Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/573

HOUSE-PAINTING.] BUILDING 511 i ng ( work 10 ig. to the durability of the work. It is said to improve by being kept for several years before use. Three qualities are manufactured, and there are six or more chief modes of adulteration recorded, which accounts in some measure for the great difference in painters prices, and the re lative values of their work when done. The other metal lic white paint occasionally used, especially in water colour painting, is zinc white. It is well known for its intense whiteness, its resistance to sulphurous and other deterior ating causes, and its harmless qualities to the workman and the inmates of the house under decoration. Zinc white possesses less body than white lead, and great care is requisite that the colour when ground in oil is of sufficient consistence to be laid on a flat surface without showing through; any oil in excess will form a slight glutinous coating on the surface, retaining every particle of dust brought in contact with it, until it has evaporated. In general this white does not dry so quickly as the other colour, but this defect is remedied by the application of proper drying oils. It is asserted that in consequence of the great durability of the colour, the paint may be washed for a succession of three, four, and even five years ; and that after each successive washing the surface will be found as clear and bright as when fresh painted. In painting or laying on the colour, the brush must be constantly at right angles to the face of the work, only the ends of the hairs, in fact, touching it, for in this manner the paint is at the same time forced into the pores of the wood and distributed equally over the surface. If the brush be held obliquely to the work, it will leave the paint in thick masses wherever it is first applied after being dipped for a fresh supply into the pot, and the surface will be daubed, but not painted. Paint ing, when properly executed, will not present a shining, smooth, and glossy appearance, as if it formed a film or skin, but will show a fine and regular grain, as if the surface were natural, or had received a mere stain with out destroying the original texture. Imitative grainings, however, and the varnishes which are intended to protect them, and make them bear out, necessarily produce a new and artificial texture ; and for this reason some consider them to a greater or less extent disagreeable, however well the imitations may be effected. Carved mouldings and other enrichments have to be picked out with a pencil or small brush, that the quirks, &c., be not choked up. As it must be presumed that all the wood submitted to the operations of a painter, which has passed through the hands of the joiner, is already well seasoned and pro perly dry, it is only necessary to say generally, that the work should be free from moisture of any and every kind before paint is applied to it, or it will at the least prove useless, and probably injurious rather than beneficial. This remark applies alike to wood and to plastered work, both internal and external ; that is, whether they be sub jected to the more violent changes of the weather or not. Dampness or moisture in woods, stopped in or covered up with paint, will, under ordinary circumstances, tend to their destruction ; and in stuccoes it will spoil the paint, and most probably injure the plastering itself also. The first thing the workman has to attend to in painting new wood-work is to prepare its surface for the reception of paint, by counteracting the effect of anything that may tend to prevent it from becoming identified with the material. Thus, in painting pine-woods, the resin in the knots which appear on the surface must be neutralized, or a blemish will appear in the finished work over every resinous part. In best work the knots should be cut out to a slight depth at the bench, and the holes filled up with a stiff putty made of white lead, japan, and turpentine. The next best way is to cover them with gold or silver leaf. The usual method is to cover them with a size knotting, which is a preparation of red lead, white lead, and whitening made into a thin paste with size. The common coating of red ochre is worth nothing. The next process is that of priming, which consists in Coats of giving a coat of white lead with red lead and a little drier paint, in linseed oil. This is the first coat, upon which the look of the finished work much depends. Inequalities or unevennesses of surface must be reduced with sand-paper or pumice-stone, or made up with putty. The necessary process for killing knots will generally leave a film, which must be rubbed down ; and the heads of nails and brads having been punched in, will present indentations, which should be stopped, as well as any cracks or other imperfections, with putty. A second coat is then given, consisting of white lead and linseed oil. It should have a good body, and be laid even. This coat, when thoroughly dry, is in best work rubbed down with fine sand paper and carefully examined to ascertain if any further stop ping be required ; and then the third coat or ground colour is applied, of a somewhat darker tint than wanted when finished, having sufficient oil for easy working, but not too fluid, about two-thirds oil and one-third turpen tine are used. The flatting coat follows, the object of which is to do away with the gloss or glaze of the oil, by obtaining a flat appearance. White lead is mixed with turpentine, with sometimes a little copal varnish ; the colouring matter is added, but always lighter than the ground colour, or it would when finished appear in a series of shades and stripes. Flatting must be executed quickly, on account of the evaporation of the turpentine, and the brush is generally, if not always, carried up the wall and not across it. Some painters use a large quantity of turpentine in the several coats for quick work, as it dries more rapidly ; but for good and lasting work no turpentine should be used. Flatted work is generally done only to best apartments, chief staircases, entrance halls, &c., and omitted in the upper rooms, in bedrooms, and in basements. All new wood-work should be painted a sufficient number of coats to " bear out " as it is called ; this is a precaution against each coat being so much diluted with turpentine or other fluid as not to cover sufficiently, which is seen by a deadness in one part and a glaze in another. The priming coat and three others should be sufficient. Sometimes plaster and new wood are first done over with clearcole, which is white lead ground up in water and size added. This prevents absorption of the oil, but the paint added subsequently is apt to blister or to crack off; it therefore should not be allowed. Plaster and stucco to be painted requires some care in Painting on the workmanship of it, as noticed under " Plaster-work," plaster. supra, to prevent bubbles, and must be quite dry. Some persons recommend a priming or a second coat of strong double size ; the next coat then consists of white lead in oil as stiff as possible, and then another coat of size, and so on ; but such work should be repudiated. A good first coat of priming, as much as the stucco will absorb, is essential. All new outside work should be primed with red lead Outside or litharge, mixed in linseed oil ; the second coat is of painting. the same mixture if four-coat work is to be done, and in this coat all defects are to be made good ; the third and fourth coats, as may be determined upon, are generally of the tint required. In painting old work, where two coats are generally Old work, considered sufficient, the surface must be well washed to get rid of all dirt and grease, and then rubbed down with pumice-stone to remove all inequalities. The work then receives one coat, after which any holes are stopped by

the painter with putty ; the second and perhaps a third