Part 2

The glass must now dry before it can be re-gilded, and must then be gently rubbed with the finest cotton wool. It is an easy matter to ascertain whether it is dry or not. When wet the gold, if looked at from the front of the glass, has a dead look, but if dry it shows up bright. If possible leave the plate till next day before giving it a second coat of gold. The advantage of this delay is obvious. The gold has time to get hard, which materially reduces the risk of its being removed when a second application of size is necessary.

To the novice it will, no doubt, appear at first sight both a waste of time and gold to gild all over the work again, but if the plate be held up to the light it will show many imperfections in the shape of small holes, cracks and imperfect joinings. Another coat of size floated on and another layer of gold over the whole of the work should turn out a so far satisfactory finish. Let the glass dry again and be subjected to a further examination for faulty places. Should any be found cover them with more gold. But if the work is satisfactory it is ready for the burnishing process. The first stage is to polish the gold by gently rubbing with fine cotton wool, care being taken not to scratch the gold. This is, of course, only a repetition of the polishing after the first layer of gold.

There are several methods in general use for obtaining that brilliant burnish so much admired in glass gilding. But the one that meets with most favor and success is what is called the “hot water burnish.” It will be advisable to practice on the glass under consideration. After the cotton wool polishing is completed warm the glass either by holding it before a fire or gently pouring warm water over it. This is only a precaution against breakage by sudden expansion. Now let it dry, and while warm polish again with the cotton wool. Repeat the pouring of water, hotter than the last, and when the glass is dry, after this operation, gently rub it again with cotton wool. This hot water flushing should be carried on until the burnish is quite satisfactory. But it must be very carefully done, else the gold runs a risk of being washed off in patches.

HOW TO ESTIMATE WORK.

Measure your work with the tape-line and be sure you get all there is in it; projections, depressions, mouldings, edges, etc.

Many a painter has dropped his profits by not taking in these little particulars. Every bead, sunken or raised panel makes an edge to paint. The edges of ordinary weather boarding _add ten per cent_. to the surface, to say nothing of the edges of the corner boards and window and door casings--the projections and depressions in the panels of an ordinary four-paneled door, _add at least ten per cent. to the surface_ to be painted. Then let me say to you again, look closely for edges, projections, depressions, hollows and rounds. They all count when you paint them; and it is your fault if they are not included in the estimate. When you have multiplied the number of feet around a house by the average height and reduced it to yards you have only made a start. Measure the cornice, follow the hollows, rounds and edges with the line. _There is lots of surface in mouldings._ The tape-line is good as far as you can make it go, but it can’t do it all. You must use judgment in connection with it; and carefully estimate the condition of the work, what per cent. is _slow_ to paint, or high and difficult to reach. For instance, what is the condition of the surface, is it porous and full of cracks? Is every joint gaping for putty? Is the putty on the windows rough and broken? Is the old paint cracked, blistered and scaling? Is the cornice ornamented with dentils, brackets and panels? You may lose a day or a week of extra time on a high tower or cupola if you fail to put it into your estimate as extra hard to reach. Make the price accordingly. Are the blind-slats stuck fast and difficult to paint? Is the work to be done in the busy season when labor and material are high priced and good men are hard to get; or in the dull season, when dealers will cut prices and good men are hunting for work? Bidding on specifications must be done with care. You can figure the number of yards to be painted, but there are many points which the completed job can alone disclose. A provision in your contract to cover all changes in specifications comes mighty handy on the day of final settlement. It is not safe to make anything like a close bid on specifications, until the following questions have been settled and put in your contract. To-wit: Will the building be delivered to you at a specified time, finished and _cleaned out_ and put in good condition for the painter; or will you be expected to commence before the work is finished and paint as the work is put up, and spend as much time dusting and sweeping as you do at painting? Will the machine-dressed lumber, including mouldings, doors, window-stops, etc., be put in as it comes from the factory rough and fuzzy, or will it be redressed and made smooth and ready for the paint? These points may look to you like small matters, but they count when you come to paint the work. If you are to do a fine job stipulate in your contract that the wood-work, etc., shall be finished in good shape. If you are to paint the work as you find it have it so stated in your contract. Paste this motto in the top of your hat and read it often: “It is always better to lose a job than to get it and lose money on it.”

Two houses may be of equal dimensions, yet it may be worth 50 per cent. more to paint one than the other; hence any definite scale of prices for work by the yard is liable to be misleading. We may determine by the line how much there is of the work, but we must rely upon our judgment and experience to determine how much it will cost to do it.

ONE WAY TO MEASURE A JOB.

