Useful Recipes for the Home and Shop. Mixing Different Colors. A good kalsomine. Varnish for white woods. Black varnish for iron.

Manufacturer and builder 9, 1876

Mixing Different Colors.
— The following recipes will enable the painter to mix many shades or tints that he may require:

Cream Color. — This is a mixture of chrome yellow, the best Venetian red, and white lead.

Pearl Grey. — White lead, with equal portions of Prussian blue and lampblack. The blue must be used very cautiously, as it it a powerful color.

Fawn Color. — Burnt sienna, ground very fine, mixed with white lead.

Buff. — This is a mixture of pale chrome yellow and white lead, tinged with a little Venetian red.

Straw. — A mixture of pale chrome yellow and white lead.

Drab. — Raw or burnt umber and white lead, with a little Venetian red.


A good kalsomine.
-Take 4 pounds of Paris white, put it in a pail, cover with cold water, and let it stand over night; put into a tin kettle a handful of glue and cover with cold water; in the morning get the glue on the stove, add enough warm water to make a quart, and stir until dissolved, then add the glue to the Paris white, stir well and pour in enough warm water to make a pail three-quarters full; then add bluing, a little at a time, and stir well until it is slightly bluish. Use a good brush; go over one place on the wall until thoroughly wet if your brush dries quickly, add more warm water, as the mixture is too thick. The brush must be kept wet.


Varnish for white woods.
— Disololve 3 pounds of bleached shellac in 1 gallon of spirits of wine; strain, and add 1½ more gallons of spirits. If the shellac is pure and white, this will make a beautifully clear covering for white wooden articles.


Black varnish for iron.
- A durable black and shining varnish for iron is made by adding to oil of turpentine strong sulphuric acid, drop by drop, stirring until a syrupy precipitate is formed.