THE

PAINTER, GILDER, AND VARNISHER'S

COMPANION.

TOOLS AND APPARATUS.

BEFORE proceeding to enter upon any details respecting the nature, use, and composition of the substances employed by the Painter, Gilder, and Varnisher, I shall give a description of the tools and apparatus necessary in these occupations, with directions for their selection and proper use. The first in order and in importance are the grindstone and muller, employed in grinding colours. The grindstone in common use is a horizontal slab, about eighteen inches square, and sufficiently heavy to enable it to remain fixed and firm while the colours are ground upon it. The best material is spotted marble or granite; but when that cannot be procured without inconvenience or great expense, white or black marble may be used. Particular care must be taken that the stone is hard and of a close grain, and not full of small pores

which will be sure to retain part of the colours first ground, and thus prevent the stone from being properly cleaned, and render the colours that are ground afterwards mixed and dingy.

A large piece of slate is sometimes used for a grind. stone; but this is very improper, except where the colours are quite of a common description, and the painting roquires no nicety.

The muller is a pebble-stone, in the shape of an egg, with the larger end broken off, and then ground as smooth and flat as possible. It is generally to be purchased ready-made at the colour shops. The greater its size (if the dimensions are not so large as to make it difficult for the workman, with a moderate exertion of the strength of his arms, to keep it in continual motion) the better. The usual size is from two to three inches in diameter at the flat end, and about five inches high. In choosing it, the principal points to be observed are, that the surface is perfectly smooth and the edges well rounded off.

An excellent substitute for the common grindstone and muller, but confined in its application to the grinding of colours in a dry state, has been invented by Mr. Charles Taylor, of Manchester, England, and is represented by Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 1 represents a mortar, made of marble or other hard stone. One made in the usual form will answer. M is a muller or grinder, made nearly in the form of a pear, in the upper part of which an iron axis is firmly fixed; which axis, at the parts marked N, N, turns in grooves, or slits, made in two pieces of oak, projecting

horizontally from a wall, &c.; and when the axis is at work, it is secured in the grooves by the iron pins O, O P, the handle, which forms a part of the axis, and by turning which the grinder is worked.

Q, the wall, &c., in which the oak pieces, N, N, are fixed.

R, a weight, which may occasionally be added, if more power is wanted.

Fig. 2 shows the muller or grinder with its axis sepa.

rate from the other machinery: its bottom should be made to fit the mortar.

S, a groove cut through the stone muller.

The muller being placed in the mortar, and secured in the oak pieces by means of the pins, the colour to be ground is thrown into the mortar, above the muller; on turning the handle, the colour in lumps falls into the groove cut through the muller; and is from thence drawn in under the action of the muller, and again propelled to its outer edge, within the mortar; from whence the coarser particles again fall into the groove of the muller, and are again ground underneath it; this operation is continued until the whole of the colour is ground to an impalpable powder: the muller is then readily removed and the colour taken out.

To prevent any of the colour from flying off in dust under the rapid operation of the muller, and to save also the workmen from inhaling any of those pernicious matters which enter into the composition of most paints, a wooden cover, made in two halves, with a hole in it for the axis of the muller to pass through, is usually placed on the mortar while at work. Had Mr. Taylor's mill aothing else to recommend it, the protection which it thus affords to the health of the workmen ought alone to insure its general adoption. The common grindstone and muller are, in this respect, particularly objectionable. For mixing, or rather perfectly incorporating, colours, after they are dry-ground, with oil or water, and still farther refining them, recourse may be had to the mill for which Mr. Rawlinson, artist, in England, received a prize from the Society of Arts.