Find the surface measure of the entire job, including all edges and projections, and estimate how much it is worth per yard, on the basis that it is all plain work, easy to get at. Next we will proceed by what we may call special measurement. Suppose the cornice measures 60 yards, and is finished with blocks, moulded panels and brackets, and we estimate that the cost of painting it will be three times that of a plain cornice, hence we will add two measures or 120 yards to the general or first measurement. Next, suppose each window and casing measures three yards, and there are 20 of them to be trimmed in colors, we estimate the work of painting them double that of plain work; hence we add to our special measurement 60 yards. If there is a cupola high and difficult to reach we estimate that it will be worth double the cost of painting ordinary work to do it. Say, it measures 50 yards, we will add 50 yards to the general measurement, and so we will go on until we have taken in all parts of the work which will cost more than ordinary plain work.

To illustrate: The building measures 600 yards, and as plain work we estimate it worth twenty cents per yard to paint it. We amount our special measurement which we will say adds up to 300 yards, which added to the 600 yards general measurement, makes 900, which at twenty cents per yard, makes $180. The same system may be used inside.

TO SOFTEN HARD, LUMPY PUTTY.

Break the putty into lumps; put it in a kettle with enough water to cover it; add a little raw oil, and boil and stir well while hot. The putty will absorb the oil; pour off the water, let the putty cool, then work it, and your putty will be as good as new.

TACKY PAINT ON CHURCH SEATS, ETC.

During my experience as a painter, I have been called upon to repaint tacky seats in at least half a dozen churches. Such seats are an unmitigated nuisance. Tacky paint may be the result of putting too much japan in oil paint, or of using fat oil, or paint which had been mixed a long time, especially if it had very much japan in it, or by mixing oil and varnish, or by putting varnish on oil paint, especially if the paint had not been given time to dry hard before it was varnished. To harden tacky paint try this: Take one part japan and three parts of turpentine, and give the work a coat of the mixture. That will usually effect a cure, unless the paint is soft clear to the wood. A coat of shellac will sometimes do the work all right. Such seats usually seem all right until warmed by the heat of the body; hence we may be satisfied that the fault is in the oil used in the paint or varnish. It is best on that account to use but little if any oil when painting seats of any kind. Coat up with color ground in japan and thinned with turps; varnish the part which comes in contact with the body with shellac varnish.

I have painted seats this way, and never heard of any further trouble with them.

To repaint tacky seats the best way is to burn off the old paint, and coat up as above; because, if a hard drying paint is put over the old soft paint it is liable to crack. It is well, however, to see if the turpentine and japan will work a cure, or if a coat of shellac will stop the trouble. To do this it is well to first experiment on one seat, or upon a small surface.

I have killed tacky paint by rubbing it with a cloth wet with ammonia; when dry, try it, and see if the “tack” is gone; if not, go over it again; when dry, put on a coat of shellac varnish; this is a pretty sure cure.

TESTING JAPAN.

If japan smells of benzine don’t buy it. Mix it with clear oil; if it curdles, you don’t want it. Mix drop black with some of it; as stiff as good drop black ground in japan; then thin with turps and make a painting test, to see if it is a good binder. To see if it will crack, paint on glass, let it dry and hold the glass between your eye and the light. If you see fine cracks don’t buy any of it.

When you go to buy japan, ask the dealer who made it. If he don’t know, make up your mind at once that it is a _fatherless waif_ without _a name_, and likely to be worthless. When a man makes a good thing he is apt to send his name along with it as an advertisement. This applies to all material. There is a great deal of bad japan on the market, and a great amount of work ruined by it. Buy none unless it bears the brand of a reputable maker and will stand these tests.

I do not need to tell the practical painter that there is a great amount of bad japan on the market, and that a great deal of paint is ruined by it. Buy no japan unless the can bears the name of some reputable manufacturer, and will stand the above tests.

WHY DO PAINTS AND VARNISHES CRACK?

The following paper was read by Mr. A. P. Sweet, of Iona, Mich., at a meeting of master car painters:

SUBJECT:

“_Why do paints and varnishes crack, and what is the reason that cracks in the latter are usually at right angles to the grain of the wood?_”

The subject, as I understand it, relates to the cracking of varnishes, etc., as experienced in connection with passenger car work, and as such I introduce it for discussion before this association.

There are many theories as to the cause of the cracking of paints and varnishes. Some are well defined, others are not satisfactorily explained.

I do not anticipate being able to add much to what is already known, but will advance a few thoughts, which may call forth the views of others on the subject.

The old adage, “It takes two to make a quarrel,” is as true when applied to paints and varnishes as it is to individuals. A single coat of either seldom, if ever, produces cracks. These make their appearance only after two or more coats have been applied; consequently, it is necessary to have a body of color or varnish, consisting of two or more coats, before any trouble of this kind makes itself manifest.

This being the case, it follows that the cause of the difficulty must be sought for in the coatings themselves, either in the quality of the material employed or in the mode of applying them.

