The stool is eighteen inches high, sixteen inches long, and fourteen inches wide. The corner-posts are two inches square, and the rails are two inches wide and three-quarters of an inch thick. At the sides the top-rails support the seat, which is a piece of cowhide attached with nails and glue, over which imitation nail-heads are made fast. The lower rails, at front and back, are three inches above the floor, and the lower side-rails are eight inches above the floor. Stain and thin shellac will finish this wood-work nicely.
Chapter XIX
PAINTING, DECORATING, AND STENCILLING
There are very few crafts that a boy takes hold of with so much confidence as painting. In the average boy’s mind it merely means getting a pot full of paint, a brush, and daubing it on. This is painting in one sense of the word, but not painting as a real craftsman should do it.
Good painting is a skilled trade, just as are horseshoeing, plumbing, or bricklaying. But this manual is not intended to be an artisan’s guide; all that can be done is to lay down certain principles, and to give the practical hints that may make a boy’s efforts in this line worth while.
It is not necessary that a boy should know how to make paints; that is a branch of manufacture that requires years of experience, improved machinery, and chemical and mineral formulæ. A boy should know, however, what paints are made of, how prepared, and how they are mixed, so that he will be able to work with intelligence and success.
The basis of all good paint suitable for wood-work is lead or zinc. Some painters prefer all lead for outside work, while others take two-thirds of lead and one-third of zinc, and then add the coloring dust or ground colors to get the required shade. Both white-lead and zinc are ground in linseed-oil, and can be purchased in cans, or kegs, ranging in weight from one-pound tins to five-hundred-pound kegs. Zinc is sold in the same kind of packages, and the cost in small quantities is about ten cents a pound. Inside shades of any color are generally made of two-thirds zinc and one-third white-lead; then the dust or ground colors are added to tone down the white to any desired shade. Pure boiled linseed-oil and good turpentine should be used to thin paints. Benzine, naphtha, kerosene, or other oils should never be used in the preparation or thinning of paints unless for special purposes.
To make the best paint for outside use, take two pounds of white-lead and one pound of white-zinc, and mix them thoroughly, adding whatever oil is necessary to render the mixture about the consistency of rich cream. If coloring matter is to be added, it is best to use the ground colors rather than the dry dusts, because the colors ground in oil are much finer, and will mix better with paint than the dusts. Colors ground in oil may be purchased at a paint store for ten or fifteen cents a pound. A portion of the color should be thinned first with turpentine, and then added to the pot of mixed white, stirring the mixture while the coloring is added.
If the paint should not be thin enough to lay on the wood, you may add small portions of turpentine until it is the right consistency. A little experience is the best teacher in this matter, and to make sure, it is well to ask a painter. Painters, and all masters of arts and crafts nowadays, are much more easily approached than they were a few years ago, and a boy who really wants to know, and who goes about it in the right way, can generally get the knowledge or advice he is seeking. When making paint for inside use, take the proportion of two parts of zinc to one part of lead, then mix and thin with oil to the consistency of rich milk or thin cream.
Before new wood-work is painted, all knots or sappy places should be given a coat or two of shellac to “set” the sap. The priming, or first coat, should be composed of equal parts of boiled linseed-oil and white-lead for outside, or zinc with some turpentine for inside work. When this is dry one or two coats are to be laid on, taking care to apply the paint evenly and to work it into all cracks, crevices, and corners. The secret of good work is not in daubing a whole lot of paint on the surface to be covered, but in laying it on evenly and in a thin coating, so that it will neither gum nor run. Two or three thin coats are always better than one thick one, and the extra time spent in putting the thin coats on, and in going over the work several times, will be amply repaid, because the work will last. The thick coat will dry unevenly, and in time will chip, crack, and peel off.