APPENDIX II.
Wood Finishing Recipes.
1. Wax.
—Cut up beeswax and add to it about one-third of its volume of turpentine. Heat to the boiling point in a double boiler. Or, melt a quantity of beeswax and to this add an equal quantity of turpentine. Care must be taken that the turpentine shall not catch fire.
2. Water Stains.
—Any coloring matter that is soluble in water will make a stain.
Mahogany: Three quarts of boiling water, one ounce of Bismarck-brown aniline.
Brown: Extract of logwood, the size of a walnut, dissolved by boiling in four ounces of water. Apply hot and repeat until the desired color is obtained.
Black: First stain the wood brown with the logwood solution. Coat this with a stain prepared as follows: Soak a teaspoonful of cast iron filings in four ounces of acetic acid or vinegar. Allow it to stand for a week, stirring it occasionally.
Walnut: Make a strong solution of powdered bichromate of potash and hot water. Over this stain, apply a coat of the logwood stain.
3. Oil Stains.
—Coach colors ground in Japan when thinned with turpentine make good stain. Mix in the proportion of one-half gallon of turpentine to one pound of color and add a little boiled oil. Colors commonly used are drop black, Vandyke brown, medium chrome yellow, burnt and raw umber and burnt and raw sienna.
Green: Drop-black, two parts, medium chrome yellow, one part, a little red to kill the brightness.
Walnut: Asphaltum with a little Venetian red.
Golden oak: Asphaltum and turpentine thinned like water, to be followed with filler darkened with burnt umber and black.
Antique oak: Raw sienna properly thinned, with a little burnt umber and black added.
4. Spirit Stains.
Black: Alcohol and aniline black.
Mahogany: Alcohol and Bismark brown.
Aniline stains cut with alcohol, and mixed with white shellac and banana oil or amyl alcohol in equal parts make good stains for small pieces of work.