Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/44

36 prefer to use none whatever. The priming thus made is now spread on the wood, and the painter runs the job out in the drying shed or other convenient place to dry. The oil of the priming gradually leaves the pigments, white lead and black, and seeks the interior of the wood, sucked in, as it were, by capillary attraction, and the pigments are thus virtually strained and left upon the surface in a semi-dry porous state, while the oil that entered the wood, not being a gummy or filling substance, stains the interior of each little pore only. Next, a coat of white lead and oil of similar consistency is put over it. The oil from this coat is absorbed in by the porous pigments, through which it passes and spreads itself over the stain which the first coat gave to the pores, and the second coat pigments are strained and left porous, so on until possibly five coats of lead color are given, by which time the pores may have become filled by the successive layers of oil, and the pigment on the surface too, is finally cemented together or partially so. This is called the foundation, and it was the only known way to paint a carriage for many years.

Rough-Stuff. The leveling or rough-stuff coats consist of a coarse mineral paint, designed to level down or fill up all imperfections in the surface of the carriage body, such as plane and file marks or brad holes.

The pigment is mixed with oil, japan varnish and turpentine, and although the painter may have a good recipe for this paint, and may mix it himself, he cannot rely upon getting exactly the same amount of elasticity at one time as at another time, if mixed in small quantities. Therefore the ready-prepared paint, mixed from a formula, which experience and careful tests have proved best, and mixed in large quantities by weight and measure is by far the surest and safest to use. The filler priming on the body being dry, it only requires a good dusting when it is ready for the rough-stuff. This for the first coat should have a very little raw oil added to make it more in keeping with the