Main Title, Index and Introduction

Links

§ I.  To Paint In Varnish On Wood.  Useful To Carriage Painters.

I.  The preparations previous to the laying of colors, and the general process observed in laying them on it.

    1.  You must first lay on the wood two coats of Troyes-white, diluted with size-water.  Next lay over these a third coat of ceruse.  Then mix the color you want with turpentine oil, add the varnish to it, and lay it on the wood, previously prepared as follows.
    2.  Polish the wood, first with shave-grass or horse tail, and then with pounce stone.  Lay afterwards six or seven coats of color mixed with varnish, allowing after each coat a sufficient time to try, before laying on the next; then polish over the last coat with pounce stone, grinded on marble, into a subtile powder.  When this is done, lay two or three coats of pure white varnish.  As soon as this is dry, rub it over with a soft rag, dipped into fine olive oil, then rub it over with a soft rag, dipped into fine olive oil, then rub it with tripoly reduced into subtile powder, and having wiped with a clean piece of linen, pass a piece of wash leather all over it.

II.  To make a black.

    1.  The black is made with lamp or ivory black, grinded on a marble stone, with vinegar and water, till it is reduced into the most impalpable powder.  Keep it in a bladder.
    2.  There is a sort of black which, from its hue, may be termed a velvet black.  This is made of sheep trotter bones, burnt and reduced by grinding, like the other black, into an impalpable powder.  Keep it the same as the other.

III.  To make a blue.

    Burnt turnsol mixed with quick lime and water, then sized with leather size, makes the blue.

IV.  To make the Gridelin.

    Grind cochineal with white lead and a little Venetian lake.  According as you put more or les of this last ingredient, you make it darker or clearer.