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THE
SEPTEMBER 28, 1918
PROGRESS IN MAKING VARNISHES
Recent Years Have Seen a Great Advance in
the Methods and Materials Employed in the
Manufacture of Commercial Varnishes
One of the greatest advances made in the
manufacture of varnishes is found in the liquids
employed in their making. Formerly these con-
sisted of two only, oil and turpentine, with al-
cohol in shelJac-making. The oil of flax seed,
called linseed oil, and turpentine, both are of
vegetable origin. Now we use not only vege-
table oils, and many that were not commonly
known years ago, but mineral and animal oils
also. The drying oils used are linseed oil and
tung or China wood oil, with some nut oil,
poppy seed oil and sunflower seed oil; then
we are using some of the semi-drying oils,
like corn oil, soya bean oil and cotton seed oil,
while of the mineral class there are used, in
certain specialties, various hydrocarbon oils or
distillates. Menhaden fish oil represents the
animal oil class, this oil being a good drying
oil and useful in making coatings that are to
stand considerable heat.
Of the gums used, there are still the fossil
gums used by the earlier varnish-makers, known
as copals, such as kauri gum, from New Zea-
land, and the best of the gums; gum anime,
under which head come Zanzibar, Madagascar
and Demerara gums; Benguela, Angola and
Accra copals; South American and West In-
dian copals; Manila copal, from Melanesia, and
gum Pontianak, New Caledonia.
There are
many varieties of all these gums; each has its
own characteristics, and is adapted for special
purposes, though in some cases two or more of
these gums may be used in the one varnish.
We also use rosin, commonly so-called,
though the text-book will call it colphony.
Dammar is another varnish resin used in early
days mostly for making China gloss paint.
There is quite a lot of gums useful for certain
The Ohio Veneer Co.
CINCINNATI, O.
Importers and Manufacturers of Figured
Mahogany and Foreign Woods. Also
American Walnut, Butt and Long Veneers.
m
Neu) York Office and Sample Room m
Long Beach Building
405 Lexington Avenue
G. H. VAUGHAN. Eastern Representative
MUSIC
TRADE
REVIEW
purposes, but which have no extensive use and
are little known to the wood-finisher. Gum
shellac may end the list, and everybody is fa-
miliar with this unique and very useful gum (so-
called).
Turpentine spirits are distilled from the gum
of the hard pine tree, and also, these latter
days, from waste pine wood, stumps, etc. There
is no practical difference between the two kinds.
Benzine is another modern varnish liquid.
There are two kinds, one made from the petro-
leum oil obtained from the wells in Pennsyl-
vania, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, etc., and which
oil has a paraffin base, yielding a benzine or
spirit of great drying or evaporating power;
the other kind is made from oil derived from
wells in Texas, California, etc., and which have
an asphaltum base, yielding a slower evaporat-
ing spirit than the other.
Another distillate that is being now exten-
sively used, largely in place -of turpentine spirits,
is benzol, a goo"d solvent of paint, so that it
is employed for removing both paint and var-
nish coats, also for cleaning old pajnt and var-
nish brushes.
PREPARING WOOD FOR FINISHING
51
And when you're satisfied
that we've the best punch-
ings on the market, cut
clean and accurately from
the best of material in cellu-
loid, cloth, felt, fibre,
leather, paper, rubber or
whatever you want, give
us credit and send your
orders to
C.EGOEPEL*CO
137 E A S T I3 T -* ST.
Sponging the Wood With Hot Water and Then
NEW YORK
Scraping and Sanding Will Eliminate Many
of the Troubles Otherwise Encountered
pox patient, and it required considerable labor
with the scraper and sandpaper to bring it to
To the ordinary wood-worker the preparation a smooth surface. All this seemed like use-
of wood for its coat of finish is completed when less labor, but the trial of finishing a rail with-
it is planed smoothly and sanded to an even out this preparatory work showed that it was
and glossy surface, and it is true that this is very necessary indeed.
as far as the cabinetmaker can or is supposed
Finishers of mahogany have this same trou-
to go. When the finisherman receives it, no
ble, and while some of them use the hot-water
matter how smooth the surface and how well-
method, allowing it to stand twenty-four hours
dried the stock, he knows that lying close to
or more until dry, many of them claim that
the surface and imperceptible to the eye and
the drying out of the water allows the grain to
touch, are little hair-like scales, that, when in
partially return to its normal position, only to
a dry condition, lie close and give no trouble,
swell up again when the finish is applied.
but when moisture in the shape of finish is ap-
Jt has been found that some finishers are using
plied, swell up and produce the pimply effect
a solution of bichromate of potash for this pur-
that gives the finisherman heart failure.
pose. The method of using it is to dissolve
Where a clear, smooth finish is required, this enough of the crystals in hot water to make a
condition can never be safely overlooked, and lye, which is spread like paint over the surface
the writer has had experience in a piano factory to be finished. It dries quickly and forms a
where even the maple hammer rail on' the inside coating around the "hairs," or raised portions
of the piano was treated before applying the of the grain, holding them in position to be
finish. The method of raising the grain on ground off evenly by the sandpaper.
these parts as they came from the molding ma-
chine was to sponge them thoroughly with hot
If you want the Kaiser to send you an Iron
water and allow them to dry before going over
Cross,
don't buy any Liberty Bonds.
them with a steel scraper, then finishing with
two grades of sandpaper.
After the hot-water bath the smooth surface
of the rail was lumped and pitted like a small-
GEO. W. BRAUNSDORF, Inc.
Manufacturers ol
Toners' Trade
Solicited
PAPER, FELT AND CLOTH PUNCHINGS
BRIDLE STRAPS, FIBRE WASHERS AND BRIDGES
FOR PIANOS, ORGANS AND PLAYER ACTIONS
«°dVr'« p ii.t
Office and Factory: 428 East 53d Street, New York
WESSELL, NICKEL & GROSS
MANUFACTURERS OF
You will regret it later if you do not
take our advice now and look into this
matter of adopting the use of Behlen's
Varnish Crack Eradicator for your re-
finishing jobs.
Where time and price is a factor the
man who uses Behlen's Varnish Crack
Eradicator always wins out because he
eliminates the time and trouble of scrap-
ing off the old varnish and shellac.
PIANO
ACTIONS
Write for sample can today and try it.
HIGHEST GRADE
ONE GRADE ONLY
OFFICE
457 WEST FORTY-FIFTH ST.
FACTORIES—WEST FORTY-FIFTH ST.
Tenth Avenue and West Forty-Sixth Street
N E W YORK
M
Behien A Bro.
Anilines viaN^ ^Stains
Shellacs *S2j^ Fillers
371
PEARL ST., NIW YORK
A. C. CHENEY PIANO ACTION CO.
Manufacturers of
PNEUMATIC ACTIONS FOR PLAYER-PIANOS
HIGH-GRADE PIANOFORTE ACTIONS
CASTLETON, NEW YORK