[Illustration: HOUSE-PAINTING AND GLAZING.]
Although we have spoken of the trade of the Plumber separately, and have
placed the Painter and Glazier together, it generally happens that the
three trades are carried on by the same persons, and you will often have
noticed “Plumber, Painter, and Glazier” over the fronts of shops, where
leaden pipes and taps, casements, and squares of coloured glass, and
specimens of “graining,” or imitations of various woods in painting, are
placed for show in the windows, to represent the different businesses
carried on.
It is the duty of the House Painter to cover with his colours such
portions of the Joiner’s, Smith’s, or Plasterer’s work as require to be
protected from the action of the air, which would cause them to rust or
decay. He has also to choose the colours which will be best suited for
decorating walls and cornices, and generally to apply the proper shades
for all the ornaments of the house, and this part of the business, which
is called “decorative painting,” requires a great degree of skill and
taste in the workman, who may properly be called an artist.
The materials used by the Painter are principally white lead, linseed
oil, spirits of turpentine, “dryers,” and putty. White lead, which forms
the basis of almost all the colours used in house painting, is prepared
by exposing strips of lead to the action of acid; but the Painter buys it
ready made, in the form of small cakes, or lumps. This white lead is used
in all the under coats of paint, and generally makes the body of most of
the colours which are afterwards applied. Unfortunately, while it is in
the half-fluid state, when it is used by Painters, it is very poisonous
and unwholesome, and many workmen suffer severely in their health from
its use; but it will be found that this is often caused by their own
carelessness in working, and by the want of personal cleanliness. The
Painter should not only thoroughly wash his hands before every meal, but
as soon as his work is done should entirely change his clothes, and wash
hands and face thoroughly, or even take a bath. Beside this, he should
wear, over his working clothes, a coarse linen frock or blouse, which
will protect him from the spots of paint, and may be frequently washed.
Linseed oil and spirits of turpentine are used for mixing and thinning
the colours; linseed oil is obtained from the seeds of the flax plant,
which are heated, beaten, and pressed by machinery, until the greater
part of the oil is extracted; the seeds crushed into cakes are then used
as food for cattle. Nut oil, or the oil pressed from various kinds of
nuts, such as walnuts, hazel and beech nuts, is also frequently used for
mixing colours where they are likely to be exposed to the weather, but
linseed oil is cheaper and is most generally adapted to the purpose.
Oil of turpentine, which the Painter calls “turps,” is the oil obtained
by distilling crude turpentine; and is used by the House Painter to make
his colours work more smoothly and freely in the brush, to cause them to
dry more quickly, and to take away that shiny unpleasant glare that would
otherwise be seen on the surface of paint mixed with linseed oil alone.
It is necessary, too, to take some means to make the linseed oil dry more
rapidly than it would in its raw state; or the paint would remain moist
and greasy upon the walls for a very long time. For this purpose the
oil is boiled, and is then known as “boiled oil,” this is bought ready
prepared, the Painter having by him preparations of lead or vitriol,
called “dryers,” which he mixes with his colours, after they are made, in
order to increase the rapidity with which they set upon the places where
they are applied.
The Painter has only a few tools, and these are very simple; they consist
principally of the grinding stone, or _slab_ and _muller_, for grinding
his colours; _earthen pots_ for holding the paints; _cans_ for oil and
turps; a few tin pots, or open cans and kettles, for colour to be applied
to outside places or walls where he has to work on ladders; a _palette
knife_, for spreading the white lead on the stone, or removing the paint
to the palette, for fine work, or to the paint pot; and _brushes_ of
different sizes.
[Illustration: Slab and Muller. Paint Pot. Palette Knife. Oil Can. Paint
Pot. Paint Kettle.]
The various colours, which are mostly made from earths and minerals, are
purchased by the Painter in powder or small dry lumps, and have to be
brought to a fine state, and made quite free from grit, before they can
be used.
The slab, or grindstone, is generally of marble or porphyry, and must
have a perfectly smooth surface; and the muller is a large oval or
egg-shaped pebble, with one end broken off, and the surface made as
smooth as that of the slab. A small quantity of the colour which requires
grinding is placed on the stone, and moistened with a little oil; and
the muller is then worked over it, by a circular movement, until it is
gradually driven to the edge of the stone. The colour is then removed by
the spatula, or palette knife, and placed in the paint pot.
[Illustration: Paint Brushes.]
In this state, however, the colour is too thick to use, and of course
requires to be thinned by adding the oil until it is sufficiently fluid.
In painting woodwork, the first business is called “knotting,” that
is, removing the turpentine from the knots, which would otherwise ooze
and spoil the paint. They are first covered with fresh slaked lime,
which dries up and burns out the turpentine; this is afterwards scraped
off, and the knots painted with a mixture of red and white lead mixed
with glue size, and afterwards with white lead and linseed oil. When
dry, they must be rubbed smooth with a piece of pumice stone. The next
operation is to put on the “priming,” which is the first coat of paint,
composed of red and white lead and linseed oil. The nail-holes, and other
imperfections, are then stopped up with putty (a mixture of linseed oil
and whiting, made into a paste), applied with the _stopping knife_; and
then the other coats of paint are laid on; three coats being generally
considered sufficient; and the last being of the required colour.
