The finisher should never assume the responsibility of adding driers to varnish. Varnish is composed of peculiarly sensitive and susceptible ingredients responding to the slightest influences, good or ill, and the addition of siccatives only tends to make the action of the varnish uncertain. It is only for the time being that the driers unite and form a part of the varnish. During the operation of applying to the surface the varnish forsakes or separates the shop-added siccative, with the result that pitting and pin-holing, along with other burdensome deviltries, are developed. No, shop mixing of driers with varnish is not advisable.
My esteemed confrere, Mr. J. G. Cameron, makes public this worthy observation, with Varnish as his medium of circulation: "Every varnish room should have a window through which the direct rays of the sun passes during the afternoon. It should be curtained and have a small slit or hole in the curtain for a slice of sunlight to stream through. This slice of sunlight will reveal the condition of the air within the room and tell the varnisher just how much dust he will have to contend with that day. If this ray shows that the air is loaded with magnetic dust, it would be well for him to sprinkle well every suspicious place within the varnish room. Some days sprinkling is not needed; such days as rainy ones or right after a rain storm. On windy days, window sills and any place where the air is likely to drift through should be wet down. But on magnetic days the floor and every place should be well wet down. A varnisher's clothes should be also scrupulously groomed off. The writer has varnished often with a damp 'shammy' wrapped round his wrist and arm to keep the dust from his underclothing from troubling him."
Beware of the black color-and-varnish that carries a dash of too much color in it. Black of high or low degree, such as is used in carriage painting, may be classed as a non-drying material. Finishing varnish applied over a color-and-varnish containing too great a percentage of color is exceedingly liable to strike into this improperly hardened undercoat and lose the beauty of its lustre thereby. In carriage part finishing done upon the color-and-varnish coat the trouble here noted should be guarded against.
Ornamental striping upon business wagons should never be done with the heavy stripe. Retain the same style of striping throughout a job. Throwing in two or three styles of line work on a job is an affront to good taste of which no up-to-date painter should be guilty.
A fine old woodworker once told my lamented friend, Mr. C. E. Vader, how to make a saw with which to cut block pumice stone. He said: "Take a piece of band iron 1 1/4 or 2 inches wide and 18 inches long; put one end in the vise and then get a sharp cold-chisel. Be sure to have it sharp. Slant the chisel 45° from you and tip to the left and strike quite a blow. Next time turn chisel to the right, or just try to cut some saw teeth in this iron. You can cut and set them at the same time. Don't make teeth too far apart. This will cut as much pumice stone as a well filed and set saw would."
In an essay on "How to Make Coach Varnish go Wrong," published by a prominently-known varnish making firm some time since, this advice was tendered: "Practice hospitality! Let everybody go in and out of your varnish room freely. Don't have a small door cut in the large one, and don't shut off your varnish room from the other rooms. Let the temperature of your varnish room vary as much as possible. Under no circumstances allow it to remain the same for two consecutive hours. Let it fall far below 70° or rise far above 80°; but above all things, make it vary. In the winter season let the fire go out occasionally, and be sure to select this as the proper time to open the window to see what is going on outside."
One of the strong selling factors of a vehicle consists of a first-class interior finish. A prospective customer, as a rule, is quick to perceive the finish of the inside surface; and nothing tends more powerfully to cheapen the looks of an otherwise faultlessly finished job than a slovenly surfaced and finished carriage body interior. One doesn't need to insist upon the same high standard of cleanliness for the inside as the outside, but good surfacing and an excellent freedom from dirt, motes, etc., should be maintained in the finishing of interior surfaces.
In the finishing of carriages in the natural wood, gum shellac should not be used to fill up the grain of the wood. Shellac is of an entirely too brittle nature, devoid of elasticity, to be used upon a surface subject to sustained vibrations with accompanying violent jars and jolts. For first-class carriage work shellac is good only when not used.
Another strongly recommended method of filling up cracks and fissures in coach panels embraces the employment of equal parts of English filling, dry white lead and whiting, mixed with equal parts of japan and rubbing varnish. To this add 1/2 the quantity of rye flour paste, stirring the mass into a thick consistency. This is applied with an old paint brush, and when it has set and stiffened considerably upon the surface it is knifed in with a broad-blade putty knife, and two days later it is rubbed down with a block of pumice stone or a fine rubbing brick.
A putty for resetting glass in coach frames is made of 7 parts whiting and 1 part white lead mixed to the correct working consistency in raw linseed oil, adding a little japan gold size to furnish the proper drying quality. If the putty is to be use upon black frames, darken sufficiently with ivory drop black, instead of lampblack, and lessen proportionately the japan used. This putty can be depended upon to remain in place and securely, hold the glass in the frames.