LIQUID MATERIALS.
In the consumption of liquid materials the vehicle painter has no use for extenders. Unfortunately, however, the thrifty and shifty sons of adulteration, after the manner of Marco Bozzaris, in the Fourth Reader, are struggling, tooth and nail, to adulterate linseed oil and the turpentine product in a way to defy detection.
What the cathode ray is to a certain branch of science, pure raw linseed oil is to carriage and wagon painting. Back in a somewhat indefinite period of the past, linseed oil pre-empted the chief claim in the domain of paint and varnish, and its right to a royal office in that domain has never yet been successfully disputed, notwithstanding the fact that a flood of substitutes and counterfeits have been turned loose upon the market. In the language of another, "Raw linseed oil is the king of the paint realm. There are lots of usurpers in the field but they are short lived. The true homage of the brotherhood of the brush continues to be paid to the old stand-by. It is the gold of the paint shop currency."
In the basic stage of carriage and wagon painting, pure raw linseed oil is conceded to be the life of the pigment. Impure or adulterated linseed oil—the spurious, fraudulent article, if you please—has more to do with the premature decay of paint and varnish than one at first thought might concede. During the process of painting there are numerous complications which, by the harsh reality of scientific analysis, could be directly traced to the insidious effects of an adulterated brand of oil. Investigations conducted by competent experts have shown that the self-assertiveness of adulterated oil is determined, not so much by apparent unfavorable effects upon the under coats, but rather from its resistless attack upon the lustre and durability of the finishing varnish. Some of the oils used to adulterate linseed oil are pronounced by such authorities as Hurst and Terry to be good driers, although, as in the case of rosin oil, they may seemingly dry good upon the surface only to soften up later on. And provided these adulterant oils are not good driers, the people engaged in floating them along the avenues of trade have simply to add a certain proportion of drying japan to O. K. them in this respect.
The vehicle painter's practice of using raw linseed oil insures him somewhat against oil adulteration, as it is much more difficult to adulterate the raw linseed product than the boiled and have the fraud go undetected. A raw linseed oil when fresh and new is of a bright yellowish-green color, and as it grows older it becomes paler in color and perhaps a little brighter. When spread on a surface in a thin film and exposed to a pure dry air it will harden quite solidly in from forty-five to fifty hours. It ranks as reliable drying oil, promptly solidifying when acted upon by peroxide of hydrogen or by subnitrate of mercury. A non-drying oil refuses to show a change of this kind. Combining powerfully with oxygen, it offers, when dry, a stronger resinous character than any other oil.
Probably the chief adulterants of linseed oil should be listed as rosin, mineral, and fish oil; cottonseed oil being looked upon with less favor than formerly, while hempseed oil, owing to its pronounced tendency to change color, is not much in evidence at present.
Rosin oil is strictly an unreliable drier. It toughens the working property of paint and is deficient in all the essentials which should distinguish a good paint oil. Its low flash point, as indicated by Hurst,—300° to 330° F.—together with its strong rosin odor when heated, would appear to make it an easily-detected adulterant. Deodorizing processes have of late served to fortify this oil, and fish oil as well, against detection by the sense of smell. Fish oil, chiefly the product of the menhaden fishing industry flourishing so vigorously along the Atlantic coast, has naturally an offensively fishy odor, particularly when heated. Its main recommendations as a linseed oil adulterant are tersely summed up by Terry as follows: The rapidity with which it oxidizes, and its good body, render it not unsuitable as a vehicle for paint.
The low cost of mineral oils, including coal oil and petroleum, has caused them to become highly regarded as linseed oil adulterating mediums. Mineral oils more unfavorably affect the drying property of paint than its working and spreading property.
Cottonseed oil belongs to the non-drying class of oils, but since recent processes have made possible the elimination of the pronounced acrid taste, its presence in linseed oil by the sense of taste is not easy to expose.
Hempseed oil is a mean tasting, mean smelling, but good drying oil, and only because of its rapid color changes, wearing finally to a dull brown, is its employment in linseed oil restricted to narrow limits.
