Does india ink expire
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(In fact, the ghostly outline of the hour hand will forever appear as a burned-on shadow on the face at the 9:30 position.) Needless to say, when the top portion of a dial has become a gradually much darker shade than the bottom, you can't use the same shade of paint, throughout. The top portion of the dial was very discolored from smoke damage and NOTHING used could remove that discoloration - it was indelibly, permanently darkened by the heat from the fire. The most challenging one I ever did (and recently) was a 12" drop dial that had been in a fire. The only way to do it is to mix very small batches of paint to get the coloration to match the old paint - then make a large enough batch to work with. Often the hardest part of the whole job is matching the original paint to fill in flaked/missing areas when the paint is aged and discolored it can be difficult. Mostly small touch-ups.Ĭlick to expand.That's the same approach that I use. I have several other dials that need restoration, which I haven't gotten around to yet. I plan to redo a good one on correct zinc sheeting (later). It's just painted on thin aluminum flashing, and was only a temporary dial for display. I also copied the floral spandrels after this, and antiqued the dial. I can always antique it with stains, but I haven't bothered yet. It's too bright, eventhough I added a lot of black to it. The original dial was traced, then stripped, and repainted to match the original exactly.
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This one, you can't see the details, but it was a complete repaint. On later dials, I used a drawing set with inking compass and india ink. Then I repainted it with paint and fine point markers. I managed to rub everything off, leaving only the white base, and a faint outline of the dial. The previous person had repainted the numbers with pencils, and it looked awful. I have only done a few complete repaints. He did not attempt to repaint anything, except missing areas, and left all worn areas "as-is" eventhough he could easily have redone them.Īnd I would LOVE to see how you proceed with certain repairs, or techniques. I haven't seen too many restored dials that I thought were "fantastic" with the exception of some touched-up ones that Tom T has done (it's in his e-book).
![does india ink expire does india ink expire](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b8/1a/35/b81a3570fe1573bf58f26dd4f63377ee.jpg)
His dials were well done, but all of them were "too perfect" and on a few of them, I preffered the "before" shots. I had someone on eBay offer to repaint some dials I had bought. I've seen repainted dials before, and though they are nice, I always preffer damaged old ones. Dial restoration is always one of the "high price" specialty repairs. I know a lot of people do certain jobs as a "labor of love" but honestly, most people at least seek compensation. I'm not too worried, because I can retrace the dial pretty easily, but I WILL need to be careful with the signature portion of the dial. The background white, and the flowers won't come off (good paint!) but the black is just india ink, and does rub off. I was surprised to see that with careful rubbing, I'll be able to "strip" and then touch-up, the original dial. The black started to come off, but so did some of the white, which revealed a creamy yellow underneath. I tried lacquer thinner (pretty strong stuff). So I decided I'd see if the black numerals would come off, and maybe I'd redo it overtop.
![does india ink expire does india ink expire](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/ed/29/08/ed2908af9a1f05034765ff10eddabce2.jpg)
Then they repainted all the numbers.Īll the original dial details are still visible as faint blue lines: Someone "restored" it, by overpainting it with a milky-clear coat of white. USA" wooden dial, with painted floral decorations in the corners. The dial is a signed "JC Brown, Bristol Ct. I may have to strip it down completely, or do multiple touch-ups.īut the dial! The dial is a true horror story. The clock is Rosewood, and will need fairly major work done to it. I recently bought a nice 8 day Forestville ogee clock, with the famous "acorn" movement (has fancy plates).