil.

In most cases _driers_ are added to paints to cause them to dry more quickly, and a _solvent_ is sometimes required to make the paints work more freely. When the color required differs from that of the main paint used, the desired tint is obtained by adding a staining or coloring pigment. The materials generally employed may, for convenience, be classed as follows:

=Bases.=--White lead, red lead, zinc white, oxide of iron. _Vehicles._--Oils, spirits of turpentine. _Solvents._--Spirits of turpentine. _Driers._--Litharge, acetate of lead, sulphate of zinc and binoxide of manganese, red lead, etc. _Coloring Pigments._--Ochres, lampblack, umber, sienna, and many metallic salts that will be hereinafter mentioned.

White lead may be obtained either pure or mixed with various substances, such as sulphate of baryta, sulphate of lead, whiting, chalk, zinc white, etc. These substances do not combine with oil as well as does white lead, nor do they so well protect any surface to which they are applied. Sulphate of baryta, the most common adulterant, is a dense, heavy, white substance, very like white lead in appearance. It absorbs very little oil, and may frequently be detected by the gritty feeling it produces when the paint is rubbed between the finger and thumb.

=White Lead= is sold either dry, in powder or lump, or else ground in oil in a paste containing from 7 to 9 per cent. of linseed oil, and more or less adulterated, unless specially marked “genuine.” When slightly adulterated with a very white sulphate of baryta, like that of the Tyrol, the mixture is considered preferable for certain kinds of work, as the barytes communicates opacity to the color and protects the lead from being speedily darkened by sulphurous smoke or vapors. White lead improves by keeping, and when of good quality, will go much further and last much better than when employed fresh; moreover, paint made with new lead has a tendency to become yellow. It should not be exposed to the air or it will turn grey.

Of all the bases used for paints, white lead is the most commonly used, and for surfaces of wood it affords in most cases the best protection, being dense, of good body, and permanent. It has the disadvantage, however, of blazening when exposed to sulphur acids, and of being injurious to those who handle it.

Red lead is produced by raising _massicot_ (the commercial name for oxide of lead) to a high temperature, short of fusion, during which it absorbs oxygen from the air and is converted into red lead or _minium_, an oxide of lead. The color is lasting, and is unaffected by light when it is pure and used alone, but any preparation containing lead or acids mixed with it deprive it of color, and impure air makes it black. It may be used for a drier, as it possesses many of the properties of litharge; it is also often employed in painting wrought iron work, to which it adheres with a tenacity not equalled by any other paints; it is sometimes objected to for this purpose, on the ground that galvanic action is set up between the lead and the iron. It is also frequently used for priming on wood work, and is especially adapted for hard woods. It is frequently adulterated with brick dust; this may be detected by heating the powder in a crucible, and treating it with dilute nitric acid; the lead will be dissolved but the brick dust will remain. It is also adulterated with colcother, a sesquioxide of iron. Sulphide of antimony, or antimony vermilion, is sometimes used as a substitute for red lead. It is sold in a very fine powder, without taste or smell, and which is insoluble in water, alcohol, or essential oils. It is but little acted upon by acids, and is said to be unaffected by air or light. It is adapted for mixing with white lead, and affords an intensely bright color when ground in oil.

Oxide of zinc, or zinc white, is durable in water or oil; it dissolves in hydrochloric acid; it does not blacken in the presence of sulphuretted hydrogen; and it is not injurious to the men who make it, or to the painters who use it; but on the other hand, it does not combine with oil well, and is wanting in body and covering power, and is difficult to work. It is easily acted upon by the carbonic acid in rain water, which dissolves the oxide, and it therefore is unfit for outside work. The acids contained in unseasoned wood also have a great effect upon it. When pure and used for inside work, it retains its color well, and will stand washing for many years without losing any of its freshness. When dry it becomes very hard, and will take a fine polish. This paint is suitable for any place that is subjected to vapors containing sulphur, or in places where foul air is emanated from decaying animal matter. In such positions, of course, zinc paints should not be mixed with “patent” or other driers which contain lead. The best driers to employ with it are sulphate of manganese and sulphate of zinc. This white is recommended as being preferable to white lead for painting on a dark ground. The reason of this is that the soap formed by the combination of the lead and oil in lead paints is semi-transparent, and the dark ground shows through it. The want of density, however, in zinc paints, is a great drawback to their use, and the purest zinc oxide is not always the best for paint on account of its low specific gravity; and in this respect, the American zinc whites, which are frequently very pure, do not generally give as good satisfaction as the zinc whites made in Belgium.

=Vehicles.=--Oils are divided into two classes--fixed oils and volatile oils. Fixed oils are extracted by pressure from vegetable substances, they are of a fatty nature, do not evaporate in drying, and will bear a temperature short of 500° Fahr., without decomposing. They are subdivided into drying oils, which become thick upon exposure to air. Of these, linseed oil is most commonly used as an ingredient for paint. Its qualities when pure are excellent, and it may be considered the best of all oils for use in paint, putty, and other similar substances. It oxidizes and becomes thick upon exposure to the air. This property is very much increased by adding other substances to it and boiling them together. It is superior in drying powers, tenacity, and body to any other fixed oil. The best oil comes from the Black Sea and the Baltic; that from the East Indian seed is inferior, as the seed is less carefully cleaned, and contains too much stearine. Raw linseed oil is clear and light in color, works smoothly, and is used for internal works, for delicate tints, and for grinding up colors. Boiled oil is much thicker, darker, and more apt to clog. It is used for outside work, as its greater body and rapidity in drying make it a quicker and more efficient protection.

