Tips and tricks
Modern painting, hardwood finishing and sign writing
MODERN PAINTING, HARDWOOD FINISHING AND SIGN WRITING
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
By ARMSTRONG, HODGSON AND DELAMOTTE
Printed by FREDERICK J. DRAKE & CO., CHICAGO, ILL., 1918
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Modern painting, hardwood finishing and sign writing
PAINTS AND PAINTING
This important subject is thoroughly covered with full explanations of how to test paints for adulterations, causes of blistering, colors, brushes, calcimining, carriage painting, color harmony, color mixing, color testing, exterior painting, gilding, graining, house painting, marbling, oils and driers, etc., including valuable hints on scene painting.
WOOD FINISHING
Under this head is treated the subject of filling, staining, varnishing, polishing, gilding and enameling woodwork of all kinds of woods, both hard and soft. It also treats on renovating old work.
MODERN UP-TO-DATE ARTISTIC SIGN PAINTING
Describing Plain and Ornamental and Ancient and Mediaeval Lettering from the Eighth to the Twentieth Century, with Numerals. Including German, Old English, Saxon, Italic, Perspective, Initials, Monograms, Etc.
INTRODUCTION
The Modern Painter's Cyclopedia is not merely the compiling and putting together the stale writings and antiquated methods which have been put to use by many persons to make up a book to sell, but has been completely rewritten and the subject matter handled in such a way as to describe the latest methods used in performing the work. Owing to the great number of subjects handled the descriptions given are necessarily brief. The more important ones will be treated more at length than those of minor interest to the general reader, as for instance "China painting," etc; to treat the subject in a through manner would of itself fill a good sized volume, while the majority of readers would probably pass it by as of no interest to them, while they would naturally look for at least concise, full information on colors, house, carriage or sign painting and kindred subjects in which the big majority of readers are interested.
The alphabetical arrangement of the "Painter's Cyclopedia" has been preserved and the subject matter described will be found thus more readily. While this arrangement has many advantages, it must be admitted that it has its faults in that the various operations in painting are rather scattered without regard to sequence or any gradation upward from the simpler to the more difficult parts.
This defect has been greatly minimized by numbering each paragraph and to keep them sufficiently pointed to differ from the preceding or succeeding ones.
Throughout the work wherever the necessity occurs, reference by number will be made to such paragraphs in other parts of the book; this will make the subject matter more easily understood without the necessity of repeating; saving much space. Thus operations which are common to many branches of painting are only described once and the reader will be referred by number to where the additional information can be found. This it is hoped will reduce the defect mentioned above to its lowest limits.
Besides a very copious index has been prepared which will enable the reader to find readily every phase of any subject treated.To enable students to memorize or recollect the subject matter of each heading, a series of questions will be found at the end numbered to correspond to that of the paragraphs containing the answer. This will enable the student to determine for himself the correctness of his own answer.
As many persons no doubt will buy this book with a view to educating themselves upon one or more branches of the trade—in a manner it will take the place of the correspondence school to such—at a greatly reduced cost.
In organized, practical trade schools, it is hoped that it may prove a valuable help, not only to the students but also the instructors—in that under classified headings any or at least most of the subject matter relating to the branches taught will be found treated and the questions which are added at the end of each heading will permit its use as a text book in such schools.
It makes no claim to be able to lead the student along as fast nor as well as he would under the personal surveillance and advice of a capable instructor who can demonstrate an error in a practical way—but where it is used as an adjunct to his oral instruction and as a book of reference by the student, it will greatly facilitate the acquiring of knowledge.
The lack of such a book for the purpose indicated above, is one of the main reasons for its publication aside from the need of a manual covering the ground and subject matter treated in a late and up-to-date manner.
Again it is repeated that many branches of painting require appliances, tools, colors, etc. To save repetition, each of these are treated fully but once, under their several headings, and if the reader will care to inform himself more fully in regard to any of these, he can readily do so by referring to the paragraph number indicated as describing such. With the above synopsis of the scope and manner of handling the subject matter of the book, it is presented to the world—not as the acme of perfection, which un fortunately is unattainable, but as a helping hand to the student or others seeking general information on the paint and kindred trades—with the hope that many may be benefitted by its perusal, study, or use as a reference book.
