VARNISHING OVER GRAINED WORK.
When a job of graining is finished; if it is deemed necessary to
varnish it, the question arises, "What kind of varnish shall be used?"
and this is a subject on which widely different opinions prevail.
Almost every master painter has his favorite kind of varnish and is
slow to accept anything contrary to his own idea of what should be
used; and right here I will say that if you have something that, like
the joke of the clown in the circus, has withstood the test of time, do
not look farther, but "hold fast to that which is good."
There are many kinds of varnishes and finishes made especially for
application to exposed work, outside doors, etc., but my experience
with many of them has been anything but satisfactory. There may be some
particular kind of varnish that will stand exposure in this climate
without cracking or turning white, but I have never seen any such. I
would like to find some article that will withstand the changes of
temperature to which it would be subjected in the New England
climate--say one hundred and twenty to one hundred and thirty degrees
annually--and I do not expect ever to find any such, as, when the
varnish has been applied to exposed work and the gum has become
thoroughly hardened, cracking will of necessity ensue, for the reason
that heat causes the expansion of the material to which the varnish is
applied, and, the varnish being thoroughly hardened, so that it cannot
expand, it must crack in obedience to the law of nature that heat
expands. Cracking may result from inability to contract after having
expanded from heat. This is allowing for no internal complications in
the varnish, and what is written above wholly applies to varnish that
is exposed to the weather, and is based on what seems to be practical
experience.
I am living in a house that is grained in oil on the outside; the
clapboards and trimmings on the southwest side were chosen for testing
the varnish. To prevent any misunderstanding, I will state the manner
in which the work was done. The clapboards are No. 1 spruce, the
trimmings are pine and cypress. The carpentry work was done in July,
1886, and stood three days before being primed. The priming color was
mixed as follows:--One hundred pounds of white lead, to which were
added about twenty-five pounds of yellow ochre, a small quantity of
japan drier, and thinned with best raw linseed oil. After being primed
for two weeks, the work was grounded, using the priming color that was
left, with enough lead added to make a groundwork for oak. The
trimmings are done in cherry. The work was not grained until October,
1886, and neither wax nor anything else was used for megilp. The
varnishes were nearly all applied on the tenth day after the work was
grained; the day was warm and bright, and each varnish was put on just
as it came from the factory, without thinners of any kind. Each was
poured into a clean vessel and a new brush was used, so as to give each
kind of varnish an even chance; and the result is below stated.
Seventeen kinds of varnishes, hardwood finishes, spar composition,
etc., were applied as stated, and the result was highly disastrous, as,
with two exceptions, they all cracked in less than twelve months. The
two exceptions were, first, a mixture of linseed oil two parts to japan
drier one part; second, a preparation said to contain ninety per cent.
of linseed oil. This is the only thing on the side of the house to-day
(February 29, 1888) that has any gloss; all the others except the oil
and the drier are in various stages of imitation of alligator skin, or
they have cracked so minutely as wholly to destroy the gloss. Some of
the hardwood finishes cracked in twenty-eight days after being applied,
and their makers claimed that they could be used on outside work
without danger of cracking. The longest time that any varnish stood
without cracking was slightly over eleven months, and that kind cost
five dollars per gallon, and was sold for wearing body varnish.[A] I
have some of these varnishes and finishes applied to inside work, and
at present they show no signs of cracking, but I am afraid that it will
be only a question of time when they too will crack. For interior work
I am in favor of using shellac over grained work in preference to
varnish, and I have shellac applied to the doors of my rooms, the
casings, etc., being finished with first-quality varnish; so that I
will have an opportunity of observing their respective merits and
durability. Shellac finish is less glaring than varnish, and has the
advantage of drying quickly; so that it escapes the dust which is
invariably present in new buildings. It can be rubbed down, if
necessary, in the same manner as hardwood, and where graining is done
to match wood finished in shellac it makes the work look uniform. I
have yet to see a job of new work that has cracked after being
shellacked if properly grounded. There are some of the old-fashioned
varnishes that stand without cracking on inside work. One case I
remember where an office had been grained and varnished when the
factory was built, and, so far as known, had been revarnished but once
for thirty-two years afterward. There was no sign of cracks in the
varnish, and those people who profess that the cause of cracking is due
to wax in the graining color would be surprised to see that the
graining color in this case appeared to contain plenty of wax.
Varnish may stand for a long time on inside work without cracking; but
the reverse is the rule in my experience; for varnish that has been
bought from the factory expressly for inside work, and for which a good
price has been paid, has cracked in less than six months after being
applied, and this was on new wood; so that there was apparently nothing
to hasten its early decay.
Some seven years ago I varnished a table-top which had been grained. I
chose what a master carriage painter called one of the best makes of
rubbing varnish, and applied three coats to the table, rubbing it on
the third day after each coat. It looked nicely when finished, but in
less than four months it had cracked. The cracks finally became so deep
that they were faced up with putty; and this was a solid walnut
table-top which had been thoroughly planed off and shellacked before
being painted and grained. This is but one of many instances which have
led me altogether to discard varnish for any work I wish to preserve;
and where interior work is not too much exposed to wear I prefer to
leave it as grained in oil or to shellac it, and for exterior work to
give it an occasional coat of oil and drier rather than to varnish it.
I have not mentioned the names of the makers of the varnishes, but they
were some of the representative makers of the country, and most of the
labels expressly stated that the contents of the packages would not
crack, blister or turn white.
I hope that the experience of others has been more favorable than has
mine, but we must speak of things as we find them.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote A: October, 1890.--The preparation containing 90 per cent.
linseed oil cracked badly in fourteen months: the oil and dryer cracked
soon after, due, I presume, to gum in the japan.]