Page:Cyclopedia of Painting-Armstrong, George D (1908).djvu/56



Blacks. Lamp black is the soot produced by burning oil, resin, small coal, resinous woods, coal tar or tallow. It is in the state of very fine powder, works smoothly, is of a dense black color and durable, but dries very slowly in oil.

Vegetable black is a better kind of lamp black made from oil. It is very light, free from grit and of a good color. It should be used with boiled oil, driers and a little varnish. Raw linseed oil or spirits of turpentine keeps it from drying.

Ivory-black is obtained by calcining waste ivory in close vessels and then grinding. It is intensely black when properly burned. Bone-black is inferior to ivory-black, and prepared in a similar manner from bones. In Europe some other blacks are used, but are seldom met with in this country.

When camphor gum is burned and the soot collected by means of a paper funnel or a saucer inverted over it, the result mixed with gum-arabic will be found far superior to the best ivory-black.

Black japan is a composition of asphaltum and oil, and is a liquid of about the same consistency as varnish, of a jet-black color, although of a brownish tint when applied over a light color, or on tin or glass. While ordinary blacks have a greenish hue when varnished, this article will retain its jet color. It has no grains as a mixture of pigment and varnish, and its flowing qualities are good. Many err in supposing that it will cover at once, and thus take the place of color, and furnish with two or three applications a perfect surface over any ground, but this is not the case. It was never intended for such a purpose, it is