Part 1

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GRAINING AND MARBLING

A Series of Practical Treatises

ON

MATERIAL, TOOLS AND APPLIANCES USED; GENERAL OPERATIONS; PREPARING OIL GRAINING COLORS; MIXING; RUBBING; APPLYING DISTEMPER COLORS; WIPING OUT; PENCILING; THE USE OF CRAYONS; REVIEW OF WOODS; THE GRAINING OF OAK, ASH, CHERRY, SATINWOOD, MAHOGANY, MAPLE, BIRD'S EYE MAPLE, SYCAMORE, WALNUT, ETC.; MARBLING IN ALL SHADES.

Each Treatise is followed with Test Questions for the Student

By F. MAIRE

Author of "Modern Painter's Cyclopedia" "Exterior Painting," "Interior Painting" and "Colors."

ILLUSTRATED

CHICAGO Frederick J. Drake & Company PUBLISHERS

COPYRIGHT 1910 BY FREDERICK J. DRAKE

PREFACE.

This is the 4th Volume of the Red series manuals. It covers a field which usually is or rather was made a separate branch of the painting business. It has become of less importance however since the white pine finishing of interiors has been replaced by that of hardwood. It is used to a great extent nevertheless and while there is less demand for the skill displayed by masters of the art of graining as existed in the past, a good general workman is incomplete that cannot do a fair to good job of graining today and all such should be able to do that much. A journeyman who is able to turn his hand at graining or marbling will usually be kept on the pay roll of the shop much longer than the man who can do nothing but ordinary brushwork. Marbling has been associated with graining because there is some few things that are in common between the two; the grainer is better equipped for the doing of marbling properly than painters who are not grainers--to say the least.

Graining

LESSON I.

PRELIMINARIES.

1. It has been the custom of the author in the past to give a synopsis as it were of the manner in which the subject matter is to be treated at the beginning of each of the volumes of the red series and as he sees no reason in departing from the rule and on the contrary, very many good ones for a continuation of the custom, below will be found a few outlines of how the subject matter will be handled.

_First._ The tools and material required for the prosecution of the work of graining and marbling. Neither the tools nor the materials needed are very numerous, complicated nor costly.

_Second._ The preparing of various surfaces for graining in oil or water colors.

_Third._ The preparing of material for the graining of various woods in oil and water colors and the painting of the ground.

_Fourth._ The graining of the various woods in oil and water colors, which includes the over-graining, stippling or glazing required to bring the work to completion ready for varnishing.

_Fifth._ The varnishing and other methods required for the protection of the graining.

_Sixth._ The above outlines will also suffice for the marbling section of the manual.

Unlike general directions which can be given as to the painting of surfaces of wood, iron or brick, each of the various woods will have to be treated separately. These are a few operations which are common to all kinds of grainings--these will be given in full before proceeding to their special applications, suited to the various woods, as then the student will be more familiar with what is meant by this preliminary study of the methods used in doing "wiping" for instance or "veining" in heart growths with a brush, etc.

_Seventh._ The varnishing is an important part of graining, which can be done in various ways to suit the kind of graining done. In this regard general directions will be given, but the kind of varnish to be used must be such as will best agree with the character of the material used in doing the graining so as to get good results from it.

LESSON II.

THE MATERIAL USED IN GRAINING.

2. The material used in graining is not numerous. The principal, as may well be supposed, is white lead to be used as a base upon which to prepare the ground tints upon which to grain.

3. The necessary colors to produce the tints required, which are: Venetian red; French ochre; raw and burnt umber; raw and burnt siennas and lamp black--all ground in oil.

4. For the preparing of graining colors all the above colors ground in oil are used with the exception of ochre, Venetian red and lamp black, and the following additional ones which are more transparent: Ivory black and Vandyke brown. Of course this applies to the preparation of colors for "graining in oil." To the above should be added ground whiting in oil, but this can be prepared from dry whiting in the shop as it is not usually sold in that shape.

5. For graining in water colors, all the above named colors are used, but ground in water or distemper and all grainers should have a supply of raw and burnt umber and siennas, Vandyke brown and Ivory black ground in that medium. Some few grainers prefer to buy the dry ground colors and to use them from the dry state.

6. Beeswax is also used in preparing graining colors used in oil graining. Rotten stone is useful in preparing the oil graining colors, and while not indispensable, it will be well to use it as it helps to make the "_megilp_"--the technical name which is given by the old English grainers to such oil graining combinations--work better and comb smoothly.

7. For thinners: Raw linseed oil, boiled linseed oil, turpentine, drying japan. Stale beer or vinegar for thinning distemper colors. Glycerine to be used with the above in order to retard the drying of the color too quickly at times.

