For softening the harsh edges produced by combing and wiping out the grains, special brushes called blenders are used, and for other purposes mottlers are employed.
The processes just outlined indicate in a gen eral way the method employed in the imitation of oak. The general principles are the same for all woods, varied of course in such manner as may be needed to produce the peculiar mark ings characteristic of the wood to be imitated. The grainer who has any real love for his art will make a study of the finest panels of natural wood that he can find. Much of the beauty of grained work depends upon the skill with which the grainer adapts the pattern to the location and selects the proper design of pattern or form of growth to be imitated. In this way the grainer may produce effects impossible to ob tain in natural woodwork unless each particular piece of lumber is carefully selected.
For cheaper grades of graining there are a number of mechanical methods by which the ordinary journeyman painter may in a measure produce some of the effects of the grainer. One of these is graining transfer paper, consisting of a porous paper upon which the dark color of the oak or other wood is printed in a special transfer ink. This paper is applied to the already grounded sur face, and by dampening it on the back and roll ing it or pressing it, allowing it to remain upon the surface for several minutes, the pattern is transferred. The effect is rather crude and harsh and is only suitable for cheap work or where it is impossible to obtain the serv ices of a skilled grainer. A stencil is also made which can be used with much more suc cess by the professional grainer than by the amateur. There is also a graining pad machine, and a means of transferring the grain of the natural wood by a roller made of a composition similar to that of printers' rollers. These latter mechanical devices are better adapted for use in furniture, agricultural implement, or box fac tories than for the woodwork of buildings, be cause the pattern constantly repeats itself. On a small surface, this, of course, is not seen. The work produced by these devices is of such a me chanical nature as to lack all the artistic merits of real graining.
After the graining has been completed, it must be protected by two or more coats of var nish, which can be rubbed, if desired, the same as in ordinary hardwood finishing.
Plastered walls and ceilings may be grained to imitate wood paneling; and graining may also be done upon metal or upon glass. It is some times done upon the reverse side of glass, so that the graining is seen through the glass. In this case the processes are reversed; the over graining is first applied, then the graining color, and last of all the opaque ground color, which backs up all the rest and brings out the effect of the transparent color already applied.
Marbling. Closely akin to graining is mar bling, by which the effect of costly marbles is obtained on wood or plaster. Very little of this work is done in this country, where the abun dant deposits of beautifully colored marbles have made the use of the real stone compara tively inexpensive, but in European countries the art of imitating marbles has been carried to great perfection, and often the only method of detecting the imitation is by laying one's hand upon the surface and finding the absence of the sensation of coolness inseparable from the stone.
Enamel Finish. The following method for china glossing has been used for many years, and was the method in common use in the days when every parlor in a first-class dwelling house was invariably finished with china gloss woodwork.
For the most ordinary work, four coats were required. The first coat was a thin one of white shellac, which was thoroughly sandpapered be fore applying the second coat of pure white lead thinned with half turpentine and half linseed oil. This again was sandpapered well, and a third coat of white lead was given, which was perfectly flat; that is, all the oil was first drawn off by covering the lead with turpentine, and, after allowing it to stand over night, the oil was skimmed off; the lead then thinned to the re quired consistency with turpentine. This coat was laid on very smooth and evenly, and, after it became hard, was sandpapered smooth. The last coat was French zinc white ground in damar varnish, flowed on, or applied in the same man ner as varnish, and not brushed out. The first three coats gave a foundation, and only the last one was the enamel or gloss coat proper. In order to make the work seem whiter and to coun teract any yellowness from the damar varnish— although this is the whitest varnish that can be obtained—a trifle of cobalt blue was often added.