To Color French Polish.—Mix the coloring matter with the polish and let stand two or three days, stirring frequently, until all is fully incor porated. For red, use dragon's blood, alkanet root, or red sanderswood. For yellow, turmeric root or gum gamboge. For brown, seed-lac or brown shellac.
Or dip the pad of cotton wool used as a rubber in the color each time it is moistened with the polish. Then cover the rubber with a linen cloth, apply a drop of cold-drawn linseed oil, and polish. Use the ordinary col oring matters, as dragon's blood for red, chrome for yellow, ultramarine or indigo for blue, and ivory black or lampblack for black.
To Grain French Polish.—To grain any color with French polish, move the rubber when applying the color in irregular patterns. Streak, line, or mark the wood, according to taste. When dry, apply a coating of clear polish and finish as usual.
To Finish French Polish.—Dissolve 4 drams of shellac and 4 drams of gum benzoin in 1 pint of 95 per cent alcohol by corking tightly in a glass bottle and shaking occasionally until dissolved. Let cool and add 4 tea spoonfuls of white poppy oil. Shake well before using. Use for final coats to give an extra high finish.
To Polish Varnished Furniture. First apply finely powdered pumice stone with a piece of flannel mois tened with water. Rub the varnished surface with light, uniform strokes, working from the center with a cir cular motion. Follow with finely pow dered tripoli, using a woolen cloth or chamois moistened with olive oil. Care must be taken not to use more strength than is necessary to give a smooth surface. Wipe off the tripoli with a soft cloth, let dry, and apply whiting with the palm of the hand.
To Wax Furniture.—Melt with gen tle heat 2 ounces each of white wax and yellow wax, and add 4 ounces of best rectified turpentine. Remove from the fire and stir until cold. This gives a thin coat, as the oil penetrates the pores of the wood, brings out the grain and color, and causes the wax to adhere. When polished, it gives a luster equal to varnish.
Polishing.—To polish furniture or cabinetwork in general, work down the surface with sandpaper, smooth with glass paper, and polish with rot ten stone, putty powder, and tripoli in the order mentioned. Apply pumice
stone with a cloth moistened with water, and tripoli with a cloth mois tened with olive oil or boiled linseed oil.
Wood Filler.—To fill the pores and other rough places as a foundation for varnish or French polish, apply, for cheap work, a thin glue size. Or, for a better grade, apply a thin coat of boiled linseed oil, sprinkle the surface with dry whiting, and rub it in with the palm of the hand, or a short, stiff paint brush. After filling the wood, let dry, give a coating of French pol ish or varnish, and rub down with very fine glass paper. This gives a foundation on which to lay the var nish or final coats of polish. Thus the whiting is absorbed by the oil, and the pores of the wood are filled with putty, which will last indefinitely and not be affected by damp air or water.
Or, for the best grades, mix plaster of Paris with whiting, and apply with a brush. Follow with a coating of tallow, and color with any desired coloring matter.
Or mix the whiting, tallow, and col oring matter together, and rub them into the work.
Or mix 1 gallon of plaster of Paris with r pint of flour, ounce of pow dered pumice stone, ounce of pre pared chalk, 1 quart of boiled lin seed oil, and i gill of japan dryer.
One coat of varnish on such a foun dation will give a better and more durable finish than three coats laid directly on the surface of the wood, as in the latter case the varnish en ters the pores of the wood and does not dry smoothly.
To Color Wood Filler.—For black walnut, mix burnt umber with whit ing; for cherry, Venetian red; for beech or maple, just a suspicion of Venctian red. Stir in just enough coloring matter to imitate the natural colors of the wood.
Or, if tallow is used, it may be col ored with dragon's blood, gum gam boge, or otherwise if desired.
Fix circular articles in a lathe, and apply the filler with the hands or with a piece of velveteen or other stiff cloth.
To Polish Furniture. — Substances recommended for polishing furniture are kerosene, turpentine, olive oil, lin seed oil, and paraffin oil, beeswax, white wax, castile soap, gum copal, gum arabic, shellac, and various com binations of these and similar sub stances.