8. All the colors named above are also used in marbling, with a few additional ones such as Indian reds, Prussian blue, chrome yellows. In fact any others which may come near to imitating some particular tone in any marble specimen one may wish to imitate.

9. In giving out the above lists, no description is given of the several colors mentioned for the reason that the student will find all these colors sufficiently well described in Vol. III of the red series, which he should procure; "Colors, what they are and what to expect from them," as it is entitled, will give him the necessary information more fully than would be possible in this manual.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON II.

2. What is said about the material used in graining and of the base?

3. What colors ground in oil are required for preparing of tints for grounds?

4. What other colors ground in oil are required for preparing "graining colors in oil?"

5. What are the colors that are needed in graining in water colors?

6. What other material is useful in grainings?

7. What are the thinners used in graining in oil or distemper?

8. What additional material is useful for marbling?

9. What is said about obtaining fuller descriptions of material?

LESSONS III. AND IV.

TOOLS USED IN GRAINING AND MARBLING.

10. _Brushes._ The brushes required for the laying on of the "ground colors" are the same as would be used for similar work in interior painting. A good oval 6-0 varnish makes a fine tool for the purpose. Some prefer the flat brush for laying on color; any good 3-inch flat brush that will lay color smoothly.

11. For "_rubbing_" in the graining colors in oil some use half worn-out, flat brushes--others again prefer the round or oval, and again some rubbers-in use a brush that has been well broke in but not worn much. It is largely a question of habit. If the "megilp" is just right, the rubber-in can take almost any kind of a brush and rub out well with it, but the advice of using an old worn-out brush which is seen in some of the old-time books on graining should not be followed too implicitly. A half-worn brush will probably suit more "rubbers-in" than any other extremes. None of the above need illustrating as these brushes are in constant use in all paint shops. Besides a number of kinds are shown in Vols. I and II of the red series.

12. _Walnut stipplers._ This tool is a thin, flat, long bristle brush and Fig. 1 shows it to perfection. They run in width from 2½ inches up to 4 inches. They are indispensable in graining such woods as black walnut and others which show up a large number of coarse pores. It is also known under the name of _flogger_, the latter seemingly the more appropriate of the two.

13. The "Badger blender" is an indispensable tool used in _all_ distemper graining to a greater or lesser extent. It is also used in marbling. Fig. 2 shows it. This is the best shape for it; it is set in glue and has a bone head; the old form of it is also shown in A of Fig. 3.

14. The "_fan overgrainer_" is a brush that cannot be dispensed with. Every kit should have several sizes of them. Fig. 4 illustrates it well. They run in sizes from 1 inch wide by half inches upward to 3½ inches. Some grainers prefer to make them themselves, but little is gained thereby. They usually have to have some of their bristles cut away to suit the different purposes they are needed for. They can be clipped off with scissors much quicker than the making of one out and out. They are so cheap that one's time cannot be profitably employed in making a fan overgrainer.

15. In Fig 5 are shown a few mottlers and in Fig 4, also under letters B, C, E, K, H and M, each varying in forms so as to meet the various uses to which mottlers are adapted and to suit the various ideas of the operators.

16. A few camel pencils of various sizes, flat and sharp pointed for veining completes the list of brushes specially used for graining and marbling, to which must be added also the varnish brushes to put on the finishing varnish coats. These may be any of the numerous bristle varnish brushes fully described in Vols. I and II. It is a matter of choice and convenience, no special shape or build being necessary for these.

QUESTIONS ON LESSONS III. AND IV.

10. What kind of brushes are required for the laying on of ground colors?

11. What brushes are used for "rubbing in" graining colors in oil?

12. What is a stippler or flogger?

13. What are the badger hair blenders used for?

14. What are fan overgrainers?

15. What are mottlers?

16. What other brushes are useful in graining and marbling?

LESSON V.

TOOLS USED IN GRAINING AND MARBLING--CONTINUED.

17. The mechanical aids to graining are quite numerous and some are valuable. For the graining of many kinds of woods the devices which are shown below will finish the work completely, and in the graining of others will partially do the work, which may afterward be improved by hand work in the finishing. It is _not claimed_ for these tools that they will do as good work nor as varied _as can be done_ by hand, but that in the hands of one who is used to the proper handling of them they will do _better work_ than the average hurried up hand work that is usually seen, and which has probably had no small share in disgusting people with graining.

18. Fig. 6 shows the three Davis rollers made of rubber. One is used in the wiping out of heart growths; another for the wiping out of champs in quartered oak and other woods, which when quartered present the same peculiarities. The last has three graded sets of indentations and are used as combs for any kind of combing where rubber combs are used.

