Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting / A Treatise on the Painting of Carriages, Wagons and Sleighs, Embracing Full and Explicit Directions for Executing All Kinds of Work, Including Painting Factory Work, Lettering, Scrolling, Ornamenting, Varnishing, etc., with Many Tested Recipes and Formulas

by M. C. Hillick

ROUGHSTUFF—HOW MADE, APPLIED, AND RUBBED.

Webster defines "rough" as "having inequalities, small ridges, or points on the surface," and "stuff" as "refuse or worthless matter." But, combining the two words into one—roughstuff—the painter construes the term to mean something different from the construction put upon it by the eminent lexicographer when he cleaved it evenly in twain.

Without the coarse mineral pigments known as "fillers," white lead, and the liquid mediums used to properly unite and weld them together and denominated roughstuff when ready for use, the painter, in his effort to make satisfactorily level and smooth surfaces, would be in almost as sorry a plight as the mariner bereft of his compass. For, mark you, gentle confrères! roughstuff is essential to carriage body surface elegancies and mirror-like effects.