004v - - - - - Black varnish for sword guard, bands for trunks, &c.
Take linseed oil or more cheaply, walnut oil, and rid it of fattiness with garlic & onions +hog’s fennel some also add bread crusts, which you will boil in it for a good quarter of an hour. Then add to one lb of the oil thus boiled a piece of black pitch the size of a walnut & a double handful of wheat grain, without removing the garlic & onions and let it boil together for a good quarter of an hour. And when the pitch is well melted & the oil has body, you can remove it from the fire. Then, to varnish, place your iron over a low charcoal fire & apply your varnish with a feather or a brosse. And when you see that it no longer smokes, it is done and your varnish is dry.
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For excellent black varnish, add two or three paternoster beads of jet among the rest.
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Some consider walnut oil better.
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If there is a lot of varnish, it needs to boil for at least half a day, for it is better the more it boils. It is dangerous if the fire catches within, if it goes over the top, and is hard to extinguish. Make this therefore in a courtyard or an open space.
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In five or six lb of oil, one must put one lb of galipot, which costs 4 sols, & some peeled garlic cloves. This varnish itself is not black, but blackens over the fire.
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See below, around the 3rd part of this book, after sands, in the chapter on furbishers.
Black varnish without fire, without disassembling the harnesses or removing the bands from trunks
Take varnish of spike lavender oil & mix it with soot black or lampblack, & without fire it will mix in by itself. Varnish with a brosse & it will soon be dry. Turpentine varnish will be quite good, but it does not dry as soon.
Varnish ofiron engravers
Take linseed oil or walnut oil &, in place of black pitch, you will put in a little resin, & it needs to be cooked in the manner of black varnish on fire. And for applying it, heat your iron & give it only one layer of varnish, & when it no longer smokes, it is dry. Next engrave with a steel point whatever you want. Next take salt & verdigris & soak as much of one as of the other in quite strong vinegar & leave it for XX4 hours before using it, & all will be soaked. Next spread some of this liqueur or sauce on the engraved object with a sponge
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