In this lesson it is not the purpose to explain the use of the tools enumerated; this will come under its proper heading when the _modus operandi_ of graining, both by hand and by the use of other helping tools will be fully detailed.

19. Fig. 7 shows another rubber device, patented by the Ridgely Trimmer Co. The corrugations, as will be seen, are in halves and are made so that by proper pressure upon the handles curves them, enabling the operator to follow indentations, and which also produces many variations upon plain surfaces.

20. Figs. 8 and 9 are handled corrugated quarter-round rubber grainers. These are especially handy in graining floors, also in getting into corners where the others cannot readily be made to fit up to the jointing of the two corners. These are also made by the above-named firm; as well as the following:

21. Fig. 10 shows a rubber graining comb with graduated sized teeth, which is frequently desirable as the work shows a more natural lessening of the width of the veining from the heart outward.

22. Fig. 11 shows graduated widths steel combs in three sizes of teeth, fine, medium and coarse. These are used in plain oak combings, etc.

23_a_. An artificial rubber thumb made from a piece of rubber about ½ an inch wide at the end, which is then bevelled to a sharp edge, and is frequently used by men who have never been able to use their natural thumb in wiping out.

23_b_. The check roller shown in Fig. 12 is a series of notched metal disks which are joined together. The projecting parts of the disks are brushed over with distemper color and the roller revolved over such parts of the work where the operator desires to show weather checks, which are so often seen in oak.

24. Last but not least, an abundant supply of soft cotton rags to use in connection with wiping out and in cleaning up tools.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON V.

17. General remarks on tools used in graining.

18. What are rubber graining rollers used for in graining?

19. What is represented by Fig. 6?

20. What is represented by Fig. 7?

21. What do Figs. 8 and 9 represent?

22. What is represented by Fig. 10?

23_a_. What is said of the steel combs, Fig. 11?

23_b_. What is the check roller used for, Fig. 12?

24. What is an artificial rubber thumb?

25. What is said about the use of rags?

LESSON VI.

GENERAL OPERATIONS USED IN GRAINING.

26. Graining, as it has been hinted at already, has many operations which are common to the many kinds of wood imitated, the variations being the result of the difference in their application. Therefore it is well to give a general description of these, so that there will be no need of repeating them each time that the particular graining of different woods is presented. All that will be necessary will be to refer to the general directions given here.

27. The first operation for all kinds of graining is the painting of the _grounds_. In order that the superstructure should be lasting, the foundation must be good and appropriate to the character of the work being done or else trouble in the shape of cracking will be pretty sure to follow. If the woodwork is new and has not been painted before, it will be easy enough to lay this foundation rightly.

28. The wood should be well primed with raw linseed oil and white lead after the covering over with shellac varnish of all resinous and sappy parts in order to stop their coming through the paint coats. The second coat should be made from white lead colored up to something near the color of the finishing tint desired for the ground. This should be thinned with half raw linseed oil and half turpentine; it should be put on middling heavy after having first gone over the nail holes, cracks, loose joints, etc., with putty. The last coat should be put on stout, but well rubbed out and should be mixed from white lead tinted to the exact shade wanted for the graining ground. It should be thinned with one-fourth raw linseed oil and three-fourths turpentine. In cold weather or damp, non-drying weather it may be well to add just a trifle of drying japan, in order to insure the good drying of the several coats of paint, and it will be hardly needed to add that no coat of paint shall be placed upon the other until the former one has completed its drying. Three coats usually suffice to give a good, solid ground for graining.

29. As much of the graining done is over old painted work, there is always an element of uncertainty as to the results. If the woodwork has been painted only a few times, it will be easy enough to bring it to a good finish by the application of two good coats of ground color, where turpentine predominates, so that it will not be too glossy. If the woodwork has been painted a great number of times it will be useless to try to paint grounds over it, as then it will be apt to blister. It will be better to burn it off or get it off by using some of the paint removers, after which the painting of the ground may proceed as directed for new woodwork.

30. It also happens that graining is resorted to in order to hide the dark effect produced on cheap varnishes by age in the natural finish used over yellow pine, etc. It will be much safer to remove it with varnish remover, if many coats have been applied over it, which is usually the case. If it has only had three or four coats, the woodwork should be gone over thoroughly to remove as much of it as possible with steel wool, and afterward two good coats of ground color given it. The first one should be a trifle thinner than would be given over old painted work.

