The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Coloring Finishing And Painting Wood
Unless you are an expert paint-manufacturer, you should not use any other drying-oil than linseed-oil in paints.
316. Care of Paint-Brushes.—In order to keep the bristles of a paint-brush straight and in good condition, the brush must receive proper care. Paint-brushes that are not to be used for some time should be cleaned thoroly in kerosene. Benzine, gasoline, and turpentine may be used; but, in general, kerosene is the cheapest and most satisfactory cleaner.
A brush which has been cleaned in kerosene should be allowed to dry out, or should be placed in turpentine before being used in paint again. If a brush is to be dried out and put away, it is advisable to wash it with hot water and soap, after it has been cleaned in turpentine or kerosene.
Brushes that are to be used in paint again in a few hours may be kept suspended in linseed-oil in such a position that the bristles will not curl from the weight of the brush.
Paint-and-varnish removers, and sometimes amyl or butyl acetate, are good solvents for cleaning brushes that have become partly hardened with paint. These strong solvents will often save a paint brush that at first sight seems to be about ruined. A final cleaning in turpentine or kerosene will leave a brush in a suitable condition for use at a later time.
317. Care of Painters' Rags. — The most important warning that should be given to a young painter is: take care of the paint-saturated rags. Many serious fires have occurred because a thoughtless painter forgot to take rags that were partly wet with paint out of the building or to burn them in a furnace.
Paints contain linseed-oil or some other drying-oil. Heat is generated by all drying-oils during the oxidation process, and oil-soaked cloth will become hot enough to ignite whenever oily rags are thrown into a pile. During the day rags and waste containing even a small amount of linseed-oil should be thrown into a special fire-proof wastecan. Every particle of waste or rags that painters have used in wiping off paint, or any wood-finishing material containing linseed-oil or any other drying-oil, should be burned or taken outdoors. There is little danger from linseed-oil or paint on a piece of cloth or canvas which is stretched so that the air can keep the surface cool. If, however, the same piece of cloth which is full of wet paint be rolled up into a tight wad, there will be slow generation of heat, and fire is apt to appear in time. The careful painter watches for oil-soaked rags, and oil-soaked clothes, and has no trouble from fires caused by spontaneous combustion.