In testing for linseed oil adulteration, ammonia is often effectively used, equal parts of the ammonia and oil being employed. Cottonseed oil under the ammonia treatment shows an opaque brown. When it is present in linseed oil the liquid goes to an opaque yellow. Fish oil under the effects of ammonia goes white. Rosin oil will disclose its presence in linseed oil if confined in a bottle, with alcohol added in the proportion of five parts of alcohol to one part of oil, and smartly shaken, the alcohol afterwards being poured off. A clear sugar-of-lead solution is added to the oil, and should rosin oil be an ingredient a cloudy precipitate will manifest itself. A practical and simple test often used in the carriage paint shop consists in taking a couple of test tubes and putting a quantity of linseed oil of known purity in one tube and a quantity of suspected oil in the other, then immersing the tubes in warm water for, say, 1/4 of an hour, and immediately upon removal from the water pouring the pure oil into the tube of suspected oil. If any impurity exists, different colors will form in layers. And it may be here proper to say, in passing, that in making tests and comparisons of materials, an article of established purity and quality should be used as a standard. Some time ago a well-known paint firm issued a card giving some easy and practical tests for the detection of linseed oil adulterants, and knowing their value to the vehicle painter, the writer herewith appends three tests:
No 1.—Shake equal parts of oil and strong nitric acid in a small white glass vial or bottle, and allow to stand from fifteen minutes to two hours.
| UPPER STRATUM | LOWER STRATUM | ||
| Pure Linseed oil | } | Muddy olive green | Almost colorless |
| Presence of Fish oil | } | Decided deep red brown | Deep red or cherry color |
No. 2.—Shake with concentrated solution of potash or soda, and then add warm water and shake again. Allow to stand half an hour, and if any petroleum (paraffine oil) is present it will separate from the soap.
No. 3.—Put samples of oil in tubes and place them in a freezing mixture (2 parts ice or snow, 1 part salt). If the oils solidify at 0° or 10° to 13° F., then cottonseed oil is probably present. (Pure linseed oil solidifies at 17° F.)
The hydrometer should be among the possessions of every well-regulated paint shop. It is an inexpensive little instrument, and for testing turpentine it is unsurpassed, while for the detection of cottonseed and mineral oil in linseed oil it is a quick and active agent. First test a brand of linseed oil of absolute purity; and such an oil, bear in mind, should not vary 1/2 degree from 20° to 60° Fahr. In the case of a 20% addition of mineral oil to linseed oil (the same temperature being maintained in testing both the pure and the suspected samples) the specific gravity will be 1 1/2° less than the pure oil. A 25% addition of cottonseed oil will be 1° lower. Fish oil being of about, if not quite, the same specific gravity as pure linseed oil, the adulterator can beat the hydrometer.
Pure raw linseed oil is so essentially a part of durable carriage and wagon painting that especial attention should constantly be directed to the oil supply.
In respect to his purchases of turpentine the painter should be likewise cautious and investigating. The adulteration of turpentine with headlight oil, or a lower grade of kerosene, and with 112 fire test oil has been, and continues to be, actively carried on. This 112 fire test oil, as employed in small southern distilleries not shadowed by inspectors, shows a list of ingredients closely corresponding to, heavy paraffine oil 1/3; kerosene, 1/3; light oil, 1/3. Thus a gravity is provided which registers about the same as pure turpentine and is therefore very difficult to detect. The naval authorities practice—and it is said, successfully—the old-time test of dropping the suspected turps on a piece of white paper alongside of a pure brand of turps and watching the result. The turps containing the 112 fire test oil will leave, upon evaporation, a faint but decided greasy stain. Pure turpentine not too rapidly distilled will leave no spot. The turpentine containing traces of the crude gum due to too rapid distillation will impart a sticky, yellowish-white stain to the paper and this the painter should not confound with the afore-mentioned greasy stain of the adulterated turps. In our Eastern, Middle, Western, and Northwestern cities the practice of kerosene oil injection is the favorite method of cheating the consumer. The sense of smell will sometimes detect the presence of kerosene; the white paper test will sometimes expose it; and again both tests will fail, along with the other usual ones. While so keen an authority as Mr. Geo. B. Heckel, of Drugs, Oils and Paints, has acknowledged that the adulterators can cheat the hydrometer to a certain extent, it cannot be done with the same measure of profit and impunity as formerly. Mr. Heckel has publicly advised consumers to insist on 31° turps, prefacing the advice with the following noteworthy declaration: "If I were a painter I would never accept a gallon of turpentine without sticking a hydrometer into it, and if it registered above 31 1/2° or below 30 1/2° I would not accept it from the United States Treasury."
