Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/144

 128 THE BUILDING NEWS. Fes. 16, 1872. SS ee Oxford ochre, anda little Venetian red; the | used with weak beer. The advantage in using with leaf ornament, till a plain brick would artistically be worth its weight in gold, we fear it is a sign that the end is approaching. Looking at it from a manufacturer’s point of view, it merely shows that business is brisk, and were we in the trade, nothing would please us better than to have our patterns used, not in the facing only, but in the very core of the walls. The stamped decoration, we should feel, would make an admirable key for the mortar, and the slight extra cost of the material would be more than repaid by the durability of the work. But from our present and totally unprejudiced position, we cannot but feel that the matter is being con- siderably overdone. A little more plain sur- face, and a great deal less enrichment, would please everybody better in the long run. Of the two, we would rather live on nothing but bread than on nothing but honey ; and yet to compare this style of ornament to honey is an outrageous piece of flattery ; at the best it can only be likened to a very coarse kind of treacle. ———_>——_ DECORATIVE PROCESSES. GRAINING, STAINING, INLAYING, AND MARBLING, By an ExperRreENCED WORKMAN. (Continued from page 110.) We do not intend to enter again into any defence of the practice of imitations ; that subject has been pretty well ventilated in these pages, and, in fact, the practice in itself is so firmly established, so convenient, and so well adapted to the purposes it is used for, that we may afford to smile at the crot- chets of those who would put the practice down, and we may rest assured that it will outlive all their efforts. In a former paper we gave a description of the best methods of graining in imitation of oak, and we now purpose describing in brief the various methods of imitating some of the most useful woods for decorative purposes. Walnut isa well-known wood, having a variety of tints and shades of colour in its markings, varying from deep black to a pale dull yellow. Much of the finest and richest walnut is of French growth. The strongly-marked, or curled, walnut is the bestadapted for the front parts of furniture, and for imitation in panel work ; but, as a rule, these are the most unsound and shaky parts of the tree, and it is very rare to find a richly-marked veneer that will be perfectly sound. The plainly- marked part of the tree is a close-grained, sound, and serviceable wood, suitable for frame work and all those parts requiring strength, and also very suitable for imitation on the stiles of doors, architrayes, &c. As is well known, hundreds of thousands of feet of this wood are used for gun-stocks, it being ex- pressly suited for that purpose. In imitating walnut it is a common fault with grainers to copy a very rich specimen of the wood, full of curling, knots and markings, and bedaub the whole of the panels and stiles of a door with one mass of rich figuring, the result being that there is an utter want of repose, no relief, and the whole thing becomes so busy, that the eye cannot rest upon it with any pleasure. This is, unfortunately, too much the case with other decorations besides grain- ing. Without a judicious contrast of the richly marked and comparatively plain wood, no successful result can follow. We would, therefore, recommend that the panels of a door or piece of furniture be grained as richly as possible, and the stiles and architraves be worked simple and quiet in the markings. Much of the success of this work will depend upon the ground-work, which should be got up very smooth. The distemper graining colour, if ground fine, does not injure the smoothness of the surface; consequently, if eare is exercised in these matters, we may with reason calculate upon a smooth and polished surface when the work is finished. ‘The best ground to lay for graining walnut upon is made from white lead, burnt umber, colour should be rich, not over bright, and of | these colours is evident, as we can re. a medium shade of depth. If the colour is too bright, the work is apt to be glaring and foxy, buta dull though rich colour may be glazed up until it becomes exceedingly rich, and yet quiet in colour, We have found it the best plan, in imitating this wood, to mottle the work all over first with a thin wash of burnt sienna and vandyke brown, and when this has become dry and hard, we take a hog’s-hair overgrainer and a thin wash of vandyke brown in beer, and put in the undergrain, softening the edges upwards with the badger-hair softener; we then follow on with the dark markings, giving them the necessary curl, in order to follow nature as nearly as possible. When this is dry, we take a soft brush and damp the previous grain, soften a little while it is wet, and add any dark lines and knots as may be desir- able. The work should now have one coat of varnish ; on this, when dry, a glaring colour may be used: yandyke brown or burnt sienna and a little black. Any additional dark lines may now be put in with the drop black. As a matter of course, the character of the work will depend upon the taste and skill of the workman; but we may observe that it is in the power of most grainers to turn out a pas- sable job, and that if the work is good in colour and quiet in its markings, it will be a thou- sand times more successful than if it were ever so well done, and yet vulgar in colour or taste. Bird's-eye maple is another valuable wood for imitation; its use for the making of fur- niture is not very extensive in this country— why it is so we cannot tell; whether it is that our native woods—as the oak, the birch, the beech, the ash, &c.