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Mike, and esteemed listers:
The brass stencils were not really intended to do vehicles. They were for
brush marking the shipping cartons and plywood placards that are used to
identify equipment during unit movements.
There was a set of marking tools that were issued, that contained a set of
stencils, a long handled wood plane of sorts, that looked something like a
very short block plane with a pivoting handle attached , (to remove old
markings from the used wood crating materials) and a container of ink with a
roller. (brayer as it was called)
Even the vehicles get plywood placards banded to them, indicating port of
origin, port of destination, etc. Somewhere around here I have old photos of
my Viet Nam Air Cav unit moving out, and they show lines of vehicles all
knocked down and placarded, ready for shipment via sea transport. To stencil
these, we were given stiff short brushes, that resemble shaving brushes.
The ink came in a one quart paint can, like silkscreen ink, and it was stiff,
about like honey, and you used the roller to roll out a quantity of it on a
flat plate, then dabbed your brush in it. You then dabbed the brush over the
stencil while it was held in place. The ink, when dry, did not form a thick
film, so buildup was neglible. I suppose you could use paint also, with the
results that you see on your set. In summary, the stencilled letters were not
intended for extended use, and were not cosmetically pretty, and they were
always black as far as I know. We did vehicle markings with precut stencils
made of a plasticized paper with a strange wrinkled crepe low tack backing on
it. Lacking that, we hand cut stencils from whatever was on hand. There was
little uniformity in letter size, quality, and font style, from truck to
truck, and I NEVER saw the stencil bars painted in according to today's
information on the practice.
On cleaning your brass stencils, try boiling in a weak lye solution. (strong
Spic & Span detergent will work ok) It won't attack the brass but it will
remove paint. It will leave a nice normalized neutral surface, and all you
will have left is some dark stain and color. Watch it though, because some of
them were made of die cut zinc sheet, and brass plated. Ever see alka
seltzer? LOL!
Hope this was interesting!
Regards,
Jack
snip snip Mike's standup routine on brass stencils....(LOL!)
<< Ok folks, today's topic is.......BRASS STENCILS! >>
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