Varnishing. The wood should be dry. For this reason it is better, if necessary to clean it, to avoid washing as much as possible, using sandpaper instead, which will also make it smooth. Of course the carpenter is supposed to do this, but the painter must not neglect it on that account. When in proper condition, it first receives, if it is an open-grain wood, a coat of paste filler. The open-grained woods in most common use are oak, chestnut, and ash. The woods classed as close-grain woods are white pine, maple, birch, yellow pine, white wood, cherry, and sycamore. These latter do not need filling. If filler is used, it should be well rubbed in with a short, stiff brush; and when it has set, say in fifteen to thirty minutes, it is rubbed off with a handful of excelsior, rubbing across the grain, and rubbing hard, so as to force the filler well into the pores of the wood. Then it should stand 24 to 48 hours.
When purchased, a paste filler is too thick to be used with a brush, and must be thinned with turpentine or benzine; at the same time it may be stained to any desired color with an oil or varnish stain. These stains can be purchased of any desired color. If a close-grained wood is under treatment, the first thing is to apply a stain if it is desired to stain the wood; but it is common practice to finish in the natural color. Stains usually require a good deal of thinning before using; the amount of thinning will determine the depth of color. Water stains are seldom used, as they tend to raise the grain of the wood.
In cleaning off the filler, be careful to clean out corners and mould ings, using for this purpose, properly shaped hardwood sticks; do not use any steel tool.
Where rooms are to be finished in the natural color of the wood, it is nevertheless a common practice to stain the window-sashes; a cherry or light mahogany stain is often used. Fillers are sometimes used on close-grain woods; but this is not advisable, as they tend to prevent the varnish from getting a good hold on the wood.
Next comes the varnishing. Window-sills, jambs, inside blinds, and other surfaces exposed to the direct rays of the sun, are to be treated as exterior woodwork, and are not varnished with the ordinary interior varnish used on the rest of the work. The floors also are left out of account for the present. The rest of the woodwork receives its first coat of varnish; apply it, as much as possible, with the grain of the wood, brushing it out well in a thin coat. The varnish ought to dry dust free (i.e., so that dust will not stick to it) over night; but at least five days should elapse between coats. When dry, it should be rubbed with curled hair or excelsior enough to remove the gloss, so that the next coat of varnish will adhere properly; a better result will be had if it is lightly sandpapered with 00 paper. The second coat is treated like the first. The third is not sandpapered, but rubbed with curled hair; the fourth or finishing coat may be left with the natural gloss, or, if pre ferred, it may be rubbed with fine pumice and water to a smooth, dull surface. For this purpose the varnish dealers sell felt, about an inch thick, which is well wet in clean water; a little dry pumice powder is put on it; and the rubbing is done with this. The varnish must be
quite hard and dry before this is attempted. Varnishing, if properly done, is slow work; that is, much time must be allowed for each coat to dry thoroughly.
The varnish which is used on interior woodwork should not dry too quickly; it should dry enough over night so that dust will not stick to it, and in twenty-four hours should be hard enough to handle freely; but if a chair, for example, were varnished with it, it would not be entirely safe to sit on it for a week. It should, however, finally become perfectly free from tack, which it will not do if it is a rosin varnish. At present prices (and it is not probable that they will ever be lower) var nishes for interior woodwork are sold, according to color and-quality, at prices ranging from $2.50 to $4.00 a gallon. It is in the highest degree inadmissible to use a cheap varnish for undercoats; the outer coats will crack if this is done. A good varnish that dries too quickly, such as what is called a rubbing varnish, or one intended for furniture, has not the durability needed for this work. It is economy to use a good varnish. The writer has in mind a house which was properly var nished eighteen years ago and has been constantly occupied by a large family, yet the varnish is still in fair condition; if it were lightly sand papered and one new coat applied, it would be like new—as good as it is possible for a surface to be. Cheap rosin varnishes never well, even when new, never keep clean, and deteriorate rapidly.
Shellac. Interiors are sometimes finished with shellac. This varnish is not used on exterior work, but it is a good varnish for inter iors. All varnishes containing oil darken the color of wood; but white shellac is comparatively free from this objection; at any rate it does it less than anything else. Orange shellac is a dark varnish, and even white shellac darkens with age to an appreciable degree. Orange shellac is more durable than -white, and should be used wherever admissible, rather than white; but it is usually necessary to use white shellac for this service. If shellac is made up as heavy as has been described—five pounds to a gallon of alcohol, and this is the standard —it should he thinned considerably with alcohol before using on inte rior woodwork. It must be applied in thin coats, and given plenty of time to dry. It is very deceptive about this; it appears to be dry and hard in an hour, and it is hard enough to handle freely; but if we apply coat after coat, even six hours apart, we shall find that the wood is finally covered with a waxy mess which will be the source of nothing but trouble. The first coat sinks rapidly into the wood; a second coat may be applied six hours later; but after that, allow two days at least between coats. Shellac makes a very thin coat; so it is necessary to apply a large number of coats, at least twice as many as of oleo resinous varnishes, to get a sufficient thickness of coating. Because of this labor, shellac is an expensive finish; but it is handsome rnd durable. The treatment of it, as regards rubbing, etc., is the same as has been described for other varnish.