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FORESI> AN DSS REA: 

[AUG. 10, 1907. 

Scraping and Painting a Yacht. 
Tue mill of experience ground my brother 
and I up as fine as any novice ever was ground, 
and we well remember those little occasions and 
try to draw some profit from them. This 
particular time it was painting we were doing, 
and, like others, what we had yet to learn of 
that trade would fill a Webster’s dictionary. 
For several cold, bitter March days we struggled 
with the momentous job of burning the old, 
thick paint off of the topsides of our catboat. 
To scrape off dry we soon found was out of the 


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THE PROPER KIND OF A TORCH. 
question. Others we noticed used a kind of 
torch, called a paint burner, that softened the 
many layers of hard paint, so. with a putty 
knife it could be shoveled off clear down to the 
wood. 
So the next day we tried to buy such a 
“torch” at a hardware store, but the only one 
they had was a different’ kind from what we had 
seen in use. 
Had we known the address of a marine hard- 
ware store instead of going to a housefitter’s 
hardware place, we would have seen just what 

“THE MYSTERY,” 
we wanted, and thereby saved much time, labor 
and money. As it was, we paid a couple of 
dollars for the “mystery,” bought some kerosene 
for it, and the following Saturday found us, as 
we thought, well equipped to remove all the old 
paint from the Rambler. 
To fill the “mystery,’ as we came to call this 
torch, we had to unscrew the handle. Well, this 
was all right at first, but to refill it when it is 
made hot furnished the nick-name—that cer- 
tainl was a mystery. In fact, it was an im- 
possibility; the thing had to be laid aside and 
all further work in that line suspended until it 
cooled off. As it only worked when hot, nine- 
tenths of the time was spent in either trying to 
get it hot, or waiting for it to cool, the remain- 
ing one-tenth of the time we certainly hustled. 
One of us used the torch, the other following 
with the scraper, peeling off the old paint. But 
it was slow work. and more than once we 
burned ourselves trying to hurry and fill the 
mystery before it was cool enough to handle; 
and finally after a severe scorching of his 
fingers, Bill let out a yell of pain and fired the 
“blamed thing” as far as he could in disgust. 
Seeing our fruitless endeavors, the -Irene’s 
crew came to our rescue. They had finished 
burning their boat—they were painters by trade 
and knew how to do it—and loaned us one of 
their torches. 
Oh, my! Oh, my! what.a difference. Our old 
torch, the mystery, was light enough for a few 
minutes, but after holding it out for half an 
hour, it seemed to weigh a ton, for all the 
weight was at one end, and it exerted quite a 
leverage on one’s wrist. But this new torch 


was almost balanced and was no trouble at. all 
to hold, besides it gave three times the volume 
of flame, and the paint soon came off in great, 
wide rolls. Such a torch costs about $4.00, but 
is well worth the difference. 
We used a wide putty knife, with it shoveling 
the paint off, as it were, as we found that did 
not have the tendency to cut into or tear up the 
grain of the wood as a sharp boat scraper did. 
We soon had her down to the bare wood, 
looking for all the world like a spotted pig— 
scorched spots and light spots. Then we filled 
all the seams that needed it with new putty, 
sandpapered it all off and were ready to paint. 
We had bought four pounds of ready mixed 
white paint, and this we proceeded to apply, 
when one of the old-timers came sauntering 
along and stood watching us. 
Pretty soon he edged closer and got into 
conversation, and aiter a few perfunctory re- 
marks, he called our attention to the fact that 
we were having the paint in thick patches in 
places. “Rub your paint out well,’ he said, 
“don’t he ascared to rub it out, it’s the only 
way to lay it on smooth,” and taking a brush, 
he explained what he meant. When it was all 
done the part we did first was nearly set. 
“Look here, boys,’ and he beckoned for us 
to come close and look at it. “That thar paint 
you got isn’t fit for a boat; did you see how it 
skins over, how it dries with a kind of thick 
outer skin?” 
We looked closely, scraped a small spot with 

PAINTING THE: BOAT. 
* 
our finger nails and noticed it was like a sepa- 
rate skin laid over and on top of the grain of 
the wood, 
“Well, now you go look at my boat and see 
if it’s so on her.” 
We did so, and found the paint had sunk into 
the fibre of the wood and did not form a skin. 
“See any difference?” he asked when we got 
through our inspection. 
“T should say so,” we replied. 

A 30FT. 
SEABURY 

“Well, now let me tell you something about 
paints,” and this is the gist of his talk: 
Paint, like you and I, has to breathe. Now 
pure white lead and turpentine—with a little 
blue or black, or any kind of. color to keep it 
from bleaching out yellow—will do this; the 
lead stays on top and is more like fine powder, 
so to call it, and the: air has a chance to get 
through it. The next coat does the same, the 
turps dries up and the lead stays—kind of 
porous, so to speak. ; 
Now lots of folks say it wears off too quick; 
well maybe it does, but no boat rubbing against 

SCRAPING A LAUNCH. 
docks, or getting rubbed by small boats or her 
fenders is like a p:ano—it wants to be a paint 
that can be touched up in spots. Well, now 
that skin kind of paint is mixed with too much 
oil or hardened with zinc—when you once break 
through, it can’t be patched up without showing 
it. But turps and white lead you can cover 
again. And such paint gets a hold on the 
wood, The skinny paint is like a sheet of 
India rubber and kind of sweats between it and 
the wood, and when it comes away, it all comes 
off like skin clear to the wood. 
Leastwise so I’ve found out. But he added 
as he turned and walked away, “You know I’m 
old-fashioned, and old-fogy ideas is no good.” 
Yet we noticed that summer his boat always 
looked the best painted. 
Moral: 
Never paint over wood that is the least: wet 
or damp. 
Mix your white paint with turpentine. 
Keep stirring the paint all the time. 
Don’t use zinc—it makes the paint too hard. 
Don’t mix with too.much oil—it makes the 
paint like a thick skin. 
SPEED BOAT, 
































