Poor and cheap oils and japans--especially the latter--are a fruitful source of cracking in paint; but by far the most prolific one, in my opinion, is the hurried application of the succeeding coats before the preceding ones are dry enough to receive them. If sufficient time is not given, cracks will inevitably follow such a mode of procedure.

I am of the opinion, also, that very little blame can be attached to the wood used in the construction of cars, as most of it is comparatively well seasoned, and its expansive and contractive force is not sufficient to cause serious trouble. If green wood was used there might be room for this excuse, especially where the cracks run in the direction of the grain, and are large and deep.

Before pursuing this subject further, it may be well to examine a little into the theory of the drying of paint. It is purely a chemical process, not a mechanical one, as some suppose. Paint dries by the evaporation of its volatile parts and its absorption of oxygen; it is heavier when dried than when in the liquid form, having attached to itself a sufficient amount of oxygen to very perceptibly increase the weight some 6 per cent.

The best grades of linseed oil are said to contain from 70 to 80 per cent. of substance called linoleine, a resinous and slow-drying oil and acid which imparts to the oil its elasticity.

In the process of drying, contraction occurs. The various atoms of which the coatings are composed move closer and closer together; and as this contracting force is easier with than across the grain, cracks at right angles to it are formed. This fact suggests the necessity of so adjusting the elasticity of the various coats that the force exerted in drying may be as nearly equalized as possible, as their contracting force is continued until all elasticity has left the paint and oxygen ceases to be absorbed, all the oil acid has disappeared, and nothing but a hard, brittle surface remains.

Under the microscope, in the first stage of cracking, the surface presents nothing unusual except that the cracks appear clean cut and sharp on the edges. As months pass by and the surface is exposed to the atmospheric changes of heat and cold, wet and dry, the cracks become more numerous; and in the last stage, when the oil is entirely destroyed, the surface assumes the appearance of innumerable rectangular masses, higher in the center than at the edges, like small mounds raised by the process of contraction and adhesion.

Cracking in color coats may, by careful attention to preliminaries, be reduced to a minimum, provided good first-class materials are used and sufficient time is given to each coat to dry.

Where varnish is to be applied as a finish, all coatings should have oil in their composition and yet be mixed to dry flat. They should be applied very evenly and thinly, even if it necessitates an extra coat, to cover and make a solid job.

Striping and ornamenting should be done on flat color, which gives time for hardening, and fits it for the varnish coats to follow. If work is done in this way, I think very little fear of premature cracking need be entertained; at least, not until time and weather have sufficient opportunity to play havoc with its beauty, and natural decay of the materials themselves necessitates a thorough overhauling and repairing.

Rubbing varnishes are another source of trouble, causing the succeeding coats of finishing varnish to show signs of cracking long before they otherwise would, as it does not agree with the slower drying varnishes usually applied above it, being of a harder and more brittle character, serving the purpose of producing a fine, smooth surface, but sacrificing the durability of the job.

Concerning the cracking of varnish, I have not much to say. It seems to me that many of the reasons given above will apply to it as well as to the paint.

Poor material in the shape of varnish is poor indeed. A first-class article only will give first-class results.

It must be elastic, or it will crack easily and badly, no matter how good the undercoats of paint may be.

Good varnish on good color coats will not give any signs of cracking until, by repeated varnishings, it has accumulated a thick coating of brittle, unelastic gum.

No painter can say truthfully that his cars never crack, as it is a natural consequence of decay, and will come, sooner or later, to the best of material.

That varnish cracks to a great extent at right angles to the grain of the wood, I think is due, in some degree, to the same reasons as given above for the cracking of paint, and after its elasticity is destroyed by age. Vibration has a great effect upon the hard and brittle coating of gum that remains, coupled with expansion and contraction caused by variations of temperature and the disintegrating influences of the weather.

BRUSH CLEANING TROUGH.

To make such a trough, take a piece of planed board, 6 inches wide and 18 inches long, and nail on side pieces 2 inches wide; this makes the trough. Nail this trough on a bench, box, or table, and let one end of it project over the edge of the bench, box or table, and place your slush bucket under the projecting end of the trough. To clean a brush, lay it in the trough, keep hold of the handle with one hand and with the other take a dull scraper and press the paint out of the brush and shove it off into the slush bucket. The advantage of this method is that you clean the whole length of the brush and save the paint, instead of daubing it on the walls of your shop.

FLOOR WAX.

A good preparation for waxing floors may be obtained as follows:

Yellow Wax 25 oz. Yellow Ceresin 25 oz. Burnt Sienna 5 oz. Boiled Linseed Oil 1 oz. Turpentine 1 gill

Melt the wax and ceresin at a gentle heat, then add the sienna previously well triturated with the boiled linseed oil, and mix well. When the mixture begins to cool add the oil of turpentine, or so much of it as is required to make a mass of the consistence of an ointment.

