Where paint is peeling or cracking badly, the only satisfactory way is to burn the paint to the bare wood. This leaves all of the surface practically new, and if the character of the work is understood good results can be accomplished, but it must be borne in mind that all paints when burned do not leave surfaces in the same condition and the resulting character of each must be understood before mixing the priming coat. Where an excess of boiled oil has been used in successive repainting and the work has commenced to crack or alligator, it will be found very hard to get the work in good condition, as the oil will set on the surface and form a glaze which is very hard to penetrate; likewise where fatty oil or paint with a percentage of gloss or rosin oil has been used. While the heat of the burning lamp softens the oil and paint, it is very hard to remove all of it from the surface.

To repaint this surface, care should be exercised in thoroughly sandpapering and scraping or breaking this glaze where it is possible and a liberal amount of turpentine should be mixed with the first coat to force penetration through this hard surface. Where dry ochre or similar primer has been used, causing the paint to peel from its not having penetrated the surface, only a small proportion of oil having gone into the wood, it is very easy to remove with a burning lamp, leaving a surface which is practically new, as most of the oil will have been drawn from the wood during the process of burning. This surface can then be treated the same as any new wood, with possibly the exception of some protected parts where the oil has penetrated to a greater depth and the paint is in better condition than on exposed parts. The cause of blistered and peeled work can often be traced to too elastic a coating of paint having been applied over a burned surface. This is especially true where boiled or heavy oil has been used in the primer of the paint which was burned. Boiled oil should never be used in a paint applied over a burned surface, it will not penetrate but will lay on the surface and will soon crack, blister and peel.

These troubles are often laid to dampness or the paint used, or some defect in the building which supposedly did not allow the paint to properly harden, while the true cause is from the paint not having been properly reduced or applied over the surface.