I got this Johnson 7" speed square.. or "Johnny Square" a while back. Opted for it over the Swanson for the scribing notches. And over other options for the cast graduations rather than the laser etched that will likely become unreadable and seem to be the new cool thing.
Anyways, I did not like that the graduations weren't painted. I kinda had to strain my eyes more than I'd like to see them in most lighting situations as you can see:
Anyways, I had considered using black paint. As I've done before on other measuring devices. As I was reaching up in the cabinet to grab it, I saw some Valspar Antiquing glaze. And I figured I'd give that a shot.
I was pleasantly surprised. The glaze was much easier to work with, much more forgiving, workable for much longer, and even gave me the ability to work the glaze over areas outside of the graduations to give a cool antique look. I had no intentions of making a relic square or turning it into a craft project by any means. It just happened and I'm very happy with the result. Had I used paint, I think the result would have been nothing near as impressive or as natural looking as the antiquing glaze. My only concern was that the glaze took an excessively long time to dry where it was puddled a little thicker. More than 16 hours later, I found it was still wet and decided to pull out a heat gun to cure it the rest of the way.
Anyways, the pics make it look a little newer than it looks in person. As the antiquing glaze has a brown tinge to it and I ended up just wiping it over the entire square which gave it cool vintage patina.
I highly recommend it if you have engraved/cast markings you're wanting to fill with paint or make easier to see.
Anyways, I did not like that the graduations weren't painted. I kinda had to strain my eyes more than I'd like to see them in most lighting situations as you can see:
Anyways, I had considered using black paint. As I've done before on other measuring devices. As I was reaching up in the cabinet to grab it, I saw some Valspar Antiquing glaze. And I figured I'd give that a shot.
I was pleasantly surprised. The glaze was much easier to work with, much more forgiving, workable for much longer, and even gave me the ability to work the glaze over areas outside of the graduations to give a cool antique look. I had no intentions of making a relic square or turning it into a craft project by any means. It just happened and I'm very happy with the result. Had I used paint, I think the result would have been nothing near as impressive or as natural looking as the antiquing glaze. My only concern was that the glaze took an excessively long time to dry where it was puddled a little thicker. More than 16 hours later, I found it was still wet and decided to pull out a heat gun to cure it the rest of the way.
Anyways, the pics make it look a little newer than it looks in person. As the antiquing glaze has a brown tinge to it and I ended up just wiping it over the entire square which gave it cool vintage patina.
I highly recommend it if you have engraved/cast markings you're wanting to fill with paint or make easier to see.
