French Polishing and Enamelling | Page 4

by the parts of the wood with which it first comes into
contact. Different intermediate shades, in great variety, may be obtained by combinations
of colouring matters, according to the tint desired, and the ideas of the stainer. The
processes technically known as "grounding and ingraining" are partly chemical and partly
mechanical, and are designed to teach the various modes of operation whereby the above
effects can be produced. We will commence with

=Imitation Mahogany.=--Half a pound of madder-root, and two ounces of logwood chips
boiled in a gallon of water. Brush over while hot; when dry, go over it with a solution of
pearlash, a drachm to a pint. Beech or birch, brushed with aquafortis in sweeping regular
strokes, and immediately dried in front of a good fire, form very good imitations of old
wood. Venetian red mixed with raw linseed-oil also forms a good stain.
The following is a method in common use by French cabinet-makers. The white wood is
first brushed over with a diluted solution of nitrous acid; next, with a solution made of
methylated spirits one gill, carbonate of soda three-quarters of an ounce, and dragon's
blood a quarter of an ounce; and a little red tint is added to the varnish or polish used
afterwards. Black American walnut can be made to imitate mahogany by brushing it over
with a weak solution of nitric acid.
=Imitation Rosewood.=--Boil half a pound of logwood chips in three pints of water until
the decoction is a very dark red; then add an ounce of salt of tartar. Give the work three
coats boiling hot; then with a graining tool or a feather fill in the dark markings with the
black stain. A stain of a very bright shade can be made with methylated spirits half a
gallon, camwood three-quarters of a pound, red-sanders a quarter of a pound, extract of
logwood half a pound, aquafortis one ounce. When dissolved, it is ready for use. This
makes a very bright ground. It should be applied in three coats over the whole surface,
and when dry it is glass-papered down with fine paper to a smooth surface, and is then
ready for graining. The fibril veins are produced by passing a graining tool with a slight
vibratory motion, so as to effect the natural-looking streaks, using the black stain. A coat
of the bichromate of potash solution referred to on page 4 will make wildly-figured
mahogany have the appearance of rosewood.
=Imitation Walnut.=--A mixture of two parts of brown umber and one part of sulphuric
acid, with spirits of wine or methylated spirits added until it is sufficiently fluid, will
serve for white wood. Showy elm-wood, after being delicately darkened with the
bichromate solution No. 1, page 4, will pass for walnut; it is usually applied on the cheap
loo-table pillars, which are made of elm-wood. Equal portions of the bichromate and
carbonate solutions (see page 4), used upon American pine, will have a very good effect.
Another method for imitating walnut is as follows: One part (by weight) of walnut-shell
extract is dissolved in six parts of soft-water, and slowly heated to boiling until the
solution is complete. The surface to be stained is cleaned and dried, and the solution
applied once or twice; when half-dry, the whole is gone over again with one part of
chromate of potash boiled in five parts of water. It is then dried, rubbed down, and
polished in the ordinary way.
The extract of walnut-shells and chromate of potash are procurable at any large druggist's
establishment. A dark-brown is the result of the action of copper salts on the yellow
prussiate of potash; the sulphate of copper in soft woods gives a pretty reddish-brown
colour, in streaks and shades, and becomes very rich after polishing or varnishing.
Different solutions penetrate with different degrees of facility. In applying, for instance,
acetate of copper and prussiate of potash to larch, the sap-wood is coloured most when
the acetate is introduced first; but when the prussiate is first introduced, the heart-wood is

the most deeply coloured. Pyrolignite of iron causes a dark-grey colour in beech, from the
action and tannin in the wood on the oxide of iron; while in larch it merely darkens the
natural colour. Most of the tints, especially those caused by the prussiates of iron and
copper, are improved by the exposure to light, and the richest colours are produced when
the process is carried out rapidly.
=Imitation Ebony.=--Take half a gallon of strong vinegar, one pound of extract of
logwood, a quarter of a pound of copperas, two ounces of China blue, and one ounce of
nut-gall. Put these into an iron pot, and boil them over a slow fire till they are well
dissolved. When cool, the mixture is ready for