Decorating Tools

THE object of painting is principally for protection against atmospheric and other outside influences, to preserve materials, and secondly to decorate.The craft of the decorator has a long and interesting history, but until comparatively recently it had changed but little for hundreds of years. It employed a relatively restricted range of materials, most of which were "knocked up” by the decorator himself, using rule-of-thumb methods, but producing excellent results. Labour was cheap, time was of far less account than it is now, and houses, furniture, and other things were built to last; all these factors encouraged a high standard of craftsmanship which was, in fact, generally maintained. The change may be said to have begun in earnest after the 1914—18 war. It originated from the greatly increased cost of labour and thenecessity for speeding up work, both of which were legacies from the war. These have necessitated the introduction of many new materials and methods, involving in some instances a different technique of application and, in one or two cases, the reversal of time-honoured principles.The decorating trade is notoriously conservative and is inclined to be suspicious of everything that is new. The changes which have taken placein it have been forced on it by sheer necessity. It was not that the old traditional methods were not reliable but rather that many of them were no longer economic, since they required too much time and labour under existing conditions. There was also a tendency to use alternative materials for the decoration and protection of surfaces on which, hitherto, paint had been used as a matter of course. If paint, and with it the painter’s craft, were to  hold its own it had to move with the times; the work of the paint research chemist and the enterprise of the paint manu-facturer made this possible.
Factory-made Materials
The outstanding difference between the trade to-day and that of prior to 1918 is the enormous increase in the use of factory-made paints and other materials. Ready-mixed paints are by no means of recent introduction: they have been on the market for well over a hundred years but in their early days they were often of inferior quality and the professional decorator, with few exceptions, had little use for them, regarding them as primarily intended for amateur use. True, he did not attempt to prepare his own varnishes or enamels, but his paint he made up himself as a matter of course, relying on white lead and adjusting the proportions of oil, turpentine, and driers according to the condition of the surface, as his experience dictated. Colour mixing and matching were everyday jobs and no one who was unable to carry them out with reasonable efficiency could be regarded as a skilled painter.Thanks to a more scientific approach to the subject and the volume and nature of the research which has been done on it, the present-day ready-mixed paint, as produced by any firm of repute, is a first-class material which is at least as good as, and in many ways superior to, anything which the decorator can make up for himself. This is due not only to the careful selection of materials and improvements in machinery which enable finer grinding and more thorough mixing than is possible to the painter, but also to the degree of control and close supervision which is exercised over every stage in the operation. Provided that the decorator deals with a good firm, is prepared to pay a fair price, and follows the manufacturer’s recommendations and instructions, he can use factory-made finishes with every confidence. Since paints, distempers, and other materials used by the decorator in the course of his work are now available in ready-for-use form of high quality in a range of tints more than adequate for all ordinary purposes, it may be asked whether there is much point in studying the various pigments, oils, thinners, and other ingredients employed in the making of finishes, or of attempting to master such operations as paint and colour mixing. The answer must be that it is very well worth doing so, for the more the painter knows of and understands the materials of his trade, the better craftsman he is likely to be. If he relies exclusively on factory-made finishes he has little more claim to be looked upon as a decorator, in the fullest sense of the word, than has a woman, who depends solely on tinned goods, to be regarded as a genuine cook. It must be recognised that ready-mixed materials have come to stay and the saving of time and labour which their use permits more than out- weighs their disadvantages. For all their convenience, however, they have not proved an entirely unmixed blessing to the trade.
The golden rule is the same for decorating projects, buy the best that you can afford. This is especially true regarding brushes. Cheap brushes cast bristles easily and can be a nightmare to use when glossing woodwork.
Still, cheap brushes have their place. They are ideal for jobs where it is probably better to throw away the brush after use(e.g. using Knotting or catalytic compounds) or jobs which don't require a good quality brush (e.g. using bitumen or creosote on rough wood).
It is always sensible to look after all your tools and most of them will last for many years.