Outside varnish cannot be retouched, or properly covered with a fresh coat; and the only thing to be done, when a varnished door becomes shabby, is to scrape off the old varnish, or remove it with oxalic acid, and revarnish.

In any repainting of a house, the outside of the sashes should be particularly looked to. Most glazing is done by the sash-maker, who sublets this part to the lowest bidder; and the lowest bidder contrives to make a profit on the job by setting the glass with putty made with marble dust and kerosene, instead of linseed oil and whiting, trusting to the three coats of paint which the painter will put over the putty to hold it in place. The paint has, in fact, this effect for a few months; after which the putty begins to curl away from the glass and fall off, carrying the paint with it, and leaving the wood bare. As rain-water, running over the glass, and lodging on the sash-bars, will soon rot them out, it is necessary to reputty the glass at once; and to do this properly, the sash-bars must be painted, with good linseed-oil paint, so that the wood may not absorb the oil from the putty in contact with it, and prevent its adhesion, and good putty, of pure linseed oil and whiting, applied, allowed to harden, and painted three coats. Thus treated, the putty of the sash will last as long as the woodwork itself, becoming almost as hard as stone, and clinging tightly, both to the glass and the wood.

Sashes.

Inside painting is less liable than outside painting to blister, but it sometimes shows this defect, particularly about a fireplace; and the old-fashioned boiled-oil paint, being more impervious, is more liable to it than the raw oil or flatted paint of the present day. In any case, sandpapering and repainting form the only remedy. Where white inside paint turns yellow, from the use of white lead in rooms insufficiently lighted, zinc white should be used in repainting; and, if the yellow appears in streaks or spots, a coat of shellac before the repainting will be useful. Occasionally, a cheap imitation of enamel work is made by painting with two or three coats of ordinary white paint, and varnishing the paint. This method answers for carriage-painting, where first-class varnishes are used over black paint; but it is entirely unsuitable for white or ivory finish, the varnish soon darkening, and showing uneven yellow streaks over the white ground, which nothing but repainting will conceal.

Paint on plastered walls is very apt to show uneven streaks, where the plastering underneath is particularly absorbent, or has not been properly sized; and, when cracks in the plastering are cut out and patched before painting, they remain visible, even through several coats of paint, as dead streaks, which are particularly conspicuous in work with an "oil finish." There is, apparently, no remedy for this trouble, except frequent repainting, the streaks gradually disappearing under multiplied coats.

As, for some reason, painters are usually intrusted with the work of setting glass, the care of glass may be considered in connection with that of paint.

For those who can afford it, no window-glass compares in beauty with polished plate. Not only is it perfectly flat and even, so that objects appear through it without distortion, but it is thick and strong, so that it can be used in large sheets without much fear of breakage; and it keeps out the cold far more effectually than ordinary sheet-glass. Plate-glass is, however, very heavy, so that sashes glazed with it, if of large size, are not easily managed; and it is soft, and much more readily scratched than common glass. Of the common, or sheet-glass, there are two sorts, known as "single-thick" and "double-thick"; the former being about one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, and the latter one-eighth of an inch. Sheet-glass is made by blowing out a lump of melted glass into a hollow cylinder, which, while hot and soft, is split through the middle, and allowed to flatten out on a stone or iron table. The thin single-thick glass lends itself better to this operation, and makes flatter sheets than the double-thick; so that single-thick glass is not only cheaper, but is flatter, and more free from defects, than double-thick of the same quality, and is, for that reason, generally used in houses built for sale. It is, however, very fragile, and presents little resistance to the cold of the outside air, so that double-thick is always to be preferred. Although it costs very little more than the single-thick glass, it is more than four times as strong, and is much more efficient as a protection against the cold in winter.

Glass and glazing.

Plate-glass.

Sheet-glass.

The glass that our grandfathers used in their windows was subject to a bluish discoloration from exposure to the weather; but modern glass is better made, and is not likely to show any dimness which does not come from extraneous and removable dirt. To remove this dirt, the professional glass-cleaners use a mixture of soap and water and ground chalk, or whiting. This is rubbed over the glass with a rag or sponge, and allowed to dry; and the whiting, which of course remains on the glass, is rubbed off later with dry cloths. This process is much more rapid than that which consists in washing with several changes of water, and answers quite as well.