The utility of the quick-drying brushing lacquers is well known to amateur painters, but the relatively new varnishes and enamels that dry in four hours appear to be less familiar, perhaps because they are a later development in painting materials. With them you can refinish a floor or other woodwork in the evening and use it the next morning, or you can apply one coat in the morning and a second in the afternoon.

These exceptionally convenient and durable finishes can be obtained at all up-to-date paint stores in the larger cities, and in the course of time they will be available everywhere.

As they undoubtedly mark another great step forward in finishing materials, especially from the standpoint of the home owner and amateur painter, a word about their manufacture will not be amiss. They are not merely old-line varnishes and enamels with the drying forced by driers to the impairment of their durability, but an entirely different product, made possible through the use of a new form of synthetic resin. This is produced from formaldehyde and phenol and is closely allied to bakelite. It is used in making the four-hour varnishes in place of fossilized varnish gums. After being incorporated with linseed oil, china wood oil, and other materials in accordance with the formula of the particular varnish being made, it is cooked over varnish fires of the standard type. The enamels, of course, are a combination of four-hour drying varnish with the necessary pigments to give the desired coloring.

Let us now compare these new quick-drying materials with ordinary varnishes and enamels. Which is preferable is entirely a matter of whether or not quickness of drying is of importance. If there is ample time for drying, there is no reason for using the new type materials. In most homes, however, quick drying is a great convenience, if not of extreme importance. This is true where there arc children in the household, especially in the varnishing of floors, from which it is next to impossible to keep the little folks until the varnish has dried.

Even with varnishes that normally dry overnight, the weather and the temperature of the room have so much to do with their drying that often they are still tacky or sticky the next day; and sometimes under unusually unfavorable conditions, it is at least forty-eight hours before the finish has become thoroughly hardened. With the four-hour drying materials there is never the least question about the finish drying overnight.

As to appearance, there is no difference between the finish produced by the new and old materials. The four-hour materials also are quite as easily applied as other varnishes and enamels.

Now let us compare the four-hour finishes with the cellulose brushing lacquers which came in with almost startling suddenness a little more than two years ago and have since enjoyed great popularity. It is not likely that four-hour varnishes and enamels will be used to any great extent in the field in which brushing lacquers have been almost exclusively used up to this time; their field is one in which the brushing lacquers have never been extensively used. Lacquer has been used largely for finishing unpainted novelty furniture, such as magazine racks, tilt top tables, and the like, and for refinishing chairs and other small pieces of furniture about the house. For such work it is seemingly best adapted. There is a very definite advantage in being able to go right over the surface with a second coat almost immediately after finishing the first coat and also in applying the trimming colors and finishing the piece at one time. There is a fascination in using materials that dry before your eyes. Besides, the semidull sheen of lacquer finishes is very pleasing to the majority of people and corresponds with the sprayed lacquer finishes of the highest-class furniture. With the improvements that have been effected in brushing lacquer during recent years, the home worker as a rule has no difficulty in using them for the finishing of small pieces.

When it comes to comparing the four-hour varnishes and enamels with lacquer for such requirements as the finishing of floors and interior woodwork, the advantages are in favor of the newer materials. The varnishing of a floor, for instance, is a different matter from doing a small end table or a sewing cabinet. It is not so easy to apply the cellulosetype lacquers on a large surface of this kind and handle the brush so deftly that laps will not show. This also is true of interior woodwork. Very little brushing lacquer has been used for this purpose by home decorators, although professional painters have made effective use of lacquer finishes in some public building work of the better class.

The durable new four-hour varnishes and enamels, on the other hand, are just the thing for floors and woodwork. They can be used as easily on large surfaces by the amateur painter as the ordinary varnishes and enamels which he has been accustomed to use.

In summarizing, the best current practice for amateurs seems to be as follows:

Brushing Lacquers. Use for unpainted furniture and woodenware novelties, for refinishing furniture, and for all similar decorative requirements.

Four-Hour Varnishes and Enamels. Use for floors, interior woodwork and other architectural requirements.

Standard Varnishes and Enamels. Use for all purposes where a varnish or an enamel finish is desired and there is ample time for the surfaces to dry before use.

It should be remembered, of course, that there will always be those who have a decided preference for either an enameled or a lacquered finish, as well as certain individual requirements which may make one or the other way more suitable. The preceding classification is purely for the convenience of those who have had little or no experience with the various finishes; those who have used them to a reasonable extent will understand the differences from actual experience and can use their own judgment.

Four-hour varnishes and enamels may be applied over either new wood or previously painted, varnished, enameled, or lacquered surfaces. Prepare the work in the usual way in respect to cleaning, sandpapering, and dusting.

Generally speaking, the handling of the new materials is the same as the old-line varnishes and enamels; however, a few precautions should be taken. Being generally of a heavier nature than the ordinary varnishes and enamels, they should be flowed out in a thinner coat than has been the usual practice. The surface cannot be brushed for as long a time and a closer watch must be kept for sags, runs, and other defects. Formerly some painters made it a practice to coat a considerable amount of surface before going back and "picking up" runs with a corner of the brush, but it will be found that this cannot be satisfactorily done with the four-hour drying materials.

While durability was sacrificed to some extent in the first finishes of this type placed on the market, improvements have been discovered, until now many of the high-grade makes of four-hour drying floor varnishes have practically the same durability under hard wear on floors as long-oil and spar varnishes of well-proved quality.