The color, color-and-varnish, stripe, and finish job simply means a coat of color-and-varnish applied over the color after it has been placed as just described. Then a "mossing" or rubbing with hair to the extent of knocking of the gloss of the color-and-varnish, striping, and finishing, the body surface, of course, to get a rather light rub with water and pumice stone, both before applying the color and after applying the color-and-varnish. Should the body surface show signs of being fissured and cracked somewhat, it were better to forego the rubbing with pumice stone and water, substituting therefor a dressing down with No. 1/2 sandpaper. This provides against moisture getting into the checks and causing trouble.
Following in the wake of the above class of work come the jobs that are afflicted with all sorts and conditions of surface ailments; jobs that ought properly to be burned off if the owners could be convinced of the economy of the process. One way of treating a body surface threaded with fissures consists of taking a two-inch scraper, such as car painters use, made of a file cranked over at both ends so as to give two cutting blades, and scraping the varnish completely off down to the undercoatings of color and paint. Follow the scraping with a quick rubbing with lump pumice stone or a fine grade of brick and water, avoiding even a close approach to the wood. In most cases the cracks will, by this process, be pretty cleanly removed; when they are not entirely slicked off the remaining vestiges are, as a rule, so faintly traced as to give no further trouble when bridged over by the coats of lead, color, and varnish. The rubbing once completed, the surface is given time to dry out thoroughly; then sanding with No. 0 ensues, this, in turn, giving way to a coat of facing lead mixed to dry without gloss, the lead being colored to a decided slate shade with lampblack. Apply with a camel's-hair brush. Sandpaper this coat with No. 1/2 paper; then apply color, and finish out as previously advised in these chapters. If a different plan of filling up is preferred, cut down the surface with No. 2 sandpaper, and first apply a lead coat mixed of 1/3 raw linseed oil to 2/3 turpentine. In 48 hours give a coat of roughstuff made of keg lead and filler, equal parts by weight, thinned to a stiff paste with rubbing varnish and japan, half and half, and then reduced to a free brushing consistency with turpentine. First puttying should be done on the lead coat, and the second one on the first filler coat. A couple more of roughstuff coats will suffice to give the needed body of rubbing pigment. Thus the old flinty foundation is furnished with the requisite elasticity through the medium of the oil lead coat. The roughstuff foundation is made to dry hard and firm, like unto the condition of the old foundation itself, and in this way an affinity between the old and the new is established.
Another foundation is quickly builded by taking any good roughstuff filler and reducing it to a spreading consistency with shellac, the first coat, however, being made a bit thinner in body than the succeeding coats, so that it will more readily penetrate the cracks. Three coats of this preparation usually suffices to yield the necessary foundation free from fissures or other blemishes. The roughstuff filler and shellac make a compound remarkably quick setting; hence, it must be worked very quickly if smoothness of application would be achieved.
Again, it is the practice in some quarters to sandpaper the old surface down as close as possible, giving a stout coat of lead mixed with 1/4 oil to 3/4 turpentine, and when this coat has dried for a couple of days, putty all the deep cavities, following, the day after, with a glazing of putty over the surface, the glazing being done with a broad putty knife, and the putty being worked out to a uniform film and as smooth as possible.
In respect to the running parts, all flaky, shelly patches of surface should be scraped. All torn and shredded places require smoothing down nicely with scraper and sandpaper. The old remaining paint should be perfectly solid and secure. The parts cleaned and scoured to the bare wood had best be given a lead coat containing, as one of its liquid ingredients, at least 1/3 linseed oil. The second coat, applied, like the first, with a camel's-hair brush, may contain merely a binder of oil, avoidance of gloss being a strictly observed rule. Then putty deep holes and indentations, following this with draw puttying all parts in need of such treatment. Upon this lead coat, or a second one if the owner is not averse to paying for it, the finish is reached in the usual way, as advised in a former chapter. In painting over these cracked, flaky, and insecure foundations, the first principle to be observed is to get the shaky, shelly material completely removed, leaving nothing but the firm and securely fastened pigment. The second one is to secure as thorough an amalgamation of the old and new materials as practical paint-shop knowledge and skill will insure.
BURNING OFF PAINT.
However good the crack-filling formulas may be, they are at best only expedients of temporary value. Burning off the paint, thus getting a sure foundation from the wood itself, is effective and free from those injurious effects which are so often characteristic of paint removing preparations, etc. As in the past affirmed by the writer, "with the old more or less shaky foundation, concerning the exact nature of which no man knoweth, fairly and cleanly removed, the painter is enabled to work from the foundation coat to the finish with the bright light of knowledge concerning the preparation and application of the materials used, drying, action, etc., flashing through his mind." This is why burning off is so much more satisfactory, usually, to the painter. In the lingo of the street, he knows "where he is at," and the measure of security afforded him.
To do first-class paint burning—and the other kind is not to be considered in these chapters—the workman must be provided with a strictly reliable and good-working lamp, burning gasoline or naphtha. To be maintained in a condition to render satisfactory results, the flues and mechanism require thorough cleaning and inspection before the lamp is laid away after use. No unused fluid should be allowed to remain in the reservoir of the lamp when it is not in use, as the vapor arising therefrom will very shortly deposit a film of sticky substance on the surface of the flues that will prevent a smooth and even flame when the lamp is again put into use. And eventually, if the flues are permitted to become more or less choked up in this way, the lamp will refuse to work at all. Explosions and accidents of many kinds are possible with the lamp that is allowed to clog and gum up. The burning lamp should be kept in a clean place, and show a clean, bright surface, both interior and exterior. A couple of putty knives, one narrow and one broad blade, a good, serviceable glove or mitten provided with a wrist and half-arm sleeve, and a leather apron reaching well up to the workman's chest, belong to the burner's kit, and should be kept in close company with the lamp.
The operation of burning consists in simply directing the flame upon the surface long enough to soften up the pigment and permit of its easy removal with the knife. In a way, "burning off" is a misnomer. To literally burn the paint off, as the apprentice might possibly construe the term if not otherwise enlightened, would result in charring the wood to a harmful extent. Begin burning at a part of the surface which will allow the softened paint to be thrown off over a portion of the surface still coated with paint. As the knife is usually handled with the right hand it is best to begin burning on the left side of the panel. Thus the softened paint is thrown to the right and across the unburned portion of the surface. It is a wise rule to remember, in connection with this work, that a job burned right is in a fair way to be painted right. If through an accident or otherwise the surface should get scorched in places, a complete scraping out of the burned wood fibres will be necessary. Then with equal parts of raw linseed oil and turpentine touch just the charred patches. After a solid block sandpapering, the surface may be taken in hand and conducted to a finish in the usual way.