What vehicle painter vested with the authority of purchasing the turpentine supply for a painting business, be that business big or little, can afford to disregard Mr. Heckel's admonition? To pay turpentine prices for kerosene oil is a disastrous drain upon the resources of a painting business, in addition to furnishing the materials used an element of insecurity, a germ of decay, sure to disturb the durability and comeliness of a painted surface. For it is, or should be, in fact, clearly understood that the kerosene or fire test oil adulterants do not evaporate like turpentine when put into a pigment and spread upon a surface. They strike into the wood or pierce the nether coat of pigment, causing, later on, the flaking and peeling of the pigment; or they retard the drying of colors; and again, they lend a peculiar roughness to the surface, like unto that imparted by benzine when used in a fine coach color.
The carriage and wagon painter has substantial reasons for being interested in coach japans, for upon their quality and judicious employment the durability of his work greatly depends. The many and beautiful colors which he uses almost daily are japan ground, and the pigments and colors shop-mixed are invariably fortified with the ever-useful coach japan. The wide variety of names applied to the drying materials used in the painting business has been the source of annoyance and confusion to the practical mind. In reality, however, there are but three kinds—coach japan, specially adapted for colors to be quickly dried and containing no oil; liquid drier (or dryer) intended for the drying of oil and oil paint; and patent driers purchased in paste form, effective only when used in conjunction with oil. The patent driers are so little used at present that they scarcely merit a notice.
Coach japan, with the merits of which the carriage painter has a right to be concerned, being chiefly used, as before stated, in colors containing no oil require, for purposes of protection and as a service-insuring medium, blanketing under one or more coats of varnish.
It is not to be understood that coach japan will not combine with and dry oil colors; its power in this capacity, however, is less than that of a liquid drier, while its gummy nature shows a tendency to cause surface disturbances of the cracking and blistering order—most emphatically so when strictly exact proportions are not maintained. Its adaptability, therefore, is best confined to colors containing no oil.
So much of uncertainty, so much that is injurious and fatal to the durability of colors, is embraced in the employment of japan in excessive quantities or of an inferior grade that the painter should not be slow in determining, by practical tests, both strength and quality. And to make such tests easy, not to mention other convincing reasons, need we invoke the purchaser's attention to the importance of buying only standard makes?
A first-class coach japan, as a rule, will show a color moderately light, and when mixed with oil should manifest no disposition to curdle. Such a japan, too, should, when floated in a thin film over a glass or other strictly non-porous surface, dry firm and without brittleness in four hours. To observe how the japan unites and assimilates with linseed oil, take a pane of window glass, that furnishing a surface non-porous and decidedly free from suction, and attaching a sheet of white paper on one side as a means of better showing the action of the oil and japan, drop on the reverse side of the glass about four drops of raw linseed oil. Then affix, say, a single drop of japan in close proximity to the oil, immediately inclining the glass so that the japan may come in contact with the oil. If the drier promptly unites and takes kindly to a close relationship with the oil without curdling or showing other evidences of disagreement, it will merit the approval of the painter. Another easily-conducted test consists in comparing the japan of unknown quality with one of acknowledged merit, by taking the samples and confining them in bottles containing raw linseed oil, shaking the contents and then standing aside for at least twenty-four hours. The proportions of oil and japan may be in the ratio of 5 parts of oil to 1 part of japan, exactly the same proportions being adhered to in all the samples tested. At the expiration of twenty-four hours one can see which sample mixes best with the oil. The samples then poured in a thin film over a piece of glass and allowed to stand will determine the drying property of each. It will also be useful to learn by observation and comparisons if the japan holds well in solution. A japan that fails to do this is not valuable in carriage and wagon painting. Study should be made as to how and to what extent the japan effects the light and delicate colors at present so extensively used. In point of fact, the painter should not weary in investigating the qualities and characteristics of his coach japans, and what they are capable of doing. To establish their real value will mark an achievement of the first order in the economy of painting.
