Different substances are employed for making varnish, the object being to produce a liquid easily applied to the surface of cloth, paper or metal, which, when dry, will protect it with a fine skin. Gums and resins are the substances employed for making varnishes; they are dissolved either in turpentine, alcohol, or oil, in a close stone ware, glass or metal vessel, exposed to a low heat, as the case may require, or cold. The alcohol or turpentine dissolves the gum or resin, and holds them in solution, and after the application of the varnish, this mixture being mechanical, the moisture of the liquid evaporates, and the gum adheres to the article to which it is applied.

The choice of linseed oil is of peculiar consequence to the varnish-maker. Oil from fine full-grown ripe seed, when viewed in a vial, will appear limpid, pale, and brilliant; it is mellow and sweet to the taste, has very little smell, is specifically lighter than impure oil, and, when clarified, dries quickly and firmly, and does not materially change the color of the varnish when made, but appears limpid and brilliant.

Black Varnish

Heat to boiling linseed oil varnish ten parts, with burnt umber two parts and powdered asphaltum one part, and when cooled dilute with spirits of turpentine to the required consistence.

Varnish For Certain Parts Of Carriages

Sandarach, 190 parts; pale shellac, 95; resin, 125; turpentine, 190; alcohol, at 85 per cent, 1000 parts, by measure.

Coach Varnish

Mix shellac sixteen parts, white turpentine three parts, lampblack sufficient quantity, and digest with alcohol ninety parts, oil of lavender four parts.

Mahogany Varnish

Sorted gum-anime eight pounds, clarified oil three gallons, litharge and powdered dried sugar of lead, of each one-fourth pound; boil till it strings well, then cool a little, thin with oil of turpentine five and one-half gallons, and strain.

Varnish For Cabinet Makers

Pale shellac, 750 parts; mastic, 64; alcohol, of 90 per cent, 1000 parts by measure. The solution is made in the cold, with the aid of frequent stirring. It is always muddy, and is employed without being filtered. With the same rosins and proof spirit a varnish is made for the bookbinders to do over their morocco leather.

Cement Varnish For Water-Tight Luting

White turpentine fourteen parts, shellac eighteen parts, resin six parts, digest with alcohol eighty parts.

The Varnish Of Watin For Gilded Articles

Gum-lac, in grain, 125 parts; gamboge, 125; dragon's blood, 125; annotto, 125; saffron, 32. Each resin must be dissolved in 1000 parts by measure, of alcohol of 90 per cent; two separate tinctures must be made with the dragon's blood and annotto, in 1000 parts of such alcohol; and a proper proportion of each should be added to the varnish, according to the shade of golden color wanted.

Cheap Oak Varnish

Clear pale resin three and one-half pounds, oil of turpentine one gallon; dissolve. It may be colored darker by adding a little fine lampblack.