Part 4

104. How should plain maple be grained?

105. How should maple be overgrained?

LESSON XX.

GRAINING BIRD'S EYE MAPLE.

106. This is the most elegant form of wood known and good specimens of the wood are a sight that well repay for the trouble of looking them up, as they will make a glad heart to the man who loves beautiful forms. To imitate it well by graining requires some practice and a good knowledge of what is required to produce the innumerable variations seen in it. When its growth is well understood it is not so difficult to imitate it. It may as well be stated here at the beginning that more bird's eye maple graining is spoiled by overdoing than by not doing enough work upon it. The beginner had better confine his efforts to but a very few of the "_bird's eyes_" at first. The few will look well and modestly nestled among their surrounding mottlings, but when this is overdone, which at the beginning especially is a synonym for badly done--whew! Better wash it off and try it over, with less of it next time, and the chances are that it will bear looking at it.

107. The graining of bird's eye maple is always done in distemper, for the same reasons that were given in describing the graining of plain maple, and for a few additional ones of its own besides, so that all that will be said in connection with it must be understood as appertaining to distemper work.

108. The ground when the graining is done in imitation of the natural color of the wood must be of a very light tone of cream color, or the finished work will be too yellow. If it is to be finished in imitation of the gray stained variety the ground must be made to correspond to that shade and a faint pearl-gray ground must be put on as noted in paragraph 103. The ground should not be too glossy, nor too flat, either, for the distemper colors will not work at their best on either extremes, but one should strive for an egg-shell gloss as near as possible.

109. The graining proper proceeds very much as was described for the imitation of plain maple. The same colors being used in either the natural color imitation or the gray tone with a somewhat different manner of laying on the color with the sponge, in order to produce longer ridges of mottlings than is usually necessary in plain maple. These mottlings must be running in one direction mainly, but in a haphazard sort of way, and not uniformly as in ladder rungs. It requires some experience and an intimate knowledge of bird's eye maple growth to do this preliminary laying out of the work. It is not difficult, but it must be done in the right manner in order to produce natural looking results.

110. The putting in of the bird's eyes is done in various ways--some ways being better than others. One of the ways used by many is to use the points of the fingers upon the still wet distemper color and to peck it on usually upon the apex of the ridge of the mottles. It is far from being the best way, but it is the quickest. In the natural wood the eyes are very seldom found upon the darker mottles, but more frequently upon secondary ridges between them, or even upon the valleys laying between them. As there is not enough color left there to produce them by peeking them on with the fingers, the operators by that method have to confine their work to the aforesaid ridges, where they really do not belong.

Much better and more natural ones can be put on with a fine pointed artist's sable brush, and when one has become habituated to their use they are very quickly made.

Again they may be put in with colored pencils of a tone deep enough to suit the rest of the work. This is more quickly done than with the sable brush, but the strokes cannot be varied as with that, and the more artistic graining requires their use. There are a number of other more or less mechanical processes used in producing the bird's eyes, but none surpass the one's described.

The veining is done with colored pencils as related in paragraph 104 and overgrained as described in paragraph 105.

In all cases where graining is done in distemper it is to be understood that the graining is to be varnished or receive a protecting coat of some kind or another, and as this is required in all cases of distemper graining it will not be repeated hereafter.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XX.

106. What is said regarding the graining of bird's eye maple?

107. In what medium is bird's eye maple usually grained?

108. How are the grounds to be prepared?

109. How would you proceed to put on the mottling lay out?

110. How are the bird's eyes put on?

LESSON XXI.

GRAINING SYCAMORE, CHERRY AND SATINWOOD.

111. Sycamore is another wood which, like maple, shows but little pores. Its growth, unlike maple, is an indescribable interlacing and twining of its ligaments which when sawed produce an infinity of variations with short, jerky, snappish terminations, and an infinity of short mottlings. This very infinity at last produces a uniformity on account of their smallness, as the eye cannot catch all their variations. Were it possible to greatly increase these of such a size as those of maple, sycamore would be one of the richest of our woods.

112. It is passably well imitated in distemper work and grained quickly. The ground should be deeper than that of any of the woods previously described, of a decided buff tone. The graining color should be made from raw sienna and burnt umber in distemper. The graining should be done with the sponge and immediately well blended. If the sponge is pecked on to the surface to be grained, the blending will produce the small mottles, and another pecking done in such places as needed and blended will usually produce a very fair representation of the wood. Another way is to put on the color evenly with either a sponge or a brush and to rotate the rotary cylinder rubber roller graining tool upon it and blend quickly. This gives a very fair imitation if well done.

CHERRY.

113. Cherry graining presents no great difficulty, as it is a wood of very plain growth, so much so that it looks rather tame and for that reason it is very seldom imitated by graining. There are some of the rooms in the old-time houses where the woodwork is cherry, and it sometimes happens that repairs are done to it, and which have to be grained in order to match the old work.