In regard to varnishes the buyer can find no excuse for putting aside the fact that quality and not price should determine the value of his supply; and, happily, he has it within his power in the active prosecution of his business to demonstrate the good or bad quality of varnish. It may frequently prove an expensive experiment; and herein is disclosed an apparently good and sufficient reason for the painter's disinclination to change from the use of one make of varnish to another. The varnishing stage of painting may be said to be in a critical period at all times, and having established the quality of his varnish supply, the responsible party in the matter is naturally opposed to changing in favor of a make with which he is not practically acquainted. At the same time, a practical test of different strictly reliable makes is the only way of deciding to one's own satisfaction which is the best, and the most economical to buy. Any first-class finisher can very soon determine the working property, brilliancy, depth of lustre, drying quality and general behavior under varying circumstances and conditions of different varnishes. Nevertheless, that primary requisite, durability, is not so easily nor so promptly established. This essential quality can be determined only after protracted trials upon vehicles engaged in active service, the painter retaining carefully tabulated data bearing upon each make of varnish under observation, the character of the service to which it is exposed, etc. Thus, in due season, may the actual merits of a varnish be defined.
CHAPTER XV.
CUTTER AND SLEIGH PAINTING: DECORATIVE ASPECTS OF THE WORK—THE VARIOUS PROCESSES OF PAINTING EMPLOYED—THE PREVAILING COLORS—STRIPING AND SCROLLING—REPAINTING, REVARNISHING, PROFITS TO BE REALIZED, ETC.
Cutter and sleigh painting are justly esteemed interesting parts of the art of vehicle painting. Coming at a time when the ordinary activities of vehicle painting are practically at a standstill, the cutter and sleigh painting business furnishes a medium for profits gleefully taken advantage of by the average factory and jobbing shop painter.
In one way, it must be confessed, this branch of painting has fallen off in attractiveness. The elaborate decorative effects once so largely in the full favor of fashion have been discarded, and many workmen competent to accomplish such effects have become lost in other pursuits. But in these days the painter should be prepared for any emergency; hence it is best that cutter and sleigh decorative work be given study, and skill to execute such work be kept in hand or acquired by practice. Now and then comes a call for a cutter or sleigh ornamented in the old-fashioned way with elaborate arm pieces, etc. The jobbing shop painter especially is very frequently confronted with opportunities for the practice of decorative painting in a variety of ways, and to fulfill his mission as an important community artisan he should be prepared to do the work. The very low prices paid for cutter and sleigh painting at the present time have proved an effective factor, no doubt, in considerably restricting the limitations of decorative painting. At the same time, there is every reason to believe that the conspicuous absence of fine decorative effects in cutter and sleigh painting is also due, to a large extent, to the inability of the average latter-day workman, located in provincial centres, to fittingly produce them. Upon the modern Portland style cutter elaborate ornamentation would perhaps be out of place; but upon many of the runner vehicles of ancient and honorable vintage, which the beauteous Belle of Fashion has decreed to be the proper thing, a generous measure of decorative work would be appropriate. Swell sleighs of more recent pattern take kindly to lavish ornamentation built upon rather delicate lines.
These conditions, therefore, warrant the painter who deeply desires to command profits and success in cutter and sleigh painting, in cultivating a ready skill and dexterity along the lines of ornamental work.
Fig. 1.
Surface perfections have grown to be important considerations in the economy of sleigh painting of the best grade. While none but the very finest class of cutters and sleighs are given surfaces rivalling in smoothness and quality those reflected by the best class of carriages, still, first-class surfacing remains a chief feature of sleigh painting, excepting at all times the seven-for-$100 vehicles. And in respect to this latter class of jobs, the results achieved in the way of surface effects are often surprising, due chiefly to the very heavy coats of varnish applied.
And here the reader may deem it pertinent to ask for a review of the systems and methods practiced in painting and finishing cutters and sleighs.
Fig. 2.
