One-Coat Stain Finish. It sometimes hap pens that an effective finish is desired which is intended to imitate antique work and where there is no desire to produce a gloss or high fin ish, and at the same time the expense must be kept down to a minimum. The following method is particularly adapted to chestnut, though it could probably he effectively used on either straight-grained oak or ash. In using it, it must be distinctly understood that it will be impossible afterward to change the finish of the wood and substitute a varnished or painted surface.
The proper color is obtained by using pure colors in oil (umber and sienna being employed in this case), and then thinning them with kero serve, with as much liquid drier as in the judg ment of the painter would be necessary. Some experimenting will be needed to determine the exact quantity. The color is applied as a paint, and then thoroughly rubbed into the wood with a rag. The effect produced very closely re sembles antique chestnut. The average painter will probably condemn it at once because of the use of kerosene instead of linseed oil, but in this case the kerosene is used because it serves to carry the pigment into the pores of the wood and stains it deeply.
Scorched Finish. A remarkably effective finish can be used on white pine. When the wood is ready for finishing, it is scorched in places, blending from dark to light tones, using the old-fashioned charcoal paint burner. This can be moved back and forth and held closer to or further away from the wood, producing a great variety of shadings. In the hands of a man of some artistic judgment, very beautiful effects can be produced. To a certain extent, it is the application of the principles of pyrography on a large scale. The use of the gasoline torch to produce the same effect is of course possible, but would require very much more care to avoid danger from fire and to keep from scorching the wood too deeply. The more intense heat of the torch is apt to char the surface instead of merely scorching it, and it is very difficult to produce the artistic blending of colors that can be pro duced by the charcoal burner. After the wood has been scorched, it is then shellacked and fin ished with varnish in the usual way.
The above treatment is particularly appli cable for old painted woodwork that is to be replaced with a new finish specially appropriate to the Mission or Arts and Crafts styles.
Wiped Stain Effect. This method is espe cially adapted to producing striking results on white pine. The nature of this wood is such that a wiped stain develops the grain and its peculiar beauty of marking in a manner that cannot be obtained by any other finish.
A thin paint is made from pure pigment col ors, mixed to produce the color that may be de sired and reduced to the proper consistency with pure raw linseed oil, turpentine, and driers. This is then applied to the wood with a brush in the ordinary manner, and allowed partially to dry, when it is wiped off with a rag. This wiping has the effect of rubbing the color into the softer portions of the grain, while on the harder parts the color is either entirely wiped off or almost entirely removed, according to the time given before wiping and the vigor with which this operation is carried on.
Graining Wood. A branch of painting which has fallen into comparative disuse in certain sec tions of this country is graining, or the imita tion of more expensive woods by means of a peculiar process of painting. A well-grained door will stand exposure to the weather several times as long as a hardwood door, and can be renewed for about the same expense as it will cost to properly clean off and refinish a weather beaten oak, walnut, or mahogany door. For in terior woodwork, graining will outlast plain painting several times over; it does not show dirt so readily and is much easier kept clean. It will last longer, too, than hardwood or even than yellow pine finish. Where two rooms are finished in different woods, a white pine door connecting the two rooms may be grained to correspond with the woodwork in each room, without the danger from twisting so often found when veneers of different woods are used. If skilfully done, it is practically impossible to tell, the grained wood from that which it is intended to imitate. When an old building is altered, it is frequently necessary to bring the old painted woodwork into harmony with the new hardwood, and this can be readily accomplished by the grainer.