The burnt sienna may be used in smaller or larger quantity, according to the tint desired, or may be replaced by raw sienna, etc.

DAMAR VARNISH.

Never use damar varnish over oil paint.

Never put oil in damar varnish. See to it that your dealer does not draw it into an oil measure, and that you do not keep it in an oily or rancid can. Why? Because it is liable to dry tacky under any of the above conditions.

STENCIL STAINING.

Ordinary plain staining can be done by almost any one who can handle a common paint brush. Yet it is not generally known, even to skilled decorators, that stain, on sound white wood, evenly planed, can be applied to imitate the most intricate of artistic designs; such, however, is the case. A decorator if asked to imitate in stain on white wood a piece of parquetry or inlaid wood, might reply that such a thing was impossible, alleging as a reason that by employing liquid stain in the same way as a distemper--that is to say, by the aid of a stencil to reproduce the pattern--the stain, as soon as it became absorbed would be found to “run,” and so giving to the pattern imitated an indistinct or blurred edge. Yet the most elaborate patterns are successfully stenciled direct on to pine, and the figured work on this wood has invariably come out distinctly and naturally as to be almost indistinguishable from the inlaid work they have so successfully sought to imitate. The great difficulty to be overcome in stenciling with stains is undoubtedly the “running,” but with a very little care and patience this can be easily obviated. Say a painter has a border to stain round an ordinary pine floor in imitation of a selected pattern of parquetry, the colors of which are generally in two or more shades of oak, the first thing he has to do after having properly prepared the floor--namely, making the part to be stained as smooth and as even as possible by filling up the crevices and nail holes--is to stain over the work in the lightest shade shown in his pattern; this can be done by diluting the ordinary liquid oak stain with water to the desired tint. Next let him cut out of a piece of lining, paper in the form of a stencil--the pattern he has to reproduce on the floor--care being taken to oil the stencil in order to strengthen and preserve it. He should then mix the stain into a stiff paste or to the consistency of a distemper used for ordinary stenciling; place a portion of this mixture on a smooth piece of wood, take up a very small quantity of it on a stencil brush and apply through the stencil plate in the same way he would a distemper. If a very dark shade is required apply more stain before removing the stencil plate.

PAINTING BRICK.

Objections: Chipping of the brick, and scaling of the paint.

The chipping may be on account of defective brick or otherwise.

Scaling may be caused by poor paint, or by _dampness in the brick_.

When called upon to paint brick, first see if the brick is dry. See that there is no place where water leaks in from the roof or cornice and soaks into the brick. A brick wall may look dry and still be damp inside. If you want paint to stay on brick, give the brick time to dry, after heavy and driving rains. It is always a bad plan to paint brick in the fall, after the autumn rains. The only real safe time to paint a brick wall is in summer, after a spell of hot, dry weather. You can not always wait for that, but you can tell the owner that it is unsafe to paint a brick wall until it has had time to dry. Why? Because in winter the moisture, which is shut in by the paint, will freeze, expand and throw off the paint or chip the brick.

Prime brick work with a thin coat of good paint mixed in pure linseed oil. Flow on the priming freely, and brush it well into the brick; for second coat, whatever paint you use, put in at least one-fourth white lead; make this coat one-third turps, and rub it well out. Give it a good body. For the last coat, use your color regardless of lead, unless you want it in to get your color. If you want a gloss, mix this coat with all boiled oil, and flow on. For flat, if your colors are ground in oil, use one-fourth oil and three-fourths turps, and if it don’t show flat when painted, it will flat in a short time. The last coat may admit of more oil or may not take as much, and flat. This depends upon the work when started, etc. Some painters make brick flating by breaking up the pigment in japan, and elastic varnish for a binder, and thin with turps. I prefer the oil for a binder, and have made the last coat one-half oil, and had a nice flat in a few weeks. I always ridicule the idea of painting brick flat, because it will not stand as long as an oil finish, and the oil finish will be flat enough in a few months.

CLEANING UP A ROOM.

Now, if I were going to teach a boy to clean up a room, the first thing would be how to prepare himself for the job. In the first place, he wants a damp sponge with a string through it to tie over his head, to hold the sponge over his mouth and under the nose to catch the dust, because it is a great deal more pleasant and a “sight” more healthful to carry lime and other dust in a sponge than in nostrils and windpipe. Then he wants a cotton cloth cap, large enough to draw down over his head and ears, bib overalls and jacket to button close about the neck and he is well fixed. In such a rig he may look peculiar, but he had better look like a monkey than to skin his nostrils with dust and fill his ears and hair with lime, sand and sawdust.