The blow-pipe should be more in evidence in the carriage paint shop. The tinsmith will charge but a small fee for making the pipe, which may be 1 1/2 ft. long and tapering from 1/2 inch at one end to 1/4 inch at the other. Dust and dirt that cannot be removed with a duster is simply given a cyclone breath through the tube, and, presto! the parts are clean. With the blow-pipe water can be driven out of evasive corners when cleaning up a job preparatory to varnishing.
Despite the best laid plans of the painter carriage linings occasionally get some glaring smears of pigment. If the linings so defaced be of light color, dampen with naphtha or gasoline, and then with a clean woolen cloth rub the goods briskly. This same treatment may be given to dark colored cloth upon which the paint spots have dried. If the spots are observed while the paint is still wet, rub them smartly with pieces of the same kind of cloth of which the lining is composed. The cloth to cloth treatment is a most effective and easy treatment.
The business wagon painter has many moldings and battens to black, and he greatly needs a good, pleasant handling pencil with which to do the work. A pretty working pencil for doing the parts here named is made in this wise: Take some hair from a camel's-hair pencil and mix with it 1/3 black sable hair. Prepare a handle as though you were to make a sword pencil, splitting it at the base, etc. Then, after arranging the hair to the right width and thickness, insert the butt end of the bunch in the split. Wind tightly with strong linen thread. Use on the flat side of the pencil instead of the edge.
An imitation-of-ebony job comes within the province of the painter's skill now and then. First of all, the wood should be close, fine-grained stuff. Wash it with a decoction of logwood three or four times, allowing the liquid to dry well between applications. Next wash with a solution of acetate of iron. This gives a deep, intensely black color.
For the filling of an unusually deep surface cavity prepare a pigment after this formula: One part keg lead; 2 parts whiting. Mix to a stiff paste in equal parts of thick varnish bottoms and raw linseed oil. Add a small quantity of japan to insure reliable drying. Then to this mass mix in enough dry white lead to cause the putty to work nicely from the hand. Apply very smooth so as to avoid sandpapering.
One of the secrets of the French coach painter's success as a fine varnisher and finisher was revealed by W. H. Knight's report on the Paris Exposition. Referring to the varnish room, Mr. Knight wrote: The door is locked, and no one is admitted under any circumstances—not even the proprietor. The doors and windows are air-tight, so that not a particle of dust can find entrance. And yet the room is ventilated, but how? By means of tubes filled with a mixture of horsehair and wool. This permits the air to enter freely, but deprives it of all dust, consequently the finish of their work is perfect and exquisite.
All surfaces painted with lake colors should be amply protected by substantial varnish coats. Neither the lake coats nor the foundations over which they are laid should be allowed to dry "dead." Give the ground coats a bit of gloss and always use the lakes as color-and-varnish coats. Also, always refrain from buying a cheap, inferior lake, the chief constituents of which are whiting and aniline dye. Water dissolves the aniline: hence with water as an aid the painter can determine the quality, in a measure at least, of the lake colors. To the surface painted in a lake color, apply, before coating with varnish, a generous smear of water. If the aniline speedily disappears, leaving the colorless whiting base, the purchaser has just cause to question the quality of the material.
A varnish sag upon a surface doesn't always admit of easy removal. It can be done, however, and that very quickly and smoothly in a majority of cases. Get a stocky bunch of curled hair, wet it up thoroughly, give it a liberal dip in pulverized pumice stone, and then rub the afflicted surface carefully. Finish with a uniform polish furnished by the regular varnish surfacing equipment.
Carriage and wagon interiors, running parts, etc., finished in the natural wood, that have become stained in spots so as to be an offense to the eye, may be satisfactorily renewed by smearing the stains with oxalic acid. Apply the acid with a brush, permit it to act upon the stains for a few minutes, then with a small sponge wash off with clean, soft water. The steel scraper, handily wielded, will then remove all remaining evidences of the stains. All metallic surfaces may be perfectly cleaned with this acid.
The question of carriage springs rusting is a live one with the carriage painter. The spring maker, or rather the first-class manufacturer of springs, avers that the spring product well ground and finished is not at all liable to rust or prematurely throw off its protecting coats of paint and varnish. The carriage painter, however, is compelled to paint and dress up all sorts and conditions of springs. The badly rusted and scaly springs may be thoroughly cleaned, using a file and hammer for the purpose, and the spring layers being separated one from another. Then coat with graphite paint or mineral brown, and in due time finish up in the usual way. Again, the inner surface of the spring leaves is coated with a lead and lampblack mixture, and later given a glazing of equal parts of unsalted beef and mutton tallow. A third formula, widely known as The Hub formula, because it is said to have originated with that journal, has proven of value. It is as follows: "Remove the securing bolts; place the springs thus released from tension in a bath of soft water over night. In the morning, with a stiff bristle or helix brush, in water at 100° degrees, scour the plates effectually, and remove the oxide by means of an ample use of elbow grease. Dry by sunlight or artificial heat in hardwood sawdust. Let lie in warm sawdust, at 75° or 80° for from two to three hours; then give a thin coat of clear, boiled linseed oil, and when thoroughly dry (an exposure of twelve or more hours is necessary), coat over by means of a sponge with a mixture of 6 parts of commercial beeswax, suspended at 90°, with 2 parts of spirits of turpentine. One hour after application wipe off edges of all plates; then allow one hour for hardening and secure the plate with centre bolt."