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

THE STRIPER'S OUTFIT.

The pencil equipment is properly a matter of the first concern to the striper. The last decade has witnessed the retirement, in large part at least, of the round pencils, save when stripes are to be done in sizes exceeding 1/8 in. The vividly sensational name of "dagger" or "sword pencil" has been applied to the pencil which has taken the place of the round liner. Practically all vehicle stripers use these pencils at present. A single pencil, if necessary, can be made to draw a various assortment of lines, running from the hair line to the round line, or even heavier. But, all things considered, the writer deems it best to have a pencil made to draw a certain line and no other. This necessitates the ownership of a larger equipment of pencils, but it also provides for uniformly good work more easily accomplished than can be expected when one pencil is made to do duty in drawing the variously sized lines called for in the average carriage and wagon shop. In [Fig. 1], accompanying this chapter, is shown a fine line sword pencil. This draws a hair line when filled properly, and cannot be made to exceed a fine line and do effective work. [Fig. 2] is a medium fine line pencil, and [Fig. 3] represents a pencil with which a fine line or a round line, or any line varying between these two, may be drawn. The striper should be provided with at least four different sizes of pencils. To make the sword pencil, proceed as follows: Take the desired portion of hair from a large camel's-hair pencil of selected quality, and draw to the proper bevel from one side of the flat portion of the hair. Then, taking the hair carefully in the left hand, with the thumb and forefinger of the right hand work a bit of trimmer's paste into the end that is inserted into the handle. Narrow strips of paper, say 3/4 in. in width, and of the full length of the hair, are cut and spread with a thin glazing of the paste, and on these prepared strips, about the center of them, lay the hair, keeping it perfectly straight. Next, fold the uncovered portions of the paper over the hair. The day following, or at any time in the future, the superfluous hair and paper may be trimmed from the embryo pencil and a handle attached. A straight-grained piece of pine affords a good handle. Split in center of handle, insert the hair in the split, wrap tightly with stout linen thread, and the pencil is ready for use. In the making of the sword pencil there is often a superfluity of short hairs, of which it is desirable to be well rid. To remove them, take the hair before it is greased, and with the end that is to be bound with the thread held between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand, pull the long hairs over to the right, thus exposing the short and useless hairs and affording an easy removal of them. This process of weeding out the naturally short hair develops the pencil of one length of stock excepting, of course, the desired taper of the tool. While many supply houses now furnish sword pencils of all sizes and lengths, the first-class stripers, the chevaliers of the art, prefer to make their own pencils, and the writer heartily coincides with that preference, the shop-made pencil usually having a poise and balance not possessed by the store-purchased article. To those of my readers who accept the dictum that there is no royal road to the art of striping; that the severe schooling in the busy arena of every-day practice is the culture that graduates the talented striper, I would say, learn to make your pencils. Your first attempt, or your second, and perhaps even your third, may not result successfully, but patience and a capacity for taking infinite pains will eventually, if not shortly, win. It is best to make pencils in lots of 1/2 doz. Two or three out of the lot, even after one becomes tolerably proficient in pencil making, may prove defective. The method of making the sword pencil, as above advised, has the advantage of being easily and quickly acquired, and is therefore recommended to the learner as a feasible one to adopt. With these sword, or dagger, pencils many of the ornamental striping designs which will accompany this and later chapters may be executed, the extreme point of the pencil being used in describing all curves and fancy circles.

Fig. 4. Round Pencil.
For Stout Line and Round Line.

Fig. 5.

COMBINATION LINES AND STRIPES.

	Hair Line
	Fine Line
	Stout Line
	Round Line
	Narrow Stripe
	Heavy Stripe
	Broad Stripe
	Double Fine Line
	Double Stout Line
	Double Round Line
	Double Round Line Fine Line Center
	Narrow Stripe Parallel Fine Lines
	Full Stripe
	Divided Stripe
	Divided Stripe Distance Fine Line

To make a round fine line pencil suited to the execution of corner pieces and cut up striping generally, take a camel's-hair round pencil of large size, from which extract the desired quantity of hair. Then cut a small piece of cedar down to about 1/8 in. diameter at one end and considerably smaller at the other. In the smaller end insert a pin until it holds firmly. Then, say, 1/4 in. from the wood, clip the pin off. Now shave the stick off until it tapers perfectly down to the pin. Next take the desired quantity of hair, and dipping one end of the brush into shellac, lay aside for a few minutes to permit the shellac to harden. Then insert the pin and tapered point of the wood until the clear working length of the pencil measures at least 1 1/2 in. from point of pin. Begin at the lower end of the hair and wind with strong thread up to within 1/8 in. from point of pin. The pin acts in the capacity of a stiffener to the pencil.

The durability and poise and elasticity of striping and lettering pencils depend very greatly upon the manner of caring for them. The striper should provide himself with a dust-proof metal box in which to store his pencil equipment. See that it is furnished with lock and key. The local tinsmith will, for a small consideration, outfit such a box with a tin tray upon which the pencils may be carefully arranged. A striping or lettering pencil should be immediately washed out in turps upon the conclusion of the work in hand. Care may well be invoked in washing, to the end that all pigment accumulations are removed from the heel of the pencil. Wipe the pencil dry in soft cotton or flannel cloths and then grease thoroughly, pressing the grease carefully into the heel of the tool. A good grease for preserving pencils in winter is pure lard; in summer, lard and mutton tallow, equal parts. The writer personally vouches for the excellence of a mixture composed of mutton tallow, 3 parts; sweet oil, 1 part. This serves as a good all-round pencil grease, suited to all extremes of temperature, and one the painter will find useful in keeping his pencils in good order.