Page:The Building News and Engineering Journal, Volume 22, 1872.djvu/206

 190 THE BUILDING NEWS. Marcu 8, 1872 The deduction to be drawn is that modern science has done very little for us with re- spect to brick. The brick of this day is probably less enduring than of old, and in the use thereof we have yet to rival the brick buildings of the middle ages. B. F. ——_>____ DECORATIVE PROCESSES. STAINING, GRAINING, AND INLAYING OF WOODS AND MARBLES. By An Experrencep Workman. (Continued from page 172.) pee pine has of late years come into extensive use for the furniture and fit- tings of churches and chapels, and for the doors, architrayes, and other woodwork of our private dwellings and public buildings. This wood is in many instances very beauti- fully marked in the grain, and is admirably suited for all purposes when strength and dura- bility are desired. It is in its nature exceed- ingly resinous, and it is the fact of its being so thoroughly impregnated with resin which makes the wood so durable. Asa rule, the practice is to varnish or French polish doors, &c., in the better class of dwelling-houses and mansions, when made of this wood. French polishing on pitch pine cannot be done under 24d. or 3d. per foot, while var- nishing may be done for 13d. per foot, giving it two coats of good varnish, so that the lat- ter method will, and does, of course, most preyail. Pitch pine has a strong tendency to get quickly darker in colour. This arises chiefly from the effect of the air upon the turpentine and resin contained in the wood just as varnishes get dark by exposure), and, therefore, except the work is required dark in colour to begin with, we would advise that no stains be used on the mass of the work, and that the varnish be as light coloured as possible, for if we varnish with a common dark-coloured varnish the wood will all the sooner become discoloured. As a rule, the work is coated with glue size in order to fill up the pores or grain of the wood, and to form a preparation which will prevent the varnish sinking into the wood. The size has also the effect of keeping the wood to its natural colour, for if the varnish were put upon the wood without this protection it would naturally sink in and darken the colour very materially. This is more especially the case if white pine or deal is used, being softer and more absorbent than pitch pine. The glue size used should not be too strong, or it will crack and chip, and it is better to give the work two coats of this stuff than to risk failure by giving one thick coat of size. The size should be clear from any foreign matter, and carefully strained before using. When the work is to be French polished no sizing is required. Many kinds of staining colours may be used for colouring pine to any de- sired tint ; but, except for the purpose of imi- tating inlaid woods, pitch pine or white pine should never be stained any other colour than the darker shades of its own natural colour—not necessarily to represent dark old oak, but to represent dark old pine, which by age has acquired a rich dark hue. For it is, we consider, in the worst possible taste to stain pitch-pine doors the colour of mahogany or satin-wood, which woods they do not at all resemble in their grain or markings. Simple staining solutions are the best for the purpose, and we have found that we can produce almost any tone or tint of colour we require by using the ordinary graining colours—namely, burnt sienna, raw sienna, Vandyke brown, drop black, and ultramarine blue. Stephens, of Stamford-street, Borough, London, produces some very good liquid stains; but we prefer to use the colours above-named, as we have more command of colour, and can modify or alter to suit our convenience, and at a tithe of the cost. It is a common practice to put staining solution upon the wood, and leave it simply laid off with the brush. We have found the best plan to be as follows. If we want a dark oak colour stain we mix Vandyke brown, or best burnt Turkey umber with water, using it tolerably dark in shade. With this we brush over the wood without any previous preparation. Let it stand a few minutes, and then wipe as much of the colour off again as we can with a damp cloth or rag ; it will be found that a certain amount of stain has sunk into the wood, more especially in those parts which form the grain, and that if properly wiped the stain will be more uni- form in depth of colour and tone than if it were done by the brush alone. If not deep enough with one application, the operation may be re- peated after the first is dry. If we want a ma- hogany stain we use burnt sienna with a little Vandyke brown added, and then glaze with Victoria lake, If a yellow stain is required we use the best raw sienna. For a blue stain we use ultramarine blue, and by adding a little raw sienna to the blue we form a dull shade of neutral green, and for a grey stain we use drop black, with a little ultramarine blue added, and so on, ad infinitum. All these are permanent colours, which is, of course, an important consideration. We could gct more brilliant colours by using scarlet or crimson and purple lakes, but these are fugitive colours, not fitted for use on any works in- tended to last. It will be understood that we have hitherto been speaking of staining wood- work in the mass, that is to say, without in- laying, although the same stains wi'l, of course, answer, and may be used for inlaid work. We here givea list of transparent and semi-transparent colours, suitable for staining wood. Red stains: 1, burnt sienna; 2, log- wood ; 3, burnt ochre ; 4, madder lake. Yellow stains: 1, raw sienna; 2, saffron; 3, gam- boge. Blue stains: 1, ultramarine blue; 2, indigo blue; 3, cobalt. Brown stains: 1, Vandyke brown; 2, burnt Turkey umber ; 3, asphaltum ; 4, black Japan. Green stains: 1, mineral green, permanent green; 2, a mixture of gamboge and indigo; 3, gam- boge and ultramarine, cobalt; 4, raw sienna