Practical Carriage and Wagon Painting (Illustrations)

Example in this ebook In may of its elementary principles the art of carriage and wagon painting as at present exemplified does not materially differ from the art as it was interpreted in the remote past. Processes and systems have changed and adapted themselves to the swifter modes of life, but not a few of the paint materials, especially those used in the foundation and surfacing coats, remain practically the same as used in former times. The P. W. F.'s, as surfacing agents expected to take the place of white lead and oil and their assistant pigments, tossed merrily upon the topmost wave of favor for a brief period some two decades ago, but the fiat of their decline went forth and at the present time the great majority of carriage and wagon painters still adhere to white lead, raw linseed oil, ochres, and regulation roughstuff pigments for their foundation materials, as did their instructors and predecessors. The abbreviated time allowance accorded the painter for the painting and finishing of a vehicle has made necessary a readjustment of proportions of both liquid and pigment ingredients which, it must be confessed, has operated in a way harmful to the natural durability of the material employed. The painter, however, can in no wise be held responsible for the general lack of durability which is said to distinguish the painting of the present as compared to that of the past. The great inexorable Public is the master, the painter its unwilling but submissive servant. Nevertheless, conditions of permanency and durability are still wrought and achieved in the modern field of carriage and wagon painting, conditions which conform, with a large measure of credit to the art of painting, to the other resultant durable effects obtained along nearly all other lines of…