Black Grounds

Black grounds for japans may be made by mixing ivory black with shellac varnish; or for coarse work, lamp black and the top coating of common seedlac varnish. A common black japan may be made by painting a piece of work with drying oil, (oil mixed with lead,) and putting the work into a stove, not too hot, but of such a degree, gradually raising the heat and keeping it up for a long time, so as not to burn the oil and make it blister. This process makes very fair japan and requires no polishing.

Black Japan

Naples asphaltum fifty pounds, dark gum-amime eight pounds, use, add linseed oil twelve gallons, boil, add dark gum amber ten pounds, previously fused and boiled with linseed oil two gallons, add the driers, and proceed as last. Used for wood or metals.

Brunswick Black

1. Foreign asphaltum forty-five pounds, drying oil six gallons, litharge six pounds, boil as last, and thin with twenty five gallons of oil of turpentine. Used for ironwork. etc. 2. Black pitch and gas tar asphaltum, of each twenty-five pounds, boil gently for five hours, then add linseed oil eight gallons, litharge and red lead, of each ten pounds, boil as before, and thin with oil of turpentine twenty gallons. Inferior to the last, but cheaper.

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Blue Japan Grounds

Blue japan gronuds may be formed of bright Prussian blue. The color may be mixed with shellac varnish, and brought to a polishing state by five or six coats of varnish of seed-lac. The varnish, however, is apt to give a greenish tinge to the blue, as the varnish has a yellowish tinge, and blue and yellow form a green. Whenever a light blue is desired, the purest varnish must always be used.

Scarlet Japan

Ground vermilion may be used for this, but being so glaring it is not beautiful unless covered over with rose-pink or lake, which have a good effect when thus used. For a very bright crimson ground, safflower or Indian lake should be used, always dissolved in the alchohol of which the varnish is made. In place of this lake, carmine may be used, as it is more common. The top coat of varnish must always be of the white seed-lac, which has been before described, and as many coats given as will be thought proper; it is easy to judge of this.

Yellow Grounds

If turmeric be dissolved in the spirit of wine and strained through a cloth, and then mixed with pure seed-lac varnish, it makes a good yellow japan. Saffron will answer for the same purpose in the same way, but the brightest yellow ground is made by a primary coat of pure crome yellow, and coated successively with the varnish. Dutch pink is used for a kind of cheap yellow japan ground. If a little dragon's blood be added to the varnish for yellow japan, a most beautiful and rich salmon-colored varnish is the result, and by these two mixtures all the shades of flesh-colored japans are produced.

Green Japan Grounds

A good green may be made by mixing Prussian blue along with the cromate of lead, or with turmeric, or orpiment, (sulphuret of arsenic) or ochre, only the two should be ground together and dissolved in alcohol and applied as a ground, then coated with four or five coats of shellac varnish, in the manner already described. A very bright green is made by laying on a ground of Dutch metal, or leaf of gold, and then coating it over with distilled verdigris dissolved in alcohol, then the varnishes on the top. This is a splendid green, brilliant and glowing.