and blue. Black stains: First, wash over with legwood stain, and when dry, wash over, or streak with water, impregnated with ironrust ; this is an €xcellent black stain. Second, coat, as before described, with black drop, ground in weak beer or water. The whole of the above stains and colours are permanent, and, of course, an infinite variety of tints may be produced for staining purposes, by admixture one with the other, and the whole of the stains, with the excep- tion of the asphaltum and black Japan, may be used in water or weak beer. The asphaltum and Japan must be thinned to the required shade with turpentine. The stains may be applied in the manner before described, or laid on and left from the brush. Pitch pine, white deal, oak, or any other light wood which is to have an imitation of inlaid woods done upon it, will have to be prepared for working upon, and if the work has to be finished in French polish, the whole surface to be ornamented must receive a coating of white polish, so as to fill up the pores of the wood. If this were not so done, the various stains would sink into the body of the wood, and so discolour it that we should not be able to work any light wood clean but the first one ; and, therefore, it is necessary to have the surface filled up, so that after graining or staining one wood we may be able to wash off all the superfluous colour, and so begin again with a perfectly clean ground ; and it is only by this means that we can keep each colour distinct and give it its full value. If the wood has to be finished with varnish without being French polished, itmust be pre- pared by sizing and one coat of varnish before commencing the inlaying. After the wood is thus prepared the process of inlaying is iden- tical in both cases, with this exception, that we may use white hard varnish as a stopping varnish upon the varnish preparation, because the spirits of wine which dissolves the white hard varnish will not touch the oil varnish with which the ground is prepared ; and, on the contrary, the stopping varnish for working upon the polish preparation must be a varnish soluble in turpentine, which latter will not touch the polish. We need not again de- scribe the process of inlaying woods, as the description given for inlaying upon painted grounds is exactly identical with that required for working upon the real wood, which is, in fact, more like graining than staining, as in both cases a solid ground must be first pre- pared, and the colours worked upon it. We can, in using the stains or graining colour, manipulate them upon the real wood, so as to alter and add to the existing grain of the wood, and to aid the deception and imitate the grain of other woods. Whether it is ad- visable to do this or not is entirely a question of taste and skill, on which we shall not enter here. Tortoise-shell may be imitated by first painting the article to be so ornamented of a yellow colour, as near the lightest colour of the shell as possible, asa ground colour. We then coat the ground over with a thin coat of black Japan, and follow on after with darker shades until the various shades and markings appear as they are in the shell; this may be done by using the black Japan of various strengths, according to the depth of shade required; and by using a little clear turpentine and a pencil the light spots or marks of the shell may be closely imitated. When gold and silver leaf is used, as portions of an inlaid design in combination with various woods, the metal should always be outlined with black, and the ground-work for gilding upon got up as smooth as possible, in order that the flatness so essential to the success of this kind of work may be retained. We would point out here that the greatest care and nicety is requisite in the execution of inlaid work; all lines should be run clean and true, and of an uniform thickness throughout; and all ornaments should be cut sharp and true in the outline, and except this be done failure will result. We now turn to our method of imitating in- laid ivory, for the decoration of cabinets, door panels, &c. The style of ornamentation may consist either of Chinese or Japanese figures, landscapes with trees or flowers, or simple ornament in almost any style. We have two methods of executing this work, the one upon a painted ground, and the other upon paper. In the former process, the article to be decorated is got up exceedingly smooth by the polished enamel process, as before de- scribed in the Buitpinc News, and when the ground is quite ready, the design is pre- pared as before described and traced upon the work in outline. Wenow take pure white hard varnish and paint in the design correctly to the outlines, taking great care to make the lines sharp and exact. When this is dry and hard we take drop black, very finely ground in water, or the very finest vegetable black will do. We thin it down tv a _ working consistency with common beer, and with a camel’s-hair tin tool we brush the black over the whole of the panel and ornament, and level it with the badger-hair softener until itis of one uniform thickness; when this is dry we take spirits of wine and saturate the panel where it is ornamented, until the hard white yarnish is dissolved and removed, bringing the whole of the black, which covers the ornament with it, and leaving every part which the varnish has covered of the clear colour of the ground. When this is done carefully, the black will not be in the slightest degree disturbed, except in those parts covered by the varnish, and of course the ornament will appear as inlaid upon a black ground—that is, ivory upon ebony. We now take a fine sable pencil, and finely- ground black in oil, and etch, or put in the detail of the figures, houses, &c., in fine lines and slight cross-hatching, slight, free and effective, without much labour—in fact, just such an amount of labour as we see in Chinese and Japanese works of this descrip-