The alphabetical arrangement of the "Painter's Cyclopedia" has been preserved and the subject matter described will be found thus more readily. While this arrangement has many advantages, it must be admitted that it has its faults in that the various operations in painting are rather scattered without regard to sequence or any gradation upward from the simpler to the more difficult parts.
This defect has been greatly minimized by numbering each paragraph and to keep them sufficiently pointed to differ from the preceding or succeeding ones.
Throughout the work wherever the necessity occurs, reference by number will be made to such paragraphs in other parts of the book; this will make the subject matter more easily understood without the necessity of repeating; saving much space. Thus operations which are common to many branches of painting are only described once and the reader will be referred by number to where the additional information can be found. This it is hoped will reduce the defect mentioned above to its lowest limits.
Besides a very copious index has been prepared which will enable the reader to find readily every phase of any subject treated.To enable students to memorize or recollect the subject matter of each heading, a series of questions will be found at the end numbered to correspond to that of the paragraphs containing the answer. This will enable the student to determine for himself the correctness of his own answer.
As many persons no doubt will buy this book with a view to educating themselves upon one or more branches of the trade—in a manner it will take the place of the correspondence school to such—at a greatly reduced cost.
In organized, practical trade schools, it is hoped that it may prove a valuable help, not only to the students but also the instructors—in that under classified headings any or at least most of the subject matter relating to the branches taught will be found treated and the questions which are added at the end of each heading will permit its use as a text book in such schools.
It makes no claim to be able to lead the student along as fast nor as well as he would under the personal surveillance and advice of a capable instructor who can demonstrate an error in a practical way—but where it is used as an adjunct to his oral instruction and as a book of reference by the student, it will greatly facilitate the acquiring of knowledge.
The lack of such a book for the purpose indicated above, is one of the main reasons for its publication aside from the need of a manual covering the ground and subject matter treated in a late and up-to-date manner.
Again it is repeated that many branches of painting require appliances, tools, colors, etc. To save repetition, each of these are treated fully but once, under their several headings, and if the reader will care to inform himself more fully in regard to any of these, he can readily do so by referring to the paragraph number indicated as describing such. With the above synopsis of the scope and manner of handling the subject matter of the book, it is presented to the world—not as the acme of perfection, which un fortunately is unattainable, but as a helping hand to the student or others seeking general information on the paint and kindred trades—with the hope that many may be benefitted by its perusal, study, or use as a reference book.
VARNISHES.
303. Varnishes have the property of making a gloss or an enamel upon the surfaces over which they are applied.
Their uses in antiquity is far beyond the ken of men or history and in one instance at least more has been lost than has been learned since. In times so very remote that it is impossible to even guess a date within several hundred years, the Chinese produced a glass varnish which was used in coating over articles and which is indestructible. There are many specimens to be found of it and they are as perfect today as upon the day that the varnish was applied, so that one can truly say of it that it is indestructible. The Chinese themselves have lost the art of making this varnish and so far with all the knowledge modern chemistry has put into the hands of men for scientific researches our savants have been unable to unravel the mystery connected with it. This varnish dates back so far that even Chinese literature which dates back several thousand years before Christ, makes no mention of its discovery.
Aside of this, lacquers were and had been in use also from time immemorial by the Asiatics, both Chinese and Japanese and the East Indies knew its uses in very ancient times.
The varnish industry as we know it now is of comparatively recent origin and it is not so very long back when many of the painters were in the habit of preparing their own varnishes, as no factories such as produce it at this time had any existence then.
Formulas galore were in vogue then and many a painter paid a good bit of money for recipes known and handed down from father to son as an heirloom. Some of them have been handed down to us in both written formulas and in print, so that we can form as pretty good idea of what our forefathers had to do when they wanted a can of varnish for use, for they had it to make.
Most of these recipes are loaded down with quite a number of unnecessary ingredients but the recipes would have been just as good without seven hairs from the inside of the left ear of a white hare, and must have put the painters of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to considerable trouble in catching the hares and then pulling the hair out of the hares. And such an array of names for gums as they had - enough to confound all but a twentieth cenury skeptic who has them all classed into very small groups with rosin at the top, of which our forefathers knew little about and cared less.
Up to the middle of the nineteenth century varnishes were still made by many painters, although factories began to prepare them in a commercial way and for sale to the trade some time before and in a very humble way compared to the manner in which the large concerns engaged in its manufacture today do.
