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Furniture Finishing

Patching with Spirit Enamel.—White spirit enamel is supplied in white or ivory, also other colors. Tinting colors, pigment colors and spirit aniline solutions may be mixed with the white spirit enamel to make any desired shade.

Matching Colors.—Yellow will always make ivory by adding small proportions to white. A very small amount of red or more liberal proportion of orange can be added to match a particular ivory, especially if a lemon yellow tinting color has been used. The yellow must be added in a liquid or semi-liquid state, thinning down if necessary before mixing, and the mixture must be stirred thoroughly before testing. Many mixings and testings must be made before the exact shade is produced. If much ivory patching is done, make a deep shade of ivory in a glass jar and mix with white for lighter shades when ready to use.

Blue Enamel.—To make blue enamel, tint white enamel with the blue enamel tint. The addition to the mixture of a very little yellow will throw the shade to a greenish cast of blue. The addition of red will give a purple hue.

Green Enamel.—By adding yellow first and then blue one can produce a beautiful standard green, or vary from yellow cast to blue cast, as the case may require. Black is sometimes needed to produce the right shade.

Red Enamel.—Tinting red must be a bright red and not contain any orange. A bright red from fuschine crystals, dissolved in alcohol, will produce a very good bright red and can be darkened by the addition of black tinting color. From a deep, bright red, pink or any tint of red can be obtained by the addition of white spirit enamel.

Secondary Colors Produced.—One can produce orange by combining red and yellow in different proportions. Brown can be produced by adding sufficient black to red, although this is not considered a secondary color, but a deep shade of red. Red and blue tinting colors mixed will produce purple or violet, according to the proportions, and can be shaded or tinted by the addition of black or white. Normal gray (black and white) can be made into colored grays by taking red for russet, blue for olive, yellow for citrine, etc.

TINTING LACQUER ENAMEL

The foregoing explanation will suffice for mixing the same colors in lacquer pigment enamel as spirit enamel, except that the tinting colors should be nothing but pigments ground in japan and thinned in japan before mixing with a pigment lacquer enamel. Remember that lacquer enamel is a nitrocellulose mixture with pigments and that normal spirit aniline tinting colors would not be permanent or suitable.