Tinting or Staining Strength.
—We have already explained at length how greatly the tinting strength of different colours or stains varies. Any painter can test the tinting strength of any colour himself in a very simple manner. All that is necessary is to have a pair of apothecaries’ scales, some blotting paper, a palette knife, some pieces of glass or a flat piece of marble and some pieces of waxed paper. First weigh out say eighty grains of dry white lead or dry zinc. Any other white will answer equally well. Place these eighty grains on one side of the glass and the second eighty grains on the other. Now take the dry colour and weigh one grain and add that to one of the little piles of white, then weigh a grain of the standard colour and add that to the other pile. Now add to each pile a few drops of oil, taking care that the number of drops is the same in each case. With the palette knife thoroughly mix until no streaks can be seen and the mixture is perfectly uniform. Then by comparing the two the difference in tinting strength will at once be apparent. The same result would have been produced had ordinary white lead ground in oil been used instead of dry lead or zinc. If the colour is ground in oil a little difference in the method must be observed, the reason being that one colour might be ground much thicker than the other, in other words, might contain much more oil than the other, and hence if equal weights of each were compared the result would be misleading. Take then each colour in oil—that is the standard and the colour with which it is to be compared—place on a small quantity of blotting paper and allow it to remain a few minutes so that the oil may be extracted. If it is thought necessary the sample can be washed with benzine, but for painters’ purposes the extraction of the oil by means of blotting paper is sufficient for the purpose. The two samples having remained on the blotting paper for a short time one grain of each is weighed out separately on little pieces of wax paper, this being used so that the colour shall not stick to the scale. Then each grain is mixed separately with the white and the result compared as before. It is not too much to say that every painter should be prepared to make this test because it informs him not only as to the tinting strength of the colour but also gives valuable information as to the tone, etc. Of course the quantities may be varied if necessary, and a larger amount used instead of the single grains. It need hardly be pointed out that scrupulous cleanliness is necessary for successfully carrying out this test. The palette knife must be wiped between each operation and every care taken to do justice to both samples.
If the reader will turn to the samples of colour issued in this work he will see a number of colours given in their full strength, and also when reduced with certain parts of white, as marked upon the sheets. The colours used in the preparation of this sheet were of average quality, and it will prove interesting no doubt to the student to mix the colour he has been in the habit of using in the same proportion with white and to note whether the results come out above or below those shown by our samples.