To Paint and Finish the Dials, ready to be set up in their Places.
FOr to fasten the Gnomon to the Plane, be it of Wood or Freestone, you must have a small thin Chisel, or Googe, or Gimblet, as is fit for the Stile, be it round as a Rod of Iron, or a piece of Brass, let in with a Foot an inch and half, or more or less, as you will; and in the Wood make such little Mortises as just the breadth and length of the Foot of the Stile; and if it comes thorow to clinch it on the other side, then it is fast.
If it is in Freestone, your Dial drawn first in Paper, lay it upon the Plane ••s it should be; then cut out the Substile-line as neer its breadth as you can, an•• ••••ly leave so much as will just hold it together. The Paper laid as before on the Plane, with a Black-lead Pensil, or such like, draw the Substile Line where it stood in the Paper, and with a small Chisel make such Mortises in that Line as are answerable to the Foot of the Stile; and crook his Foot, and put it into its place, with a small Ladle and some Lead melted, put the Stile perpendicular with the Plane, and pour in the Lead into the Mortise until it is full; and when it is cold, then with a blunt Chisel har∣den the Lead in one Inch side of the Stile or Gnomon: And if the Mortise should be too wide, or broken, and not even enough with the Plane, then wet some Flower of Alabaster, as you may have it fit for that purpose at any Masons, and as soon as 'tis wet make a Plaster, and so smooth it, and spread it even and plain with the Plane; it is presently dry. Now have you the Stile or Gnomon as fast as if it grew there.
To Paint them, you must first Prime them: The Prime is made thus. Take an equal quantity of Bole Armoniack and Red Lead, well ground together with Lin∣seed Oyl, and well rubb'd in with a Brush or Pensil into the Plane; that being dry, for the outside Colour, it is White Lead or Ceruse well ground together with Linseed Oyl. How to know the best. Buy the White Lead, and grind it to a Powder, and put it into Water until it become as thick as Pap, and let it dry; then it is for your use.
For the Hour Lines a Vermillion, and a part Red Lead, well ground together with Linseed Oyl, with a small quantity of Oyl of Spike, or Turpentine that will dure, and make the Lines shine.
For a Gold Border, Rub the Border well with the white Ceruse Paint; be sure it be very thick in the Border: Then with Blew Smalts strew very thick the Border while it is wet; and when it is dry, wing that which is loose off, and save it in a Pa∣per; and for the rest that clings, it is fast enough.
Take Red Lead and White Lead, and as much Red Lead again as White, or Yel∣low Oker, well ground with Oyle of Spike or Turpentine; this is the Sise: Then draw with that the Figure you would have in Gold, and when it is so dry that it will not come off on your Fingers by a slight touch, lay on the Gold; and when it is thorowly dry, wing it off.
How to make a good Black, to shadow or make Figures. Grind well with Linseed Oyl Lam-black, with some Verdigrease, and that is a firm Black. The like you may do with all other Colours, as you fancy for such Work.