31. There is a rule for the proper tinting of ground which will always give good results if followed up carefully. It is this: No matter what wood one tries to imitate, either in its natural finish tone or in an imitation of one which has been stained to an unnatural color, always have the ground tint: _as light as the lightest part of the wood which shows through_. This will be the right tint for the graining of that wood.

32. It is refreshing sometimes to hear the discussions that take place among grainers as to the proper ground tints for various woods. No cut and dried rule can be given. The one given in paragraph 31 is as good or better than any. There is so much variation in the natural specimens themselves that no one nor two near-by tints would fill the bill. For this reason no ground tints will be shown in this manual. Under the several woods will be given the general tone of the ground by name only, as, for instance, the general ground tone for graining oak is a light buff, varying from a cream to a decided buff, according to the finished effect wanted.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON VI.

26. What is said of the general operations by which graining is done?

27. What preparations are necessary for the painting of grounds?

28. How is new wood to be grounded?

29. How is old painted work to be grounded?

30. How is old varnished work to be treated for grounding?

31. What is the general rule to be followed in preparing the ground work for any given wood?

32. What else is said regarding tinting the ground colors?

LESSON VII.

PREPARING OIL GRAINING COLORS.

33. Again here is another one of the many operations necessary for graining upon which grainers are very far from being unanimous as to the proper way that it should be done. It will be best to note what is expected of a graining color, and afterwards to prepare them according to these requirements, irrespective of any cut and dried formulas, as when these requirements are complied with it does not matter so very much about the material that is used in doing so. It will be well to say that these graining colors are best known to old time English grainers under the name of "_megilp_," in order that there may be no misunderstanding as to the kind of graining color that is meant.

34. A good "megilp," or graining color, should possess the following qualities:

1st. It should be clear toned without muddiness.

2d. It should be very transparent.

3d. It should be heavy enough to brush out well, so that it may be combed and its edges remain clean cut without running.

35. The first requisite of "clearness and richness" in the umbers, siennas, ivory blacks and Vandyke browns ground in oil, which are used to prepare the megilp, is not so very difficult to obtain when the goods of well-known color firms are employed, but the second requisite, while it belongs to a stronger or lesser degree to all the colors enumerated, is far short of that which is required in a graining color.

36. To obtain the proper degree of thinness required, all the above colors would have to be thinned with linseed oil and turpentine far beyond that consistency which it is required to carry in order that it may be wiped and combed with well defined edges which do not run or blur. Therefore some perfectly transparent material must be added to it in order to give it this consistency. The material used for this may be rotten stone or whiting, or both, or china clay, or better, silicate earths--any transparent earth with no coloring of its own. Some grainers use putty thinned down with oil, but that is not so good as whiting, as the putty may be made of anything and the oil used in preparing it may be injurious to the durability of the graining.

37. Some of the old-time grainers used to prepare what may be called "stock megilp," a portion of which they added to the oil colors as needed. Wm. E. Wall says of it "that the formula is this: Take 8 ounces of sugar of lead and 8 ounces of rotten stone, grind them together as stiffly as possible in linseed oil; then take 16 ounces of white beeswax, melt it gradually in an earthen pitkin, and when it is fluid pour in 8 ounces of spirits of turpentine; mix this well with the wax, and then pour the contents of the pitkin on the grinding stone to get cold. When cold grind the rotten stone and sugar of lead with the wax and turpentine and it will form an excellent megilp, which if kept in a jar with a mouth wide enough to admit a palette knife and secured from dust will keep almost any length of time."

This is well and good for professionals, but it will hardly appeal to the ordinary grainer. He can grind up a little whiting and rotten stone and melted beeswax in turpentine and add enough to his color to answer his purpose.

With the present system of buying all colors as near ready for use as possible, color manufacturers prepare special oil graining colors ready for use by simply thinning. They come ready for all sorts of woods, and where the color is not just the shade wanted, the operator can easily add the one that is lacking to bring it to the right tone.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON VII.

33. What is said in a general way about preparing graining colors, or megilp?

34. What are the requisites necessary to make a good graining color in oil?

35. What is said about the transparency of the colors used in preparing graining colors?

36. What substances may be added to colors to produce more transparency?

37. How may stock megilp be prepared for future use?

LESSON VIII.

MIXING GRAINING COLORS IN DISTEMPER, RUBBING IN, ETC.

38. When the colors have been properly ground in water or in distemper, as they are usually called, it is but little trouble to thin them out for use with stale beer or vinegar. Many grainers prefer to use dry colors when they have been finely dry ground, and they work as well as the distemper colors. They are much more economical to use, and for that reason will always be preferred if for no other. Some, however, are hard to mix up dry and it is preferable to buy these ground in distemper, as, for instance, Vandyke brown and ivory black.