114. The ground color is made by tinting white lead with ochre, venetian red and burnt umber. A very fine stipple of burnt umber much reduced with whiting may be given it and the veining should be put in with a pencil of the proper color, which should in no wise be very prominent as in the natural wood it does not show much darker than the fine pores or stipple work. Of course all of the work is done in water colors.

SATINWOOD.

115. Satinwood, with the one exception of holly, is one of the easiest of all woods to imitate. There is but few markings upon it and next to nothing in veining. Mottlings of no great prominence by their depths of coloring are the only markings. The wood varies somewhat in the depth of its tone from a light to a medium tone of buff.

116. The ground will vary from a very light buff to a darker shade of the same. As said before the graining consists of mottlings which are not very prominent, therefore the graining color, which is made up from raw sienna and burnt umber in distemper reduced to less intensity by whiting, should be put on thinly with a sponge and blended so as to show no feathering.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXI.

111. Relate what are the main characteristics of sycamore?

112. How is sycamore grained?

113. What is said of cherry graining?

114. How is cherry grained?

115. What is said regarding the characteristics of satinwood.

116. How is satinwood grained?

LESSON XXII.

GRAINING OF LIGHT AND DARK MAHOGANY.

117. Mahogany is one of the most beautifully formed woods that nature produces. In its plain form or in its most intricate featherings, it is always pleasing to look at and its most profuse variations of form do not cause any nausea nor does one become confused or tired of them. It is found in many variations of color. New mahogany is very light toned and seldom darker than a medium buff tone. It acquires a reddish tone by age, which becomes a rich dark red in time. This redness is usually artificially supplied in the natural wood by staining. In graining it is the most usual to reproduce the rich red darker variety, and that of the light varieties is only resorted to in order to match some parts added to a room which has been finished in the light natural wood.

118. The ground for light mahogany should be a buff more or less dark, according to the character of the finish wanted. A medium oak ground made by the addition of ochre to white lead is the most usual for light mahogany. For the darker mahogany imitations the ground should be rather reddish and much darker in tone. To the white lead base should be added yellow ochre and venetian red. For some specimens a trifle of burnt umber should be added in order to darken it, but never sufficiently to kill the red yellow tone.

119. The graining color for light mahogany is prepared by mixing raw sienna and burnt umber in distemper; that used for graining dark mahogany is made from burnt sienna and burnt umber, the manner of doing the graining in either coloring being the same. Mahogany seldom shows any regular veining, but soft tones of mottlings, rather coarse and lengthy, but these usually are not numerous in what is known as plain mahogany. The whole character can be put on in one operation and with the sponge, which by the proper pressure will make out the broad veinings, which when blended out to bring out the feathering usually suffice to give the right character to the wood. The proper use of the sponge should be practiced in order to make the color lay strong in parts where it is wanted dark, and to wipe it out thin where but little coloring is desired to show over the ground.

In some specimens of plain mahogany many fine pores appear, and it may be well to flog a few of the lines made by the sponge lightly before blending. This must be quickly done, as otherwise it would become too dry for blending. There will be enough porousness show after the blending to make a more natural appearance than if the stippling had not been resorted to.

120. Crotch and feathered mahogany should be well studied out in order to reproduce it rightly. It is not very difficult to do the work, but as said before the operator must have a good idea of what he is going to do and should have the space to be grained all pictured out in his mind's eye. The feathering is brought out by the proper use of the sponge and the blending of it properly afterward has much to do in the making it look natural, for if it is not done right it will make an otherwise good piece of work look ridiculous. In the natural wood these fine markings are very scarce, and never seen outside of veneers and are costly, therefore hardly ever seen except upon high priced furniture, but in the grained imitation the operator can indulge his wildest fancies in reproducing the choicest specimens of the wood at a small outlay.

121. In the crotch mahogany veneers one will frequently notice a fine set of veins which cross the mottlings or featherings in an opposite direction. They are not nearly as prominent as these, but seem to be a succession of fine paint lines. These when put in as they should be help out the graining very much, and the putting of these in is the chief object of overgraining. The coloring should be the same as that used for the graining, only thinned a trifle more and sometimes just darkened a bit more by the addition of a little ivory black in distemper. The fine lines are put in with the fan overgraining brushes from which the hair has been well thinned out, so they will separate by running through a comb into a number of parallel fine lines.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXII.

117. What is said regarding the graining of mahogany?

118. How are the grounds of light and dark mahogany prepared?

119. How should plain mahogany be grained?

120. How is crotched and fancy feathered mahogany to be grained?

121. How is mahogany overgrained?

LESSON XXIII.

GRAINING WALNUT.