=Volatile Oils= are generally obtained by distillation, and have an odor resembling that of the plant from which they are obtained. They are, as a rule, colorless at first, but upon exposure to air and light they become darker, thicker, and eventually are converted into a kind of resin. Spirits of turpentine is the best variety of this class for mixing with ordinary paints. Naptha and benzine are sometimes used instead of turpentine, but not often, and their use is not recommended when the latter can be obtained. Good spirits of turpentine is lighter in weight and more inflammable than bad. It is colorless and has a pleasant pungent smell, whereas the smell of inferior qualities is disagreeable. It is used as a solvent for resins and other substances in making varnishes; also in paint to make it work more smoothly. It is useful also in flatting coats, but will not stand exposure to the weather.

=Driers.=--Driers are substances added to paint in order to cause the oils to thicken and solidify more rapidly. The action of these substances is not thoroughly understood. Chevreuil has shown that the drying of linseed oil is caused by the absorption of oxygen; and there can be no doubt that for the most part driers act as carriers of oxygen to the oil, a very small quantity producing considerable effects.

The best driers are those which contain a large proportion of oxygen, such as litharge, acetate of lead, red lead, sulphate of zinc, verdigris, etc. They are sometimes used to improve the drying qualities of the oil with which the paint is mixed, or they may themselves be ground up with a small quantity of oil, and added to the paint just before it is used.

Litharge or oxide of lead is the drier most commonly used, and is produced in extracting lead from its ores. It can be produced on a small scale by scraping off the dross which forms on molten lead exposed to a current of air. _Massicot_ is a superior kind of litharge, being produced by heating lead to an extent insufficient to fuse the oxide. Sugar of lead, or, as it is more frequently called, acetate of lead, ground in oil, and copperas and white vitriol (sulphate of zinc), are also used as driers, especially for light tints. Oxide of manganese is quicker in its effects, but is of a very dark color, and seldom used except for deep tints. Japanners’ gold size and verdigris (acetate of copper) are also much used for dark colors. Care must be taken not to apply too much of the size, or it will make the paint brittle. Red lead (oxide of lead) is often used as a drier when its color will not interfere with the tint required. It is not so rapid in its action as litharge or massicot. Sulphate of manganese is the best drier for zinc white, about 6 or 8 ounces only being used for 100 lbs., of ground zinc white paint. The manganese should be mixed with a small quantity of the paint first, and then added to the bulk. If great care be not taken in mixing the drier the work will be spotted. Sulphate of zinc is also a good drier for zinc paint.

Patent driers contain oxidizing agents, such as litharge or acetate of lead ground and mixed in oil, and therefore in a convenient form for immediate use. There is great danger, however, in using such driers, unless they are of the best quality from a reliable maker. Some of the inferior descriptions depend for their drying qualities upon lime.

The following points should be observed in using driers:--

1st. Not to use them unnecessarily with pigments which dry well in oil color.

2d. Not to employ them in excess, which would only retard the drying.

3d. Not to add them to the color until about to be used.

4th. Not to use more than one drier to the same color.

5th. To avoid the use of patent driers, unless known to be of good quality.

6th. To avoid the use of driers in the finishing coat of light colors, as they are liable to injure the color.

=Coloring Pigments.=--It will be impossible in a small work of this sort to give anything like a complete list of the pigments used to produce the colors and tints used by the house painter and decorator. A few of the most useful may, however, be mentioned. It is not proposed to give a detailed description of them, but merely to distinguish those that are injurious from the others. Many of these, such as the ochres, umbers, etc., are from natural earths; others are artificially made. They may generally be purchased either in the form of dry powder or ground in oil.

=Blacks.=--Lampblack is the soot produced by burning oil, resin, small coal, resinous woods, coal tar or tallow. It is in the state of very fine powder; works smoothly; is of a dense black color and durable, but dries very slowly in oil.

Vegetable black is a better kind of lampblack made from oil. It is very light, free from grit, and of a good color. It should be used with boiled oil, driers, and a little varnish. Raw linseed oil or spirits of turpentine keeps it from drying.

Ivory-black is obtained by calcining waste ivory in close vessels and then grinding. It is intensely black when properly burned. Bone-black is inferior to ivory-black, and prepared in a similar manner from bones. Blue-black and Frankfort black of the best quality are made from vine twigs; inferior qualities from other woods charred and reduced to powder. In Europe some other blacks are used, but we seldom meet with them in this country.

=Blues.=--Prussian blue is made by mixing prussiate of potash with a salt of iron. The prussiate of potash is obtained by calcining and digesting old leather, blood, hoofs, or other animal matter with carbonate of potash and iron filings. This color is much used, especially for dark blues, making purples, and intensifying black. It dries well with oil. Slight differences in the manufacture cause considerable variation in tint and color, which leads to the material being known by different names--such as Antwerp blue, Berlin blue, Hærlem blue, Chinese blue, etc. Indigo is produced by steeping certain plants in water, and allowing them to ferment. It is a transparent color; works well in oil or water, but is not durable, especially when mixed with white lead.