England and France have the honor of having the oldest varnish factories in the world and compared to many other industries they may be called recent. Their preparations, however, did not extend down to the needs of the house painters, as they catered mainly to the wants of the carriage trade. Some of those old English and French varnish manufacturers' names are still in use and the lineal descendants of the families are still connected with the concerns making the varnishes today. Tradition having handed down the great value of their output said tradition having started when few knew what varnish was and when but few were engaged in its manufacture, it has enabled these old concerns to hold trade against all comers at prices for their products in which the family names weigh more and for which more is paid for by the consumer than it is really worth to him. There is no doubt about the excellencies of their output but our later day manufacturies are making just as good goods and at a price for which family name does not count in the making of it.
304. Varnishes are made from various gums and gum-resins and with various solvents. As for certain specific purposes each are better adapted for use in the one that any of the others, all are useful then for certain kinds of work.
Some of the gums used are soluble only in alcohol and are known as spirit varnishes of such character is shellac varnish. Others again are soluble only in volatile oils, as turpentine, etc.
Others are soluble in linseed oil under certain conditions or in combination with volatile oils. For practical purposes, however, varnishes may be divided up in three principal classes with many subdivisions in the three groups:
1. Varnishes with an alcoholic base solvent.
2. Varnishes with a volatile oil base solvent.
3. Varnishes with a fixed oil base solvent, of which more will be said hereafter after the character of the gums used in preparing them has been looked into.
305. The gums chiefly used in preparing varnishes are not many. The principal ones are gum copal - which is not a true gum insomuch that it is a fossil and will not dissolve in either water or volatile oil as all true gums do. It is chiefly imported from Africa and comes in many qualities. It ranges in color from a pale, nearly transparent tone of yellow, to dark brown and opaque chunks and in all sorts of intermediate tones between the two. The lightest and clearest is the most valuable and the intermediate shades decrease in value according as they approach the darker brown shades. Varnishes made from this gum are the most desirable of all and the solvent under heat and special treatment of the manufacturer is mainly linseed oil, which gives the varnishes made from it its greater durability and elasticity.
Kauri gum - is a resin gum of a semi-fossilized sort. It is found where original forests of the kauri pine formerly existed and that is of better quality than that which is obtained from the trees by exudation.
Animac - A gum-resin derived from a sort of leguminous tree and probably from several varieties of the same specie. In its exudation insects are caught in it and come to market with them imbedded in the chunks, hence the name. The gum is not as hard as the copal gums of good quality and varnishes made from it have not the wearing qualities of the one made from high grade copal. The varnish makers 'use many of the gums in a blend to obtain varnishes adapted for certain definite purposes by the judicious mixing of various gums.
Amber is used in making certain varnishes. It is a fossilized resin and is found in many countries. The chief source of supply, however, is from Germany, where it is found imbedded in the sand along the Baltic sea shore.
Darnar is a soft whitish gum which exudes from coniferous species of trees in India and Ceylon. It is soluble in the volatile oils and yields a very white varnish of too soft a nature to be of much practical use except as a paper varnish for which on account of its pliability, it seems well adapted also on account of its colorless nature.
Sandarac is also the product of conifers, but is of little better quality although harder than our own resin derived from yellow pine.
Gum mastic is derived from a nut bearing tree of the Grecian archipelago, and exudes from the trees where incisions are made, in the shape of small tear like pebbles. It is also too soft for other uses than that indicated for damar gum varnish.
Resin of yellow pine extraction is used in many ways by varnish factories in connection with other harder gums and with China wood oil it yields some kinds of varnishes useful for many purposes. Since the introduction of wood oil in connection with varnish making, it has rendered its use possible where before it would not have been thought of. This wood oil seems to make it harder and more pliable at the same time and it is replacing many of the soft gums which are mentioned above as it is very much cheaper than any of the others.
Sticlac and Shellac may as well be reviewed together, as shellac is only sticlac refined for commercial use and immense quantities of it are used by the industries of the country besides the use of it made by the hardwood finishing trade. It is the product of vegetation and is soluble in alcohol mainly.
The solvents are alcohol, turpentine and linseed oil.
