THE HOUSE PAINTER AND GLAZIER.
HOUSE-PAINTING AND GLAZING.
Although we have spoken of the trade of the Plumber separately, and have placed the Painter and Glazier together, it generally happens that the three trades are carried on by the same persons, and you will often have noticed “Plumber, Painter, and Glazier” over the fronts of shops, where leaden pipes and taps, casements, and squares of coloured glass, and specimens of “graining,” or imitations of various woods in painting, are placed for show in the windows, to represent the different businesses carried on.
It is the duty of the House Painter to cover with his colours such portions of the Joiner’s, Smith’s, or Plasterer’s work as require to be protected from the action of the air, which would cause them to rust or decay. He has also to choose the colours which will be best suited for decorating walls and cornices, and generally to apply the proper shades for all the ornaments of the house, and this part of the business, which is called “decorative painting,” requires a great degree of skill and taste in the workman, who may properly be called an artist.
The materials used by the Painter are principally white lead, linseed oil, spirits of turpentine, “dryers,” and putty. White lead, which forms the basis of almost all the colours used in house painting, is prepared by exposing strips of lead to the action of acid; but the Painter buys it ready made, in the form of small cakes, or lumps. This white lead is used in all the under coats of paint, and generally makes the body of most of the colours which are afterwards applied. Unfortunately, while it is in the half-fluid state, when it is used by Painters, it is very poisonous and unwholesome, and many workmen suffer severely in their health from its use; but it will be found that this is often caused by their own carelessness in working, and by the want of personal cleanliness. The Painter should not only thoroughly wash his hands before every meal, but as soon as his work is done should entirely change his clothes, and wash hands and face thoroughly, or even take a bath. Beside this, he should wear, over his working clothes, a coarse linen frock or blouse, which will protect him from the spots of paint, and may be frequently washed.
Linseed oil and spirits of turpentine are used for mixing and thinning the colours; linseed oil is obtained from the seeds of the flax plant, which are heated, beaten, and pressed by machinery, until the greater part of the oil is extracted; the seeds crushed into cakes are then used as food for cattle. Nut oil, or the oil pressed from various kinds of nuts, such as walnuts, hazel and beech nuts, is also frequently used for mixing colours where they are likely to be exposed to the weather, but linseed oil is cheaper and is most generally adapted to the purpose.
Oil of turpentine, which the Painter calls “turps,” is the oil obtained by distilling crude turpentine; and is used by the House Painter to make his colours work more smoothly and freely in the brush, to cause them to dry more quickly, and to take away that shiny unpleasant glare that would otherwise be seen on the surface of paint mixed with linseed oil alone.
It is necessary, too, to take some means to make the linseed oil dry more rapidly than it would in its raw state; or the paint would remain moist and greasy upon the walls for a very long time. For this purpose the oil is boiled, and is then known as “boiled oil,” this is bought ready prepared, the Painter having by him preparations of lead or vitriol, called “dryers,” which he mixes with his colours, after they are made, in order to increase the rapidity with which they set upon the places where they are applied.
The Painter has only a few tools, and these are very simple; they consist principally of the grinding stone, or slab and muller, for grinding his colours; earthen pots for holding the paints; cans for oil and turps; a few tin pots, or open cans and kettles, for colour to be applied to outside places or walls where he has to work on ladders; a palette knife, for spreading the white lead on the stone, or removing the paint to the palette, for fine work, or to the paint pot; and brushes of different sizes.
Slab and Muller. Paint Pot. Palette Knife. Oil Can. Paint Pot. Paint Kettle.
The various colours, which are mostly made from earths and minerals, are purchased by the Painter in powder or small dry lumps, and have to be brought to a fine state, and made quite free from grit, before they can be used.
The slab, or grindstone, is generally of marble or porphyry, and must have a perfectly smooth surface; and the muller is a large oval or egg-shaped pebble, with one end broken off, and the surface made as smooth as that of the slab. A small quantity of the colour which requires grinding is placed on the stone, and moistened with a little oil; and the muller is then worked over it, by a circular movement, until it is gradually driven to the edge of the stone. The colour is then removed by the spatula, or palette knife, and placed in the paint pot.
Paint Brushes.
In this state, however, the colour is too thick to use, and of course requires to be thinned by adding the oil until it is sufficiently fluid.
In painting woodwork, the first business is called “knotting,” that is, removing the turpentine from the knots, which would otherwise ooze and spoil the paint. They are first covered with fresh slaked lime, which dries up and burns out the turpentine; this is afterwards scraped off, and the knots painted with a mixture of red and white lead mixed with glue size, and afterwards with white lead and linseed oil. When dry, they must be rubbed smooth with a piece of pumice stone. The next operation is to put on the “priming,” which is the first coat of paint, composed of red and white lead and linseed oil. The nail-holes, and other imperfections, are then stopped up with putty (a mixture of linseed oil and whiting, made into a paste), applied with the stopping knife; and then the other coats of paint are laid on; three coats being generally considered sufficient; and the last being of the required colour.
