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Transcriber's note:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=).
The advertisements on pages ix-xxiii follow the body of
the book.
An additional transcriber's note is at the end.
Third Edition--Published April 15, 1903.
PRACTICAL CARRIAGE AND WAGON PAINTING
A Treatise on the Painting of Carriages,
Wagons and Sleighs, Embracing
Full and Explicit Directions
For Executing
All Kinds of Work.
Including
Painting Factory Work, Lettering,
Scrolling, Ornamenting,
Varnishing, etc.
with
Many Tested Recipes and Formulas
Profusely Illustrated
by
M. C. HILLICK
Chicago, U. S. A.:
Press of the Western Painter
1903
Copyright 1900
By
Charles H. Webb.
DEDICATED TO THE
=VEHICLE PAINTERS OF AMERICA=
AND THE WORLD.
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
The great demand for PRACTICAL CARRIAGE AND WAGON PAINTING has already
exhausted the second edition, and orders are arriving in increasing
numbers every day. The publisher wishes to express his grateful thanks
to the trade for the generous patronage accorded the work. Not only
would we express our thanks to those who have purchased the book, but
we feel deeply grateful to the trade press for the generous reviews and
kindly expressions of approval that they have given the volume. We send
the third edition forth with the conviction that it is an improvement
over the old ones in many respects, although we think the other
editions were well worth the price charged for them.
It has been almost twenty years since a volume on carriage and wagon
painting made its appearance in this country, during which time the
enterprising carriage painter has been wide awake. He has found many
new processes and a multitude of new materials of which the workman of
twenty years ago knew nothing; he has raised vehicle painting from a
simple mechanical process, which was intended to preserve the surface
from decay, to a fine art of the highest order, and fashionable people
now take as much pride in having beautiful and stylish equipages as
they do in wearing clothing that is up to date, or in securing jewels
that are sufficiently brilliant to dazzle all beholders.
No one realized more fully than the writer that an up-to-date work
on the difficult but noble calling of the carriage and wagon painter
was badly needed, so he began to cast about for someone who was fully
qualified for the task of writing such a book. He knew that the author
of such a work should be a man of extended trade practice and one
who could divest himself of high-flown scientific terms and make his
language so plain that any workman who cared to do so could easily
comprehend the instruction given. A careful survey of the field led to
the selection of Mr. M. C. Hillick, whose work for the magazines during
the past ten or twelve years has done so much to assist carriage and
wagon painters to elevate their calling to its present high standard.
Mr. Hillick has long held a high place among the best-known carriage
painters in this country, is thoroughly posted on all the various
branches of the business, and has the happy faculty of being able to
impart his knowledge to others in such a plain, practical way that
they cannot fail to understand him. His excessive modesty came very
near causing him to decline, but he was finally induced to undertake
the work, and PRACTICAL CARRIAGE AND WAGON PAINTING is presented to a
generous public with the knowledge that its superior has never made its
appearance in this country.
It is but a short time since the demands of the times gave birth to
that great institution--the factory shop--that monster establishment
from which hundreds of vehicles are turned out daily. The writer pleads
guilty to a strong prejudice against the class of work done in these
factories, yet he is compelled to admire the finished product and
applaud the genius of the painter who can thus marshal his forces and,
by working to a set of fixed rules, seem to defy natural laws, and out
of it all bring a thing of beauty which, while it does not prove a
"joy forever," does possess a degree of durability that we of the old
school of carriage painters were led to believe was impossible. It has
remained for Mr. Hillick to take us through this great establishment,
and he describes the processes and gives us the formulas that are
employed, in such plain, helpful language, that no one can read his
words without profit as well as pleasure.
Time and space forbid (even if I had the ability to give it) a
comprehensive review of this work. It would be impossible to enumerate
the millions of good points it possesses, so it is best to let the
succeeding pages speak for themselves. They will do it much more
eloquently than I could hope to do. I am sure of one fact, and it is
that if carriage and wagon painters all over the world will read and
practice the teachings of the succeeding chapters they will become
better painters, better citizens, and our country roads, as well as
our boulevards, will sparkle with a stream of better painted and more
beautiful vehicles.
When the writing of PRACTICAL CARRIAGE AND WAGON PAINTING was committed
to Mr. Hillick, the writer expected great things of him. Now, as I
look over the chapters of the completed work, I am happily conscious
of the fact that I am not disappointed in the slightest degree, and I
wish to thank Mr. Hillick for giving to the vehicle world a work on
painting that will prove helpful to the master workman as well as to
the ambitious apprentice.
CHARLES H. WEBB.
_CHICAGO, April, 1903._
CONTENTS.
Introductory 1
CHAPTER I.
THE SHOP AND ITS EQUIPMENT.
Locating and Fitting up the Shop--System of
Ventilation--Furnishing and Equipping the Varnish Room--The "Set
Room," Etc.--With Fourteen Illustrations of Labor-Saving Devices
for the Paint Shop and Varnish Room 3