PAINTING CANVAS AND CLOTH TOPS.
Formula No. 1.—Use of white vitriol one-quarter lb. in three quarts of soft water, adding whiting until a good spreading consistency is reached. Prime outside of top and curtains. This leaves the material nicely flexible and coats the texture up so dense and full that a couple of coats of paint are saved. Then with an elastic paint coat and finish in the usual way.
Formula No. 2.—Coat the canvas, barring curtains, with rye flour paste, inside and out. Permit this paste to dry thoroughly. With No. 1/2 sandpaper polish cloth lightly to knock off nibs, etc. Then coat with white lead paint mixed with one-third raw linseed oil and two-thirds coach japan, the mixture cut a little with turpentine. Next coat reduce the oil to a trifle less than one-quarter oil to one-half japan, one-quarter rubbing varnish, the remainder, turpentine. Next give coat white color-and-varnish. Rub this coat lightly with water and pumice stone (pulverized), letter, ornament, and finish with a durable finishing varnish.
Formula No. 3.—Size with hot glue water, using two coats twenty-four hours apart. Then apply coat of keg white lead mixed two-thirds raw linseed oil, the remaining one-third being japan and turpentine, equal parts. After five days apply coat of lead containing three-eighths oil, two-eighths japan, three-eighths turpentine. Then apply white color-and-varnish. Rub lightly, letter, and finish. This is not adopted to a limited time allowance.
Formula No. 4.—Sponge with water top and side panels or curtains; permit to partly dry and then coat with lead and oil coloring strongly in the direction the final color is to be. Reduce the quantity of oil in the next coat, and in lettering use enough oil in the colors employed to give the requisite elasticity.
To paint on enameled drill, mix the pigment with raw linseed oil and gold size japan, equal parts, and thin to the proper consistency with turpentine. In judging the quantity of oil used, a close determination of the percentage of oil contained in the lead should be made, otherwise an excessive quantity of oil is apt to be used.
The wagon painter frequently has to letter on canvas, duck, or some other material of similar texture not dressed in the raiment of paint. To do this successfully various expedients are resorted to. Some workmen practice moistening the cloth with water and then putting on the letters in paint having plenty of oil in it. Others draw the cloth tight and firm and size it with a solution of starch and water. Proportions, 3/4 water; 1/4 starch. Allow this size to dry considerably before beginning to letter. Mix the lettering pigment to a paste form in elastic rubbing varnish and thin with turpentine. Still others make a size of cooked starch and glue water, and sponge the parts that are to be lettered. After the letters have been placed, if the cloth should prove to be stiff and inelastic, sponge with moderately warm water, in this way abstracting the surplus size.
CHAPTER XIII.
VEHICLE REPAINTING: HOW THE VARIOUS CLASSES OF WORK ARE DONE—MATCHING COLORS—BURNING OFF PAINT—MATERIALS USED IN PAINTING—TREATMENT OF TOPS AND DASHES—WASHING FINISHED WORK—SCHEDULE OF PRICES, ETC.
The re-varnishing, re-painting, etc., of vehicles constitutes an important source of revenue for the carriage and wagon painter. Many first-class paint shops connected with high grade carriage manufacturing establishments do a heavy business in re-painting vehicles. The writer has in mind a firm of carriage builders located not far from the office of The Western Painter, which employs a force of from sixty to eighty painters. In addition to painting and finishing the manufactured output of the establishment, consisting, it may be said, of anything in the carriage line from a tiny road buggy to a dashing four-in-hand coach, the force is yearly credited with from $30,000 to $40,000 worth of re-painting, etc. From this it will be assumed that vehicle repainting, rightly directed, affords substantial profits. Were it otherwise the firm in question would not make it a part of their business.