In the painting of runner vehicles of the best order the jobs are primed throughout, bodies and running parts (and this includes inside of bodies, under surface—everything, in fact, not covered with iron), with oil and lead primer. Permitting this coat to dry thoroughly, a light sanding with, say No. 1/2 sandpaper, is given, and then a coat of lead containing enough raw linseed oil to bind the pigment securely without giving it a gloss is put on. Use an oval or round bristle brush to apply the lead to the body, and for the running parts use a camel's-hair brush, this latter tool being best adapted to lay a uniform depth of pigment over the sharp edges and small surfaces of the running parts. Upon this coat putty both body and running parts draw-puttying all open-grained portions of the surface. Forty-eight hours after puttying begin rough-stuffing the body, using for the 'stuff equal parts of any good American filler and keg lead, by weight, reducing to a thick paste in equal parts of quick rubbing varnish and japan, then cutting to a brushing consistency with turpentine. This is a two-coat-per-day 'stuff. Apply four coats of the 'stuff, then a guide coat of yellow ochre and set aside for a few days. After rubbing the surface out (full instructions for rubbing roughstuff may be found in [Chapter III]. of this series) give it plenty of time—twelve or fourteen hours at least—to dry out. Then lightly sandpaper with No. 0 paper, dust off, and give first coat of color.
Fig. 3.
The proper color foundation being secured, apply two coats of rubbing varnish, either both clear or one clear and one color-and-varnish, the character of the color foundation determining the selection, and then follow with a heavily flowed on coat of finishing varnish. In case color-and-varnish be used, the striping and ornamental work had best be done on this coat, as upon work of this quality the ornamentation will require the protection of a rubbing, as well as a finishing, coat of varnish.
The running parts require sandpapering, then one coat of color-and-varnish, then striping and finishing. This system, intended exclusively for high class work, requires a very thorough carrying out, with no neglected details from priming coat to finishing, if a satisfactory degree of excellence, both in finish and durability, would be maintained.
Another system, in which roughstuff does not figure, consists of giving body and gear, when received from the wood shop, a coat of lead, ochre, and oil priming. When the irons are attached, the job is sandpapered and a coat of lead containing a durable binder of oil is given. The wood and iron are alike coated with this mixture. The panels of the body are next, in due season, plastered with putty (see Knifing Head Formula No. 1, in [Chapter III].), the pigment being firmly forced into the grain of the wood. Aim to get a very smooth application of the pigment in addition to a complete fullness of the wood pores, to the end that the surface cells may be sealed "against graining out" and that the labor of sandpapering may be reduced to the minimum.
Fig. 4.
The first coat of color is furnished with a binder of oil and should not be recoated until the day following. Add varnish as a binder for the second coat of color. A single coat of rubbing, and one of some hard drying finishing varnish often suffices to complete the finish. If a better job is desired an extra coat of rubbing is given. The striping, corner pieces, etc., are done on the flat color. The running parts are puttied on the priming coat, exposed parts of open grained surface draw-puttied, sandpapered, given one coat of color, coat of color-and-varnish, striped, and finished with a heavy bodied, hard drying finishing varnish. Again, for medium priced sleigh work a factory system consists of applying some reliable liquid wood filler to the job throughout, then a little later wiping the surface over with soft, clean rags. The work is allowed twenty-four hours in which to dry out, when the body is given a coat of roughstuff mixed in the proportion of 3 lbs. of filler to 1 lb. of keg lead, equal parts of japan and rubbing varnish being used to reduce it to a heavy paste, and turpentine employed to cut it to the proper working consistency. Putty on this coat of 'stuff. Then apply, at the rate of two coats per day, a roughstuff made according to the first formula given herewith. Three coats of this stuff should suffice. Rub out with rubbing bricks, color and finish out as previously advised. The running parts are puttied upon the filler coat, draw puttied wherever needed, then colored, given color-and-varnish, striped and finished.
In some shops the roughstuff is discarded altogether, the wood filler being filled over with a couple of lead coats, the first coat containing an oil binder and the second one containing no oil at all. This lead foundation is surfaced down with sandpaper, dusted off, and a wash of quick hard drying rubbing varnish, thinned down about one-half with turpentine, given. The surface is then finished out in the usual way. The running parts are treated as described in the liquid wood filler process previously given.
