Painting

Paints are used for the same purpose as other finishes, with the additional one of giving an opaque colored covering. The materials used are:

1. A body whose function is to give covering power. This is usually white lead, but it is often adulterated with zinc oxide; 2. Pigments; 3. Linseed oils, raw and boiled, which are used to give consistency, adhesiveness and also elasticity to the coat when dry. For outdoor work boiled oil is used and for indoor work, raw oil;

. Turpentine, which is used to thin out the paint and to make it dry more quickly.

The common method of painting is: 1. Set any nails with nailset; 2. Sandpaper; 3. Shellac the knots; 4. Prime with a thin coat of paint, mostly white lead, (that is, little color,) boiled oil, and turpentine (the proportion of drying oil is greater than in ordinary paint); 5. Putty up cracks, nail holes, etc.; 6. Sandpaper if a small nice job; 7. Then paint two or three coats with paint thick enough so it will not run, with long, even strokes with the grain. The order of painting a door is, panels, muntins, rails, and last, stiles.

For inside work use half as much turpentine as oil. This gives a dull finish. For outside work, where lustre is wanted, little or no turpentine is used.

This is the old way, and is still used for all common work. But for fine painting, as carriage work, a filler is now used first, because a priming to be durable should unite with the wood, grasping the fibers and filling the pores, so that after coats cannot sink in. The object is to cement the surface. Priming is often called "rough stuff." The old way did not do this, with the result that the oil separated from the lead and kept soaking into the wood. The principal makers of paints now recommend a filler before any white lead is added.