For varnishing, the black sable and badger brushes (both flat) are handy, though in applying rubbing varnish, the hair of these is sometimes too soft to lay it on without its being thinned with turpentine. But they are capable of producing very finely finished work.
For painting carriage parts, the medium-sized brushes should be used. For lead and rough coatings on bodies a larger brush is required than for carriage parts. Body brushes should be kept separate from those used for carriage parts, as the latter wear the brush hollow in the centre, which unfits them for laying a level coat on the body.
The pencils made of sable, camel, and cow-hair. Sable-hair is of two colours, red and black, either of which is superior to any hair now used. The red sable-hair is rather finer than the black, and is rather better adapted for ornamenting, while for striping and lining the black sable is very suitable. Camel-hair pencils work very well for broad lines. Those made from cow-hair are not much used.
Ornamenting pencils are either made in quills, or tin-bound with handles. They are of various sizes, suited for the most delicate touchings or broad handlings. They should be kept clean, as the smallest quantity of dry paint in them prevents them working well. When not in use, they should be greased and put away in such manner that the points may not be bent.
Lettering pencils, of sable and camel-hair, are commonly used; they should be from ½ inch to 1 inch long, the shorter ones being used for filling in after the outlines are traced.
There are three or four kinds of paint mills manufactured. They vary in size and price, and are suited to the wants of large or small factories. Where several painters are employed there should be two paint mills, one kept exclusively for grinding colours, and the other for lead, filling, pumice-stone, &c. By this means the colours are not so likely to be soiled by mixture with lead colours or other rough heavy paints, which clog the mill up so rapidly.
Paint mills have not penetrated into every workshop yet. In some is still used the old-fashioned slab and muller; this is a more tedious operation, and is not so successfully accomplished as by the mill.
Colours.
The colours generally used in the carriage paint shop are the following:—White-lead, whiting. Yellow ochre and red-lead, used for rough work. Ground colours, which the painter uses in combination with other pigments, as chrome yellow, Indian red, raw umber, Prussian blue, &c. Panel colours, as carmine, lake of various hues, ultramarine blue, verdigris, &c.
White-lead is very largely used, not only as a foundation, but enters into the composition of various colours, as stone, drab, straw, &c. In the mixture of rough stuff or filling, white-lead gives elasticity and life to the ochre, and when properly used forms the tenacious part of the under-coatings. But oil white-lead should not be used where there is not sufficient time for it to thoroughly dry.