Fig. 5.
The anti-kalsomine system concerning which considerable discussion was had somewhat recently amounts to this: The jobs are primed throughout with oil, yellow ochre, and perhaps a little lead. The bodies are then taken in hand and all necessary puttying done. The anti-kalsomine, the fixer or binder of which is cement, is next mixed to a working consistency with hot water and applied hot. It is best to allow the first coat of kalsomine to stand over night before being recoated, although in the factory system three or four coats of the cement, always applied hot, are put on per day. Then a liquid mixture of oil, japan, and turpentine, in the proportion of two parts of oil to three parts of japan, and one part of turpentine, is flowed over the kalsomine foundation. This liquid wash serves to weld or amalgamate the cement with the priming coat. The sandpapering of these anti-kalsomine foundations is one of the principal draw-backs to the use of the cement. It sets in motion flotillas of dust, stifling and suffocating to an extreme. It has been noted, however, that this anti-kalsomine treatment has furnished some fine wearing and very durable surfaces.
Fig. 6.
The carriage painter in practicing his trade as it applies exclusively to carriages is confined to a comparatively few colors, but in devoting his skill to cutter and sleigh work an extended variety of colors may be used. Artistic instincts are in good demand in the cutter and sleigh painting business. Possibilities for the harmonious combination of colors exist here to an extent not known of in the other branches of painting. Colors sombre and gay; emblematic of this, that, or the other thing; old-fashioned as the days of witch burning or as modern and up-to-date as the '97 color grinder can make them, are all alike acceptable in the sight of the people who love a sleigh ride. Some painters have a great liking for siennas and umbers as body colors for sleigh work. Toned down some they do gleam very showily under varnish. Such colors striped with aluminum or gold and edged with a fine line of red give a strikingly handsome effect, especially if the running parts are painted in some one of the beautiful light reds at present available; or a lighter shade of the body color can be advantageously employed upon the running parts. Perhaps the lighter styles of cutters, speeding cutters, for example, take more kindly to the light and showy reds as running-parts colors than do the vehicles of heavier build, but all styles, nevertheless, permit of brilliant color effects in the treatment of running parts. For a light track or speeding cutter, color the side and back panels medium ultramarine blue; the dash, carmine; running parts, a very light carmine. Stripe the panels, 1/4 inch line of gold with a fine line of carmine. The dash and running parts may be displayed with striping of black and gold. Portland cutters for ordinary service show handsomely with the body panels done in ultramarine blue, moldings blacked, with the running parts done in the lightest shades of the ultramarine blue, the job then striped throughout with a primrose yellow stripe. Or again, these cutters are painted deep carmine throughout the body, with light carmine running parts. The striping on body consists of 1/8 inch line of black, and 3/8 inch inside of that is flashed a fine gold line. A Portland amber color for the body, with a lighter shade of the same color for the running-parts, looks fetching, notably so when the body panels are striped with double lines of carmine, the ornamental corner pieces being done in carmine of a lighter shade. The running parts may get a single 1/8 inch line of carmine. Then one can see in the cutter and sleigh centres Portlands done in ashen-grey, canary and lemon yellow, etc.
One of the largest cutter and sleigh factories in this country has this year abandoned the double fine line style of striping so greatly in evidence for several years past, using instead, as a rule, a 1/8-inch carmine stripe—obtained by glazing carmine over a yellow base—with a distance fine line of gold running inside of it. At this establishment one can see a jaunty Portland painted pure white, with the body striped a 1/8-inch blue line with a distance fine line of red. Here also are to be seen beautiful amber browns, charming greens, elegant yellows of the primrose, orange, canary order and extending down to the delicate cream colors. But, on the whole, those cutter and sleigh builders and painters who cater to the worshipers at Fashion's shrine show a determination to adhere to the dark rich colors, such as browns, greens, and blacks, for panel work. Cutters with running parts painted in colors different from those used upon the bodies are not so much in evidence as formerly. Where the dark colors promise to remain in high favor with a large class of the very exclusive folk for some years to come, no strict adherence to such colors may be expected on the part of the general cutter-and-sleigh-using public.