WRINKLING, CRINKLING, ETC.
These are caused by putting on a too heavy coat of varnish, or by not dressing it out and wiping it up properly; also by using a varnish not sufficiently ripened. A varnish which shows wrinkling or crinkling while standing in a warm room may be made to assume an aggravated form of the trouble by simply transferring the work to a cold apartment. In the case of varnish wrinkling or crinkling, methods of prevention are preferable to any system of cure.
RUNS, SAGS, CURTAINS, DRAPERIES, ETC.
Some of the causes which develop the depravities outlined in the foregoing paragraph are responsible for those at the head of this one. Other causes are: Lack of uniformity in the application of the varnish, one brushful of the liquid being nicely worked out and the next one being the reverse, or the varnish being applied heavier on one part of the surface than on another, or too heavy a coat serving as the predominate feature throughout. Careless, incomplete wiping up around mouldings, bolt-heads, nuts, and fixtures of that order, generates runs, sags, etc. To reduce these deviltries, first rub with water and pulverized pumice stone. Then pare off a few shavings from a bar of common house soap, dip the rubbing pad freshly coated with pumice stone into the shreds of the alkaline compound, and rub briskly over the offending deviltry. After using the soap, rinse off with clean water very thoroughly. Then rub lightly with rotten stone and wash thoroughly.
RIDGING, ROUGHING.
These terms are given to a surface that resembles a corrugated panel, showing a ridgy, furrowy expanse. Timidity or the spirit of the painter-afraid-of-his-varnish provokes this lamentable surface condition. After the varnish has set past a certain tack and the brush is then drawn through it, roughing and ridging occurs. When one falls heir to this mishap, take a soft badger-hair brush and, procuring a small quantity of turpentine, proceed to apply the fluid plentifully over the panel. This will quickly soften the coat of varnish so that by wiping the brush carefully out, the loosened varnish can be easily brushed off and the surface immediately revarnished.
PERISHING, CRUMBLING, RUSTING.
By this we mean a gradual loss of lustre, the final result of which is a disruption of the surface ending in a complete destruction of the varnish. Washing with water heated beyond the tepid degree is an engaging bid for the disaster here noted. Ammonia fumes, coal gas, salt sea air, soil of limestone localities, etc., cause varnish to perish and crumble away.