This section is from the book "The Tinman's Manual And Builder's And Mechanic's Handbook", by Isaac Ridler Butt. Also available from Amazon: The Tinman's Manual And Builder's And Mechanic's Handbook.
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.
Sandarach, 190 parts; pale shellac, 95; resin, 125; turpentine, 190; alcohol, at 85 per cent, 1000 parts, by measure.
Mix shellac sixteen parts, white turpentine three parts, lampblack sufficient quantity, and digest with alcohol ninety parts, oil of lavender four parts.
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.
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 resins and proof spirit a varnish is made for the bookbinders to do over their morocco leather.
White turpentine fourteen parts, shellac eighteen parts, resin six parts, digest with alcohol eighty parts.
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 aunotto, 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.
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.
Powdered gum sandarach eight parts, gum mastic two parts, seed-lac eight parts, and digest in a warm place for some days with alcohol twenty-four parts, and finally, dilute with sufficient alcohol to the required consistence.
Pound up and digest shellac sixteen parts, gum sandarach thirty-two parts, gum mastic (juniper) eight parts, gum elemi eight 6* parts, dragon's blood four parts, annotto one part, with white turpentine sixteen parts, and alcohol two hundred and fifty-six. Dilute with alcohol if required.
Digest seed-lac one part, with alcohol seven parts, and filter.
Tender copal, 75 parts; mastic, 12.5; Venice turpentine, 6.5; alcohol, of 95 per cent, 100 parts by measure; water ounces, for example, if the other parts be taken in ounces. The alcohol must be first made to act upon the copal, with the aid of a little oil of lavender or camphor, if thought fit; and the solution being passed through a linen cloth, the mastic must be introduced. After it is dissolved, the Venice turpentine, previously melted in a water-bath, should be added; the lower the temperature at which these operations are carried on, the more beautiful will the varnish be. This varnish ought to be very white, very drying, and capable of being smoothed with pumice-stone and polished.
 
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