306. The manufacture of varnish is an intricate, complex business requiring a long apprenticeship and accumulated experience and while the ways of making varnishes are well known, each manufacturer has little tricks of his own in the making of certain grades and in the ripening or blending of various gums which are carefully guarded.
It requires a large capital besides for to properly conduct a varnish manufacturing business. The ripening of varnishes requires months and even years to fit them for certain uses.
It is much cheaper for the consumer to buy the varnishes he uses ready for application than it would be for him to make them, even if he had the knowhow which he has not, and a person now who would undertake the making of his own varnish as in ye olden "tymes" would be considered as a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. Such easily made ones as shellac varnish, however, do not come under the same heading, and any one can readily make them for himself; all that is required is to give the alcohol sufficient time to dissolve the shellac, but it will not pay one to make it as he cannot buy the shellac nearly as cheap as the manufacturer does and it will probably cost him as much as the ready prepared article besides the trouble thrown in.
307. The cheapest forms of varnish made are of course made entirely from resin dissolved in cheap mineral volatile oil with some paraffin oil put into it in order that the brittleness of the resin may be counter- acted.
The so-called "surfacers" are but little better than the gloss oils and may be classed together. They are chiefly used in coating over plastered walls to stop the suctions previous to the applications of water colors.
Their uses in antiquity is far beyond the ken of men or history and in one instance at least more has been lost than has been learned since. In times so very remote that it is impossible to even guess a date within several hundred years, the Chinese produced a glass varnish which was used in coating over articles and which is indestructible. There are many specimens to be found of it and they are as perfect today as upon the day that the varnish was applied, so that one can truly say of it that it is indestructible. The Chinese themselves have lost the art of making this varnish and so far with all the knowledge modern chemistry has put into the hands of men for scientific researches our savants have been unable to unravel the mystery connected with it. This varnish dates back so far that even Chinese literature which dates back several thousand years before Christ, makes no mention of its discovery.
Aside of this, lacquers were and had been in use also from time immemorial by the Asiatics, both Chinese and Japanese and the East Indies knew its uses in very ancient times.
The varnish industry as we know it now is of comparatively recent origin and it is not so very long back when many of the painters were in the habit of preparing their own varnishes, as no factories such as produce it at this time had any existence then.
Formulas galore were in vogue then and many a painter paid a good bit of money for recipes known and handed down from father to son as an heirloom. Some of them have been handed down to us in both written formulas and in print, so that we can form as pretty good idea of what our forefathers had to do when they wanted a can of varnish for use, for they had it to make.
Most of these recipes are loaded down with quite a number of unnecessary ingredients but the recipes would have been just as good without seven hairs from the inside of the left ear of a white hare, and must have put the painters of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to considerable trouble in catching the hares and then pulling the hair out of the hares. And such an array of names for gums as they had - enough to confound all but a twentieth cenury skeptic who has them all classed into very small groups with rosin at the top, of which our forefathers knew little about and cared less.
Up to the middle of the nineteenth century varnishes were still made by many painters, although factories began to prepare them in a commercial way and for sale to the trade some time before and in a very humble way compared to the manner in which the large concerns engaged in its manufacture today do.
England and France have the honor of having the oldest varnish factories in the world and compared to many other industries they may be called recent. Their preparations, however, did not extend down to the needs of the house painters, as they catered mainly to the wants of the carriage trade. Some of those old English and French varnish manufacturers' names are still in use and the lineal descendants of the families are still connected with the concerns making the varnishes today. Tradition having handed down the great value of their output said tradition having started when few knew what varnish was and when but few were engaged in its manufacture, it has enabled these old concerns to hold trade against all comers at prices for their products in which the family names weigh more and for which more is paid for by the consumer than it is really worth to him. There is no doubt about the excellencies of their output but our later day manufacturies are making just as good goods and at a price for which family name does not count in the making of it.
304. Varnishes are made from various gums and gum-resins and with various solvents. As for certain specific purposes each are better adapted for use in the one that any of the others, all are useful then for certain kinds of work.
Some of the gums used are soluble only in alcohol and are known as spirit varnishes of such character is shellac varnish. Others again are soluble only in volatile oils, as turpentine, etc.
