Caution the washer against wetting the inside of the carriage body. Glue joints, etc., do not strongly resist the attacks of water. Under no circumstances permit water to dry on the surface. Stains more or less pronounced are almost sure to follow. Hot water, soapy water, or water not strictly clean should not be allowed to come in contact with a surface of varnish. Do not allow mud to dry upon the surface. Wash it immediately upon its return to the carriage house after being run in the mud.
SCHEDULE OF PRICES FOR RE-PAINTING.
The prices here given are presented in the nature of a working plan for the benefit of painters located in the smaller towns and villages of the country. The schedule is subject to revision or correction in localities where the prevailing grade of work does not warrant the adoption of the prices herein set forth.
CHAPTER XIV.
A STUDY OF MATERIALS: WHITE LEAD, ITS PURITY, ETC.—QUALITY OF COLORS IN GENERAL—ADULTERATION PRACTICALLY CONSIDERED—PURITY OF RAW LINSEED OIL—TURPENTINE—TESTING COACH JAPAN—VARNISH.
The name of a thing should not be accepted for all there is to the thing itself. The carriage painter has very pronounced reasons for bearing this fact in mind when engaged in studying and passing judgment upon the materials he finds it needful to use in his business. Probably the most important pigment which finds its way into the carriage and wagon paint shop is white lead. This pigment has afforded a theme for increasing discussion, its qualities and adaptability having been extensively canvassed. Numerous substitutes have been introduced during the past two decades, but white lead still retains its pre-eminent popularity. Lead compounds and various adulterated brands have given the painter plenty of trouble, and caused him to devote more attention to the quality of his white lead stock than formerly. Because of its soft, pliable, grain-filling property, its established elasticity, density, body, fine working quality, and its merits as a reliable drying pigment, white lead is the filling up and foundation material par excellence.
The purity of lead deserves the carriage painter's first consideration. It has been practically determined that a pure lead, endowed with all the virtues which should distinguish pure lead, when mixed and used in combination with other pigments or colors, holds its quality better and is less susceptible of change than a compound or adulterated lead. Moreover, pure white lead, with its soft, fine, elastic texture, has a natural adhesiveness, a surface-filling and leveling-up property, which the impure lead carrying a percentage of gritty, flinty ingredients does not possess. The pure lead works out under the brush more pleasantly and with less brushing than the compound, and it dries with greater uniformity, etc.
At the same time it is well to remember that a strictly pure lead may have a number of features in its make-up decidedly objectionable to the carriage painter. It may be imperfectly washed, or it may be too coarsely ground, etc. In his study of white lead, then, the painter will find it a matter of value to determine the adaptability of the lead to the requirements of his business. After convincing himself of the purity of the lead, it remains for him to test for fineness of grinding. A lead ground fine—impalpably fine, if it please my readers—lightens the labor of sandpapering, strikes into the wood fibres stoutly, and covers the maximum surface space. It has good coloring and covering power when mixed with colors to form tints, and for other important parts which a white lead plays in vehicle painting it is especially adapted.