[Illustration: Stopping Knife.]
The brushes used by the Painter, are either round or flat, the latter
being used in varnishing or graining; they are made of hog’s bristles.
The smaller kinds of brushes are called _tools_ or _fitches_, and are
used for small surfaces, such as ornaments and mouldings round panels,
when the colour is generally taken from a _palette_—a round slab of wood,
with a hole through which the thumb of the left hand passes in order to
hold it. The brushes must never be allowed to get dry, but when not in
use must be kept in water: it is always best to keep a brush for each
colour. Another part of the Painter’s business which requires more skill,
is graining and marbling; or the imitation in colours of the marks and
grains of various kinds of wood, and the veins and spots in marbles. This
is of course a part of the trade which requires a knowledge of the thing
to be imitated, and great care and taste in doing it well.
Graining is generally done with “distemper colour,” that is a kind of
paint in which whiting and size are used instead of white lead and oil,
for the basis of the colour; but the colours depend on the sort of grain
to be imitated, and they are applied in various ways and with different
sorts of brushes, some of the colour being occasionally removed with a
piece of wash leather, in order to give the appearance of the light marks
seen in the “heart” of the wood. The appearance of the “grain” of the
wood is effected by the _graining comb_, a comb with short thick straight
teeth, which is drawn along the paint in a wavy line.
[Illustration: Graining Comb. Painter’s Brush.]
Marbles are imitated in oil if it is outside work and exposed to the
weather, but for inside work distemper colour is frequently used.
Occasionally walls are coloured in distemper, and it then frequently
happens that a pattern or some ornamental design is painted in the
centres of the panels, or round the mouldings. This is a part of the
Painter’s trade which requires much skill, and a knowledge of artistic
drawing and design.
Varnishing is an operation requiring great care to perform it properly,
since it is necessary not only to choose the right kind of varnish, but
also to apply it to the surface of the paint with a light but firm hand.
Varnishes are made of gums or resins melted, spirits of wine, oil of
turpentine, or strong white drying oil. The hard varnishes dry rapidly,
and are made of the harder kinds of gums, such as copal, mastic, &c., and
the soft of Canada balsam, elemi, turpentine, &c. The most useful for the
House Painter are those of copal, linseed oil, and turpentine.
The brushes used in varnishing are generally flat, so as to enable the
workman to lay an even surface on the work. Varnishes are usually kept
in wide-mouthed bottles; from which they are poured into little tin pans
with a false bottom above the real bottom, the space between the two
being filled with sand. The use of this is that when the pan is placed
over the fire, the sand becomes heated, and the varnish is kept a long
time from becoming chilled.
[Illustration: THE GLAZIER.]
[Illustration: Glazing Knife. Hacking Knife. Chisel Knife. Clicker’s
Knife.]
The trade of the Glazier, though now very important, was unknown in
this country till the eleventh century, and even long afterwards the
use of glass for windows was extremely rare; pieces of horn, and oiled
paper, supplying its place in almost every building except palaces and
churches. As we have here to do with the Glazier, and not with the
manufacturer of glass, we need say little about the method of making the
materials used; so that it will suffice to know that the “crown glass,”
mostly sold for windows of houses, is composed principally of white sand,
pearlash, and saltpetre. This glass the Glazier purchases in sheets of a
circular form, each of which is called a _table_, since the mode in which
it is made renders such a shape necessary; and the first thing he has to
learn, is how to cut out square pieces of the proper size without wasting
much of the round edge. The glass when cut is fixed either into lead work
or sashes; the former of these is the oldest description of glazing; and
in the common kind the leaden frames are soldered together, so as to
form squares or diamonds; the sides of the grooves in which the glass
is placed being soft enough to bend back to receive the panes, and then
bend back again to hold them firmly. In wooden sashes, such as are now
commonly used, the space or frame for each pane of glass is “rebated,”
that is, it has outside a small groove all round to receive the pane, and
a ledge against which it rests. In this “rebate” each square of glass is
placed, and then firmly bedded and fastened smoothly with a rim of putty
filling up the groove.
[Illustration: Rule. Square. 2-foot Rule. Tilter.]
The Glazier uses a _hacking knife_ for cutting out old putty from broken
squares; and the _stopping knife_, or _glazing knife_, for laying and
smoothing the putty.
For setting glass into lead work, the _setting knife_, or _chisel knife_,
and the broad-bladed knife is used.
As much of the Glazier’s work is done outside the house, he is sometimes
compelled to use a board which is fastened with screws, and projects from
the window so that he may sit astride on the outside. No one should ever
attempt this where the sash can be easily taken out and the work done
inside.
[Illustration: Diamond. Pincers.]
The rest of the Glazier’s tools are a _square_, and a _straight edge
rule_ for cutting against, a _two-foot rule_, and compasses for
measuring; _pincers_ for breaking off the edges of glass that have been
partially cut through; and the _diamond_, which is used for cutting, and
is his principal tool. This is made of a small unpolished diamond fixed
in lead, and fastened to a handle of hard wood.