This finish will be good only for light service.
SPIRIT VARNISHES.
There are numerous recipes which might be given here for making the fine elastic varnishes, but it would not be practicable for the painter to make them, even if he had the requisite skill and experience, but with spirit varnishes it is very different, and the painter can make them by a formula as well as an expert can. (For formulas for white and orange shellac varnish see [article on wood finishing].) For inside work, where the family is living at the time the work is being done, the alcohol varnish is preferable. First, because it dries very quickly, and second, because it is free from sickening or disagreeable odors.
Below are several recipes for making varnishes, which dry hard and lustrous. The spirit used is wood or grain alcohol; in either case, the spirit should be 95 per cent. proof.
BROWN HARD SPIRIT VARNISH (SELECTED).
1. Sandarac, 1 pound; shellac, ½ pound; gum elemi, 4 ounces; Venice turpentine, 4 ounces; spirit, 1 gallon.
2. Gum sandarac, 1½ pounds; shellac, 1 pound; spirit, 1 gallon. After the gums are dissolved, put in rosin turpentine varnish, 1 pint. This makes a good varnish, not as quick drying as pure spirit varnishes.
A brown varnish may be made by mixing shellac, 1½ pounds; pale rosin, 1½ pounds; spirit, 2 gallons.
WHITE HARD VARNISH.
1. Sandarac, 2½ pounds; gum thus, 1 pound; spirit, 1 gallon.