Practical Graining, with Description of Colors Employed and Tools Used

CHAPTER VII.
SATINWOOD

This is a very delicate wood, of the maple family; it probably derives its name from its resemblance to folds of satin. It is seldom represented in America, but is frequently imitated in England, being used in connection with maple in some of the principal rooms, such as drawing-rooms, parlors, etc. The panels of the room are done as satinwood, the stiles as maple, and sometimes the mouldings as a darker wood, such as dark oak, walnut or rosewood.

Plate 24.

SATINWOOD MOTTLED.

Plate 25.

SATINWOOD MOTTLED AND OVERGRAINED.

Plate 26.

CURLY MAPLE MOTTLED TO OVERGRAIN.

Plate 27.

CURLY MAPLE OVERGRAINED.

Plate 28.

POLLARD OAK.

Plate 29.

POLLARD OAK.

The same groundwork and the same graining-colors may be used as in representing maple, but a little ivory black may be added. The tools are similar, but a piece of buckskin or chamois leather is substituted for the bristle mottlers used for maple. A roll of oil-putty is sometimes used to take off the color in making the high lights; the putty should be rolled along the panel lengthwise of the grain, and then the panel blended crosswise. Care should be taken to have the graining-color light, as the effect is lost if the color be too dark. The lights are quite prominent, and it requires no little skill successfully to imitate them. When the mottling or lights and shadows are dry, they may be very lightly over-grained with a fine bristle overgrainer, the bristles being separated by a comb and the color used very thin. The over-graining should not be blended, as it will look too prominent and spoil the effect of the lights and the shadows. A piece of soft cotton rag will answer the same purpose as the buckskin or chamois leather. When using either of them with the intention of making the mottled effect of the wood, first wet them in clean water or in beer and wring them out nearly dry; then, after the color is rubbed on the work, roll them over them over the surface as directed. The result will be that the leather or the rag will take off the patches of the wet graining-color. Then blend softly, and when dry overgrain.

CHAPTER VIII.
POLLARD OAK

THIS wood is a great favorite with British grainers, and is often splendidly imitated by them. The wood itself is from old gnarled trees or stumps and has a variety of grain almost equal to French walnut. It may be represented in either oil or water color, or may be done partially in both distemper and oil, which I think is the better way; the best job I have ever seen was executed in this manner. It is first done in oil; the colors necessary are raw and burnt sienna, burnt umber, Vandyke brown, and sometimes a little ivory black or ultramarine blue. The wood varies from pieces comparatively free from knots to others almost filled with them, like the root of walnut, etc. The grains are first done in oil, the knots, etc., being somewhat subdued; and when this is dry, the whole is gone over in water color and left in the color it is intended to have it remain. The knots and shadows are touched up, etc. After the water color is dry the fine champs may be put in by using a slice of raw potato in the same manner as that in which the thumb-nail is used on larger work. A camel's-hair pencil is needed properly to finish the work. A great deal of time may be spent in representing this wood, and yet but few may succeed in faithfully imitating it. Since the fashion has changed in Boston and its vicinity from walnut and cherry front-doors to oak doors, we begin to see panels of pollard oak; sometimes whole doors are veneered with it, and the effect is superb.

CHERRY

This wood is naturally but little darker than ash, yet the popular idea of what its hue should be is of a color nearly as dark as that of mahogany. Cherry is frequently misrepresented by staining whitewood or pine with burnt sienna, etc., but, it being impossible to conceal the grain of the whitewood or the pine, the deception is easily discoverable by any one at all familiar with the grains of different woods. For this reason a much better imitation can be obtained by graining to imitate cherry (or any other wood), rather than by staining, as the grainer, if competent, can represent both the color and the grain of the desired wood.

Cherry may be imitated in either oil color or water color, and an excellent job can be done either way. My preference is for oil color. The natural wood may be matched by employing raw and burnt sienna and raw umber, but the stained cherry requires the use of burnt sienna, burnt umber and Vandyke brown for the very dark veins, also, in some cases, crimson lake, to be used as a glazing or shading-color. The tools needed for oil color are the flat brush, combs, fitch tool or fresco-liner, sash tool and a piped bristle overgrainer. When a piece of work is rubbed in, it may lightly be stippled with the dry brush (or the stippling may first be done in distemper before the oil color is applied). It may be mottled by wiping off the color with a rag, or by applying a little color with the sash tool and lifting the color with the flat brush. The growth may then be put in with the fitch tool, the flat brush being used as a blender. The growths are put in across the mottled work previously done. The growths or hearts can also be wiped out with the rag in the same manner as in imitating ash, and the fitch used to interline the points of the hearts; but the growth of cherry is seldom as bold as that of ash, and, to my mind, it can best be imitated by the use of the fitch tool. Where the hearts have been wiped out with the rag they should always be gone over with the fitch tool and blended, as the effect is decidedly better than if they are left without pencilling.

Plate 30.

CHERRY MOTTLED IN OIL BEFORE BEING OVERGRAINED.

Plate 31.

CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL.

