2. To the last add of Canada balsam, 1 pint, Both are cheap and excellent common varnishes for wood or metal.
Varnish, Oil. The finer qualities are noticed under Amber, Body, Carriage, and Copal Varnish; the following produces the ordinary oil varnish of the shops:—Take of good clear resin, 3 lbs.; drying oil, 1⁄2 gall.; melt, and thin with oil of turpentine, 2 quarts. A good and durable varnish for common work.
Varnish, Painter’s. See Carriage, Copal,
Mahogany, Oak, Oil, and other varnishes; the selection depending greatly on the colour and quality of the work.
Varnish, Patent Leather. This is carefully prepared drying oil. The skins being stretched on a board, and every trace of grease being removed from them by means of a mixture of fullers earth and water, they are ready to receive the varnish, which is then spread upon them, very thinly, by means of a species of scraper. The first coat varnish consists of pale Prussian blue (that containing some alumina), 5 oz.; drying oil, 1 gall.; boiled to the consistence of single size, and, when cold, ground with a little vegetable black; it is stoved and afterwards polished with fine-grained pumice—the second coating resembles the first, excepting in having a little pure Prussian blue mixed with it;—the third coat varnish consists of a similar mixture, but the oil is boiled until it strings well, and a little more pure Prussian blue and vegetable black are added;—the last coat varnish, or finish, is the same as the third, but must contain 1⁄2 lb. of pure dark-coloured Prussian blue, and 1⁄4 lb. of pure vegetable black per gall., to which a little oil copal or amber varnish is often added; each coat being duly stoved and pumiced before the next is applied. The heat of the stove or oven is commonly 120° Fahr. for ‘enamelled skins,’ as those of the calf and seal, intended for ‘uppers,’ and 175° to 180° for stout ‘japan leather,’ the exposure in the stove is commonly for 6 to 10 hours. The skins are next oiled and grained. The ‘graining’ of the ‘enamelled skins’ is done by holding the skin in one hand, and with a curved board lined with cork (graining stick), lightly pressed upon the fleshy side, working it up and down until the proper effect is produced.
Varnish, Picture. Several varnishes, especially mastic varnish, are called by this name. Pale copal or mastic varnish is generally used for oil paintings, and crystal, white hard spirit, or mastic varnish, for water-coloured drawings on paper.
Varnish, Printer’s. Diluted with twice its volume of oil of turpentine, it forms a good common varnish.
Varnish, Sealing-wax. Black, red, or any coloured sealing-wax, broken small, with enough rectified spirit (or methylated spirit) to cover it, digested till dissolved. A most useful varnish for wood-work of electrical or chemical apparatus, for tops of corks, &c.
Varnish, Spirit. Prep. 1. (Brown hard.)—a. From gum sandarach, 3 lbs.; pale seed-lac or shell-lac, 2 lbs.; rectified spirit (65 o. p.), 2 galls.; dissolve, and add of turpentine varnish, 1 quart; agitate well, strain (quickly) through gauze, and in a month decant the clear portion from the sediment. Very fine.
b. From seed-lac and yellow resin, of each 11⁄2 lb.; rectified spirit, 5 quarts; oil of turpentine, 11⁄4 pint; dissolve. Inferior to the last.