A new brush should stand in linseed-oil ten or twelve hours, after which it is ready for use. When finished the brush should be thoroughly cleaned with turpentine, and put aside in such a way that the bristles are not bent, but lie out straight. The bristles may be wrapped in cloth or paper to prevent them from spreading. In the absence of turpentine, kerosene or soap and water will clean the brush nearly as well.

To prepare work for painting, the nails should be punched- that is, driven about 1/16" below the surface, and the wood sandpapered. In sand-papering a soft wood, coarse paper is bent around a block, 3" by 5" and 1" thick, with a layer of cork, 1/4" thick, glued to its face; the wood is gone over with oblique and circular strokes to cut down ridges and high places, then a few strokes with the grain to remove scratches. Next, with a fine paper and the block rub only in the direction of the grain until very smooth. Surfaces to be varnished or polished should always be sand-papered with the grain. Before painting pine-woods, the knots and resin-pockets must be covered with size, or, better, with thick shellac-varnish.

The first, or priming coat, is a mixture of white-lead, raw and boiled linseed-oils; or, it may contain red-lead and other pigments and turpentine; but, in any case, the drying-oil is in greater and the pigment in less proportion than in ordinary paint. To obtain an even flow of paint from the brush, hold it nearly perpendicular to the surface, and allow the ends only of the bristles to touch.

When the priming is dry, the nail-holes, cracks, and defects generally are puttied, and the work smoothed with sand-paper, if small.

The work is then painted two or more coats with the regular mixture of white-lead, oil, and turpentine, lightly sand-papering the first and second, if very smooth work is desired. The strokes should be long, even, and with the grain. If the subject is a door, paint the panels first, then the muntins, next the rails, and lastly the styles, thus making the brush-marks correspond to the grain of the wood.

For inside work the paint should contain about one half as much turpentine as oil, which, in drying, will give a dull surface; but for outside work little or no turpentine should be used to secure a good and lasting surface, and, in drying, the surface retains its luster.