—are stronger, or cheaper and better adapted to our use, or all these causes combined, we don’t know, but such is the fact. We have never seemed to take kindly to maple for furniture, and yet for using as an imitation upon the wood-work of our dwelling-houses, and for grained furniture, this wood stands next to oak in the extent of its use as a painted decoration. This is not to be wondered at, when we consider that it is clean-looking, delicate in its markings, pure in its tone, and is in every respect well adapted to the purpose. The maple tree grows over a vast extent of country. Our English’ maple will not compare with the American maple for the beauty of its markings ; the small knots with which it is filled are somewhat about the size of asmall bird's eye, and the twist of the grain of the wood around each knot throws out a silky reflected light which gives the knot the appearance of a bird’s eye, hence the name. Our Transatlantic cousins have a method of sawing the maple into continuous veneers, instead of cutting the maple into planks, and then into veneers. The saw traverses the circle of the tree or block, and cuts the thick- ness of the veneer from its outside edge in one continuous ribbon, just as we would uncurl aroll of cloth. This method of cutting alters the character of the mottle and bird’s-eyes very materially, but has its advantages, no doubt. Maple isa capital wood for decorating bed-rooms or breakfast-rooms ; it is clean and cheerful-looking, both for this purpose and for furniture, and should be grained of a light cream colour. The same remarks as to the grounds will apply here as to walnut. In graining this wood the greatest care is required, in order to keep the work clean: dirty maple is an abomination. All the quirks and mouldings should be kept light and free from blots of colour, and each division of panel and moulding, stile and rail, should be clearly defined and contrasted with variety of work, and small and large mottle, for it is in a wise use of these little things that a successful result is brought about. Many grainers use vyandyke brown alone for imitating maple, or vandyke brown and a little burnt sienna mixed; but we have found the best colour to be a mixture of burnt sienna and drop-black, ground in water and gulate the tone of the maple and vary the shade either warm or cool as may be desirable. We know that it is a common practice to use only one colour, but that is not wise, because, by adding a little more black to the stiles, we form a slight contrast to the panels and rails, and thus get variety, making each look the better for the contrast. It is always better to grain the maple of a coolish tone, as the varnish will in time add plenty of colour to it—varnishes naturally getting darker with age. ‘Therefore, if we haye the work too yellow or too warm at first, it becomes utterly spoiled by the varnish in time. Maple may be grained both in oil and distemper, the latter being the generalmode of doing it; the process being as follows :—The work is first damped down with a sponge, water and a little whitening. (We may remark here that distemper always works cleaner and better if the ground is glass colour than if it be dead or flat.) The work must be rubbed in with a thin wash of colour, putting it a little darker on that side of the panel where the mottle is to appear thickest ; it is then cut up with the hog’s-hair mottler, and softened with the badger until it appears soft and silky, The lights are then put in with a small stiff mottler, or a small fitch. The bird’s-eye may then be put in, either with a pencil and a little burnt sienna or a quill with a bit of sponge in the end of it, or with asmall brush made purposely ; but none of these methods are so good as the pencil—with the latter we can always produce variety. When this is dry we can put in the high lights witha damp wash leather, and soften them away by gently dabbing with the leather on the end of the thumb. If this is carefully done, we may produce that fine silky or sil- very light seen round the bird’s-eye knot in the real wood. We may now proceed to put inthe fine light overgrain with a pen- cil, and a pencil overgrain, using a thin wash of burnt sienna for the grain. For common work a red-lead pencil is sometimes used. Much of the beauty of the work de- pends upon the overgrain, which should be only strong enough just to show clearly ; if too strong it will look vulgar, and if too weak, the varnish will obliterate it. The varnish to be used for maple or other light woods, should be of the clearest and best, dark varnishes will destroy the delicacy and beauty of the work. Satin-wood is another beautiful decorative wood, of a bright yellow colour, full of beau- tiful silky or silvery mottles or markings, reflecting the light like satin, hence itsname ; its character being almost identical with the best Spanish mahogany, except in colour. Satin-wood is not so much used now as for- merly, either for furniture or for imitation, but is, nevertheless, well worthy of attention, both for its own intrinsic beauty and for its colour in combination with other decorative woods. This wood may be grained of a yellowish cream colour, ground, but it is often done of a pure white, the varnish giving thé white a creamy tone. The graining colour may be raw sienna and yandyke brown, over- grained with either vandyke brown or a little drop-black, very faint. Here, again, we must enjoin cleanliness of working as a sine qua non. Mahogany isa wood so well known that it needs no description from us here, only to note that itis grained in exactly the same manner as satin-wood, the colour being rubbed in and then cut up into mottle with the fine-edged cutters, or the camel’s-hair mottler, and overgrained with the sable ma- hogany overgrain, the fibre being put in either witha flagger or the ends of the badger’s-hair softener. Victoria lake, sometimes called mahogany lake, is a capital glazing colour ; in fact, there is no other colour so good for that purpose. We may also note here that Ker- shaw & Bellamy’s graining machines are admirably adapted for graining satin-wood and mahogany, and are of very great assist-