A Dead Black Paint.

Manufacturer and builder 3, 1888

For a dead-black paint for the inside of tubes, use lampblack or artists' boneblack mixed with alcohol in which a few drops of shellac varnish have been mixed. Use no more shellac than will just make the black stick. Make a trial on a piece of metal. If, on drying, it shows the least shining surface, there is too much shellac; if, on the contrary, the black readily rubs of with the timers, there is not enough shellac. A drop of shellac varnish to a tablespoonful of the mixture may change its drying character to a shining or a dead surface. As but a very small quantity of the blacking is needed for an instrument, we cannot readily give the precise quantity.