Laying on of VARNISHES. 1. If you varnish wood, let your wood be very smooth, close-grained, free from grease, and rubbed with rashes. 2. Lay on your colours as smooth as possible; and, if the varnish has any blisters in it, take them off by a polish with rashes. 3. While you are varnishing, keep your work warm, but not too hot. 4. In laying on your varnish, begin in the middle, and stroke the brush to the outside; then to another extreme part, and so on till all be covered: for if you begin at the edges, the brush will leave blots there, and make the work unequal. 5. In fine works use the finest tripoli in polishing: do not polish it at one time only; but after the first time, let it dry for two or three days, and polish it again for the last time. 6. In the first polishing, you must use a good deal of tripoli; but in the next a very
little will serve: when you have done, wash off your tri-poli with a sponge and water: dry the varnish with a dry linen rag; and clear the work, if a white ground, with oil and whitening; or, if black, with oil and lamp black.