Others are soluble in linseed oil under certain conditions or in combination with volatile oils. For practical purposes, however, varnishes may be divided up in three principal classes with many subdivisions in the three groups:
1. Varnishes with an alcoholic base solvent.
2. Varnishes with a volatile oil base solvent.
3. Varnishes with a fixed oil base solvent, of which more will be said hereafter after the character of the gums used in preparing them has been looked into.
305. The gums chiefly used in preparing varnishes are not many. The principal ones are gum copal - which is not a true gum insomuch that it is a fossil and will not dissolve in either water or volatile oil as all true gums do. It is chiefly imported from Africa and comes in many qualities. It ranges in color from a pale, nearly transparent tone of yellow, to dark brown and opaque chunks and in all sorts of intermediate tones between the two. The lightest and clearest is the most valuable and the intermediate shades decrease in value according as they approach the darker brown shades. Varnishes made from this gum are the most desirable of all and the solvent under heat and special treatment of the manufacturer is mainly linseed oil, which gives the varnishes made from it its greater durability and elasticity.
Kauri gum - is a resin gum of a semi-fossilized sort. It is found where original forests of the kauri pine formerly existed and that is of better quality than that which is obtained from the trees by exudation.
Animac - A gum-resin derived from a sort of leguminous tree and probably from several varieties of the same specie. In its exudation insects are caught in it and come to market with them imbedded in the chunks, hence the name. The gum is not as hard as the copal gums of good quality and varnishes made from it have not the wearing qualities of the one made from high grade copal. The varnish makers 'use many of the gums in a blend to obtain varnishes adapted for certain definite purposes by the judicious mixing of various gums.
Amber is used in making certain varnishes. It is a fossilized resin and is found in many countries. The chief source of supply, however, is from Germany, where it is found imbedded in the sand along the Baltic sea shore.
Darnar is a soft whitish gum which exudes from coniferous species of trees in India and Ceylon. It is soluble in the volatile oils and yields a very white varnish of too soft a nature to be of much practical use except as a paper varnish for which on account of its pliability, it seems well adapted also on account of its colorless nature.
Sandarac is also the product of conifers, but is of little better quality although harder than our own resin derived from yellow pine.
Gum mastic is derived from a nut bearing tree of the Grecian archipelago, and exudes from the trees where incisions are made, in the shape of small tear like pebbles. It is also too soft for other uses than that indicated for damar gum varnish.
Resin of yellow pine extraction is used in many ways by varnish factories in connection with other harder gums and with China wood oil it yields some kinds of varnishes useful for many purposes. Since the introduction of wood oil in connection with varnish making, it has rendered its use possible where before it would not have been thought of. This wood oil seems to make it harder and more pliable at the same time and it is replacing many of the soft gums which are mentioned above as it is very much cheaper than any of the others.
Sticlac and Shellac may as well be reviewed together, as shellac is only sticlac refined for commercial use and immense quantities of it are used by the industries of the country besides the use of it made by the hardwood finishing trade. It is the product of vegetation and is soluble in alcohol mainly.
The solvents are alcohol, turpentine and linseed oil.
306. The manufacture of varnish is an intricate, complex business requiring a long apprenticeship and accumulated experience and while the ways of making varnishes are well known, each manufacturer has little tricks of his own in the making of certain grades and in the ripening or blending of various gums which are carefully guarded.
It requires a large capital besides for to properly conduct a varnish manufacturing business. The ripening of varnishes requires months and even years to fit them for certain uses.
It is much cheaper for the consumer to buy the varnishes he uses ready for application than it would be for him to make them, even if he had the knowhow which he has not, and a person now who would undertake the making of his own varnish as in ye olden "tymes" would be considered as a fit subject for a lunatic asylum. Such easily made ones as shellac varnish, however, do not come under the same heading, and any one can readily make them for himself; all that is required is to give the alcohol sufficient time to dissolve the shellac, but it will not pay one to make it as he cannot buy the shellac nearly as cheap as the manufacturer does and it will probably cost him as much as the ready prepared article besides the trouble thrown in.
307. The cheapest forms of varnish made are of course made entirely from resin dissolved in cheap mineral volatile oil with some paraffin oil put into it in order that the brittleness of the resin may be counter- acted.
The so-called "surfacers" are but little better than the gloss oils and may be classed together. They are chiefly used in coating over plastered walls to stop the suctions previous to the applications of water colors.
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