To Color Shellac.—Add 1 ounce of aniline dye to 1 pint of shellac var nish.
For mahogany, use aniline cardinal dye.
Other colors and coloring matters may be added freely to produce any colors desired.
Or mix equal weights of gum shel lac and alcohol, and heat until the mixture becomes quite thick. Add any desired amount of aniline dyes dissolved in alcohol, and thin with about one fifth by weight of castor oil.
Lacquers.—Colored spirit varnishes are used to give a tinge of gold to articles made of brass or other base metals. The bases of these lacquers is a varnish consisting of 2 parts of seed-lac and 4 parts of sandarac or elemi dissolved in 40 parts of alcohol. To this, tinctures of annotto, coralline, dragon's blood, gamboge, gummigutta, Martius yellow, picric acid, or tur meric are added separately to give the required color.
To make a good gold lacquer for brass work, dissolve 3 ounces of seed lac, 1 ounce of turmeric, and / ounce of dragon's blood in I pint of alco hol. Put the solution in a glass fruit jar and let stand in a warm place, shaking frequently until dissolved. Filter through silk and filter paper.
Or, if deep gold is desired, dis solve pound of ground turmeric, / ounce of gamboge, 11 pounds of san darac, and 6 ounces of shellac in 1 gallon of 95 per cent alcohol. Strain through silk and filter paper and add pint of turpentine varnish.
Or, for deep red, dissolve 1 pounds of annotto, pound of dragon's blood, and 11 pounds of gum sandarac in 1 gallon of alcohol. Strain, filter, and add 1 pint of turpentine varnish.
Or, for pale gold, dissolve ounce of gamboge, 1 ounces of cape aloes, and pound of white shellac in 1 gal lon of alcohol.
Copal Varnishes.— Copal dissolved in alcohol forms a hard, durable var nish for fine cabinetwork and similar purposes, but it is more expensive than shellac and no better for ordinary purposes. To prepare ordinary copal varnish, first melt the resin with gen tle heat in a double boiler. Then pulverize and mix it with sand. Final ly dissolve it in strong alcohol and strain and filter. The addition of elemi resin or solution of turpentine softens it.
To make a transparent copal var nish, put 6 ounces of melted and pul verized copal and 6 ounces of 95 per cent alcohol in a glass bottle or fruit jar, cork it tightly, and set in a warm place until dissolved. Then add 4
ounces of turpentine and 1 ounce of ether.
Or dissolve 1 ounce bf camphor in 1 quart of alcohol. Put this in glass bottle or fruit jar with 4 ounces of melted and pulverized copal, and set in a warm place until dissolved. Strain, filter, and dry the sediment, if any, for future use.
Or dissolve 7 ounces of copal, 1 ounce of mastic, and / ounce of Vene tian turpentine in 11 ounces of alco hol. First dissolve the copal in a small amount of alcohol with ounce of camphor. Add the mastic and tur pentine and thin with the remainder of the alcohol. This is a good varnish for articles frequently handled.
Colored Copal Varnish. — On ac count of its superior hardness, copal varnish is frequently used as a vehicle for various coloring matters for toys, picture frames, bric-a-brac, articles of furniture, and the like. Experiments may be made with any desired colors, but the following suggestions may be helpful: For flaxen gray, mix ceruse with an equal quantity of English red or car minated lake. Add a little Prussian blue.
For yellow, use yellow oxide of lead or Naples or Montpellier. Mix in a glass vessel, and do not let it come in contact with iron or steel. Or use gummigutta, yellow ocher, or Dutch pink.
For violet, vermilion, blue, and white.
For purple, cochineal, carmine, and carminated lakes with ceruse. Or Prussian blue and vermilion.
For green, a mixture of verdigris with ceruse, white lead, or Spanish white. Or a mixture of yellow and blue.
For red, red oxide of lead, cinna bar, vermilion, red ocher, or Prussian red. These coloring matters may be used ground with boiled oil or in the form of powders, water colors, or an iline dyes.
Sandarac Varnishes.—Sandarac or lac varnishes containing a considerable amount of sandarac are very hard and brittle; hence they are liable to crack and their use is limited. They may be softened by the addition of gum elemi or Venetian turpentine. To make a hard white sandarac varnish, dissolve 11 pounds of sandarac in I quart of 95 per cent alcohol. Add 1 pint of pale turpentine varnish. Mix and let stand 24 hours.
Or dissolve 3 ounces of sandarac, 1 ounce of shellac, and 2 ounces of resin in 16 ounces of 95 per cent alcohol. Add 2 ounces of oil of turpentine.