Stopping Knife.
The brushes used by the Painter, are either round or flat, the latter being used in varnishing or graining; they are made of hog’s bristles. The smaller kinds of brushes are called tools or fitches, and are used for small surfaces, such as ornaments and mouldings round panels, when the colour is generally taken from a palette—a round slab of wood, with a hole through which the thumb of the left hand passes in order to hold it. The brushes must never be allowed to get dry, but when not in use must be kept in water: it is always best to keep a brush for each colour. Another part of the Painter’s business which requires more skill, is graining and marbling; or the imitation in colours of the marks and grains of various kinds of wood, and the veins and spots in marbles. This is of course a part of the trade which requires a knowledge of the thing to be imitated, and great care and taste in doing it well.
Graining is generally done with “distemper colour,” that is a kind of paint in which whiting and size are used instead of white lead and oil, for the basis of the colour; but the colours depend on the sort of grain to be imitated, and they are applied in various ways and with different sorts of brushes, some of the colour being occasionally removed with a piece of wash leather, in order to give the appearance of the light marks seen in the “heart” of the wood. The appearance of the “grain” of the wood is effected by the graining comb, a comb with short thick straight teeth, which is drawn along the paint in a wavy line.
Graining Comb. Painter’s Brush.
Marbles are imitated in oil if it is outside work and exposed to the weather, but for inside work distemper colour is frequently used.
Occasionally walls are coloured in distemper, and it then frequently happens that a pattern or some ornamental design is painted in the centres of the panels, or round the mouldings. This is a part of the Painter’s trade which requires much skill, and a knowledge of artistic drawing and design.
Varnishing is an operation requiring great care to perform it properly, since it is necessary not only to choose the right kind of varnish, but also to apply it to the surface of the paint with a light but firm hand. Varnishes are made of gums or resins melted, spirits of wine, oil of turpentine, or strong white drying oil. The hard varnishes dry rapidly, and are made of the harder kinds of gums, such as copal, mastic, &c., and the soft of Canada balsam, elemi, turpentine, &c. The most useful for the House Painter are those of copal, linseed oil, and turpentine.
The brushes used in varnishing are generally flat, so as to enable the workman to lay an even surface on the work. Varnishes are usually kept in wide-mouthed bottles; from which they are poured into little tin pans with a false bottom above the real bottom, the space between the two being filled with sand. The use of this is that when the pan is placed over the fire, the sand becomes heated, and the varnish is kept a long time from becoming chilled.
THE GLAZIER.
Glazing Knife. Hacking Knife. Chisel Knife. Clicker’s Knife.
The trade of the Glazier, though now very important, was unknown in this country till the eleventh century, and even long afterwards the use of glass for windows was extremely rare; pieces of horn, and oiled paper, supplying its place in almost every building except palaces and churches. As we have here to do with the Glazier, and not with the manufacturer of glass, we need say little about the method of making the materials used; so that it will suffice to know that the “crown glass,” mostly sold for windows of houses, is composed principally of white sand, pearlash, and saltpetre. This glass the Glazier purchases in sheets of a circular form, each of which is called a table, since the mode in which it is made renders such a shape necessary; and the first thing he has to learn, is how to cut out square pieces of the proper size without wasting much of the round edge. The glass when cut is fixed either into lead work or sashes; the former of these is the oldest description of glazing; and in the common kind the leaden frames are soldered together, so as to form squares or diamonds; the sides of the grooves in which the glass is placed being soft enough to bend back to receive the panes, and then bend back again to hold them firmly. In wooden sashes, such as are now commonly used, the space or frame for each pane of glass is “rebated,” that is, it has outside a small groove all round to receive the pane, and a ledge against which it rests. In this “rebate” each square of glass is placed, and then firmly bedded and fastened smoothly with a rim of putty filling up the groove.
Rule. Square. 2-foot Rule. Tilter.
The Glazier uses a hacking knife for cutting out old putty from broken squares; and the stopping knife, or glazing knife, for laying and smoothing the putty.
For setting glass into lead work, the setting knife, or chisel knife, and the broad-bladed knife is used.
As much of the Glazier’s work is done outside the house, he is sometimes compelled to use a board which is fastened with screws, and projects from the window so that he may sit astride on the outside. No one should ever attempt this where the sash can be easily taken out and the work done inside.
Diamond. Pincers.
The rest of the Glazier’s tools are a square, and a straight edge rule for cutting against, a two-foot rule, and compasses for measuring; pincers for breaking off the edges of glass that have been partially cut through; and the diamond, which is used for cutting, and is his principal tool. This is made of a small unpolished diamond fixed in lead, and fastened to a handle of hard wood.