Plate 32.

CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL.

Plate 33.

CHERRY MOTTLED AND PENCILLED IN OIL AS FINISHED.

Some grainers prefer to imitate cherry wholly in distemper, in which case the tools used are much the same as those for oil, substituting the badger blender for the flat brush in finishing the work. First dampen the work with a sponge and rub in the color with a flat brush; the mottled parts may be done light, with the sponge, or dark by using the mottler or the sash tool. The hearts are put in with the fitch after the mottling is dry, the overgrainer being used in same manner as that in which the combs are used in oil color. The best vehicle for the distemper color is stale beer; it may be diluted with one-half water, and in cold weather a little alcohol may be added. The work may be shaded or overgrained when dry, whether the graining has been done in oil or in distemper. If done in oil, the shading color may be applied in either oil or distemper; but if the work has been grained in distemper, the shading color (if applied immediately to the work before varnishing) must be in oil. In some cases the distemper color is varnished before being overgrained; this, of course, necessitates revarnishing.

The grains of cherry are apparently simple, but they will stand a large amount of study, and good work is seldom done without taking pains to represent the various characteristics of this at present fashionable wood.

Sometimes glue size is used in the color for a distemper binder, but, being of animal matter, it is seldom used by grainers. With the addition of alcohol enough to make it smell strong, it passes for white shellac among some cheap painters, and is used for first coats or stain work. It will be found that the mottlings of cherry invariably run across the grain, and this is the chief reason that stained whitewood makes such a poor imitation, the reverse being the rule for whitewood.

One thing I wish to impress upon beginners: that is to keep the color as nearly as possible like that of the natural wood, and to cater as little as possible to the prevailing fashion of making the color of cherry as dark as that of mahogany. If people want a mahogany color, try and induce them to have also a mahogany grain. I know that frequently some article of furniture made of stained cherry has to be matched in color in graining a room, and in such cases there is no resource but to imitate it. I once went to grain a chamber in imitation of cherry, and the lady of the house requested me to observe the color of her mahogany chamber-set, which color she desired to have on the woodwork of the room. I found the "mahogany" to be cherry and whitewood stained very deep, and so informed her. It was a perfectly new set, and had been sold to her for mahogany by a respectable firm. I should judge it to be worth one hundred dollars, so there is evidently "cheating in all trades but ours."

The piped overgrainer for use in oil color will be found an excellent help, both for continuing the lines of the pencilled work, and for doing the straight or mottled combing so often observed in the natural wood.

Plate 34.

CHERRY WIPED OUT AND PENCILLED IN OIL.

Plate 35.

WALNUT STIPPLE.

Plate 36.

BLACK WALNUT PENCILLED.

Plate 37.

WALNUT WIPED OUT AND PENCILLED.

CHAPTER IX.
BLACK WALNUT

This wood was very fashionable as an interior finish not very long ago, but its place is now largely occupied by cherry, mahogany and oak, and I think the change is for the better; for unless a room is well lighted, the effect of the deep color of walnut is rather sombre and the grains have less light and shade and less variety than those of oak or cherry. It can be imitated in either oil or distemper. The same tools are used as for ash. The piped bristle overgrainer is an excellent help for both oil and water color. The graining color is composed mostly of burnt umber, Vandyke brown being added for the darker portions of the work.

In my opinion, the best way to imitate walnut is first to stipple it with a thin mixture of Vandyke brown in distemper, using nothing but beer for thinner. When this is dry, rub in the oil color and wipe out the hearts with the rag in the same way as for oak and ash. Care must be taken not to add much water to the stippling color, or the stippling will be wiped off when the rag is used over it. When the hearts have been wiped out, the fitch tool may be used to sharpen up the edges of the growths and the whole lightly blended with the dry flat brush. The hearts can also be put in by using the fitch tool, or by mottling or wiping off the color slightly with the rag and then using the fitch tool as directed, the edges of the color being slightly lifted with the dry flat brush.

Some grainers prefer to use water color rather than oil, and do their work wholly in distemper. The same kit of tools is used as for cherry in distemper—viz., sponge, flat brush, sash tool, fitch tool, blender and overgrainer, either piped or plain. First stipple in the work slightly darker than if it were to be gone over in oil, and then put in the grains with a fitch tool and the overgrainer. Care must be taken in blending the hearts after pencilling, or the graining-color will lift off and show the ground-color. Oil color is sometimes used to pencil in the hearts, as it will not lift the stippling, no matter how much it is blended. A camel's-hair pencil is sometimes used to finish the points of the hearts. Care should be taken to have all the mitres and joints cleanly cut, and slightly to vary the color of the different portions of the work, so as to avoid sameness. The work may be shaded or overgrained after it is dry, but it is generally finished at once. For a quick job, done wholly in oil, rub in the work rather dry and stipple with the flat brush; then put in the hearts with the fitch tool and blend. Use the bristle piped overgrainer for portions of the work. By using the finer steel combs covered with cotton rag and stippling the work, when combed, with the dry brush, a very fair imitation is obtained.