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    A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House
    A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House
    A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House
    Ebook178 pages1 hour

    A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House

    By Anon

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    About this ebook

    This antique book contains a concise yet comprehensive guide to the restoration and maintenance of household furniture. Complete with helpful tips, detailed instructions, and useful photographs, this text is perfect for the beginner and will be of great value to those with an interest in furniture restoration. The chapters of this book include: 'Distempering Ceilings and Walls', 'Preparing a Room for Painting and Papering', 'Painting Walls', 'Easing and Drought Proofing Windows and Doors', 'Renovating Iron and Brass Bedsteads', 'Renovating a Mantel Mirror', 'Re-Gilding and Restoring Picture Frames', 'Renovating a Grand-Father Clock', 'Renewing an Old Clock Dial', 'Covers for Old Clocks', 'Barometers: Renovating and Making', and 'Varnishing a Violin'. This text has been elected for modern republication due to its instructional value, and we are proud to republish it now complete with a new introduction on the making and restoring of furniture.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781473359024
    A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House

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      A Book of Helpful Hints and Tips for Restoring Furniture Around the House - Anon

      Distempering Ceilings and Walls

      Making Clearcole and Distemper.—Distemper is cheap and gives a pure, luminous white, but, as in the case of all water paints, washable or otherwise, it requires a good ground of uniform porosity to show it at its best. When soiled by smoke or age it is easily removed and as easily renewed. Before applying the distemper, ceilings are coated with a solution (clearcole) to prevent undue suction, so that the distemper itself may be laid on freely without showing the unsightly joins that would be caused by the distemper drying so quickly that the painter could not keep the edge of the work wet, or, as it is called, alive. Clearcole is made from glue-size, two convenient form being the double jelly size, put up and sold in 14-lb. kegs, and the powder concentrated size. If the jelly size is preferred, care should be taken to have only that which is clear and of a firm jelly; during hot weather it rapidly becomes putrid, in which state it should not be used. Putrid size has lost its best qualities, and endangers the health of the painter and the occupants of the house. In good condition jelly size is, perhaps, preferable to the powder, the proportions being so easily regulated.

      The clearcole may be simply clear size, though, as ceilings are generally rather discoloured, a little of the distemper may with advantage be added. It saves time to make one job of both the clearcole and the distemper, and it is better to make a little too much rather than not enough, as what is left over may come in handy for whiting hearths of kitchens and other rooms; besides, there is generally some cupboard or other place where it can be used to advantage.

      Distemper.—To make distemper, take best gilders’ whiting, and break up into small pieces enough of it to fill two-thirds of a pail. Fill up with cold water, allow to stand for half an hour or longer, gently pour off the unabsorbed water, and stir the thick whiting with a broad stick or spatula. Take some best double size, break it up fine with the hand, and to it add an almost equal weight of warm water. Heat, stirring the while, until all is dissolved, but do not boil; then into the paste whiting pour the size a little at a time until the pail is full. If desired, the size can be tested by allowing it to cool, adding more size if not thick enough, or more water if too strong. It can easily be dissolved again. The distemper should form a weak jelly in cooling; and in hot weather it may be necessary to immerse the pail in cold water until the contents become of the right consistency, or to add more size to produce this condition.

      Before adding the size it is best to tinge the whiting to neutralise the effect of the colour in the size, though, if the clearest kind is selected, the coloration will not be very marked. To obtain a cold white, grind up a little dry ultramarine blue in a small quantity of the paste whiting on a piece of glass with a palette knife or old flexible table-knife, and then stir it into the bulk; for a creamy tint, substitute dry yellow ochre or raw sienna. The whitewash should be strained through canvas or other fairly coarse strainer, and, a little having been poured into another pail for the clearcole, stirred again and stood away in the cellar or the coolest place in the house. If made up as directed overnight, it should set to a loose jelly in the morning. The remainder of the dissolved size should be weakened by the addition of about half as much again of water, and then added to the quantity of distemper saved for the purpose of clearcoling in the proportion of two, or, if the ceiling be not very much discoloured, three to one. This clearcole may be used at once, although it is better if allowed to set to a loose jelly, as it will then be more likely to prevent future suction by remaining on the surface of the plaster.

      In the process of setting, the distemper may form a hard thin cake on top; this should be carefully removed before beating up the distemper preparatory to use.

      In clearcoling the ceiling, do not be sparing with the material, keep the edge wet, and brush in all directions.

      When the powder concentrated size is preferred, the instructions printed on the packet should be followed. Of course, the proportion of water to size is greater than when the tub size is used. When in doubt as to the proportions, use the size strong, allow the distemper to set, and reduce with water to the extent found necessary.

      DISTEMPERING CEILINGS

      In distempering, work to the light, though in working single-handed it is generally advisable to take the narrowest width of a ceiling when a room is not square. Before beginning, close the windows and doors, the idea being to keep the entire surface as wet as possible while working. Once the ceiling is completed, open the windows so that the whole may dry evenly and as quickly as possible.

      Distemper should be applied freely, in short strokes in every direction, though the endeavour should be to hide as far as possible each setting in of the brush. Do not take a wide sweep, but rather a narrow one, and, working from one end of the ceiling to the other, try to keep the edge wet, otherwise when the ceiling is dry every mark where the brush overlapped will show up. Of course, before beginning it is assumed that the plank and steps are set ready and the furniture removed, so that the scaffold can be moved without any delay. If these hints are followed the ceiling when dry should be level and as white as a sheet of notepaper. Any spots that may have fallen on the painted work or the wall should be wiped off without delay, as it is difficult to remove them when they have been allowed to dry.

      Should the distemper appear too thick for use (remember that it is needed thick), thin by stirring in a little cold water.

      Take care when distempering not to miss or barely to coat any parts, as after the ceiling is dry it cannot be retouched without showing; the only course to pursue in a case of this kind is to let the ceiling get thoroughly dry, dilute the distemper, and go over the work again.

      Occasions may arise when the finished ceiling does not appear of an opaque white, owing to discolorations in the plaster showing through the distemper. The remedy is to go over the ceiling again with dilute distemper.

      It frequently happens that it is desired to whiten a ceiling, while the wallpaper, being in good condition, is to be saved. A careful workman will do a job of this kind without leaving a splash on the paper. Sheets of newspaper must be pinned on the wall as close to the ceiling as possible, and any old sheets or cloths that are available should be tacked on the lower parts of the walls. In washing off the old distemper, care should be taken to have the brush fairly dry when rubbing near the edges of the paper, so that the dirty water does not run down the wall in streaks. The sponge should be gripped in the hand, and pressed to a sharp edge, so that it can be run along close to the edge of the paper, yet without touching it.

      The beginner finds difficulty in cutting up clean and straight to the paper. For the extreme corners a hoghair fitch may be used; but the remainder may be done, and done best, with the distemper brush. Use the brush flat as a chisel, and push it into the angle. The weight and strength of the bristles will enable the worker to make a cleaner edge than the use of fitch or sash tool will produce. A mechanical aid is a strip of sheet zinc about 15 in. long by 4 in. wide placed close up to the paper and moved along as required. When the ceiling is finished, take down the sheets, and if there should be any splashes on

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