122. At one time when graining was at its height, walnut graining was next to oak, the main wood which grainers had to imitate, and some of them attained to such skill as entitled their work to be called _art_. It is not used just now to near the same extent that it used to be, but as the prevailing sorts of woods that are grained are subject to changes caused by fashion, there is no telling how soon walnut graining may take the lead among the dark wood imitations. The color of the various specimens of walnut vary greatly. The general tone of American black walnut is darker than that of the European species variously known as English, Italian, etc., they all being the same. But aside of the fact that American black walnut is darker, the degree of darkness varies considerably in various specimens. Walnut, especially black walnut, is a rather coarse, open-pored wood, with a heart growth which is well defined and of pleasing forms. The veneers which are sawed from walnut roots and forks of limbs, as in the crotch walnut, are very intricate and beautiful when all the details are well brought out by polishing.

123. The ground for walnut graining, as may be well supposed, will vary greatly, according to the desired finish. The average European walnut ground is made from ochre, burnt umber and a trifle of venetian red added to a white lead base, and will be deeper or lighter according to the finish desired. It will be more yellow in tone than the ground that is used for the darker American species. For the latter the same colors are used in preparing the ground, only that it is made deeper on the average, and that it should not be quite as yellow toned as the ground used for the European variety.

124. The openness of the wood represented by the pores is easily reproduced by the stippling it should receive before the heart growth is either wiped out in oil graining or pencilled on in distemper. Some grainers dispense with it in oil work, but the finished work suffers from it. The stippling color is best made from some good Vandyke brown, and it may also be made from burnt umber in distemper. It should be flogged on evenly and rather coarse, as it will not look good if flogged too fine.

125. After the stippling the graining may be done in oil by wiping out. The color used for graining may be either Vandyke brown, which has been made more drying by the addition of an extra quantity of good drying Japan, or from burnt umber, to either of which enough megilp has been added to keep them from running when sufficiently thinned out for wiping.

The easiest way of graining plain growth walnut of either the European or American varieties is in distemper, and while it may not be as good in the estimation of some, it is much more quickly performed, and when well done will look fairly good and natural. For the graining of it in distemper the same colors should be used in that medium as noted for oil work, and the veining pencilled on the stippled surface and well blended out while still wet.

126. The overgraining of plain walnut graining will add much to its naturalness of looks. This consists mainly of the darkening of some of the parts. It should be done with the oil color used in graining it in oil for either oil or distemper work. In the latter case the color should be sufficiently thinned and well rubbed out as to give it a coat all over and afterward it should be wiped out from all parts where it is not wanted with soft cotton rags.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXIII.

122. What are the principal characteristics of walnut?

123. How are the grounds for European and American black walnut prepared?

124. How should walnut be stippled?

125. How is walnut grained in oil and distemper?

126. How is walnut overgrained?

LESSON XXIV.

GRAINING WALNUT--CONTINUED; BURLED WALNUT.

127. The natural plain growth of walnut usually presents no riotousness and is rather staid and well behaved, but with a sufficiency in variation to suit the most fastidious. Not so with burled walnut or root walnut of either the European or the American varieties. One would hardly recognize them as relations of the former but by that they carry some of the colors of the plain, besides many shades more and variations of them of their own. The European varieties are usually lighter toned than the American sort, and the contorted course of the veining is somewhat more regular in appearance, otherwise the burling and knots are very much the same. The same design executed in either European or American walnut would look well if properly done. There is considerable system in the seemingly wild growth of walnut burls. Their representation requires considerable study in order to represent them naturally, not that it is very hard to do, but in order rather that it be not overdone. There is nothing that has a more vulgar look than an overdone imitation of burled walnut.

128. The student should familiarize himself with the growth of many specimens and besides he should carry an imprint in his mind of all the various natural specimens he may come across. In these studies he will no doubt have noted that the ground color or the lighter parts in the natural wood does not run uniform as in the plain wood. Some parts will require a much lighter ground than others, and good grainers take advantage of that knowledge and prepare the grounds in various shades in order to produce the effects desired. Some try to obtain these by overgraining, but while that improves the graining it will not produce the realistic effects possible by the varied colored grounds. This demands good judgment and a full knowledge of the intended work so that a boy cannot be sent ahead to do the grounding, but the grainer himself must do it according to his own conception of the intended work.

129. The graining is always done in distemper. The colors used are raw and burnt sienna, raw and burnt umber and ivory black. To these may be added Vandyke brown. The lay out is first laid out with a sponge. A different sponge should be used in each color. After all the principal features have been put on and blended properly, the work proper of putting in the details commences and is done with camel's hair pencils, fan overgrainers, etc. It is presumed that the student has practiced these before, as he will hardly care to expose his ignorance upon a door panel where it would be very likely to put him to shame. Nothing but practice makes one perfect at this work. Yet many who have practiced it for years fail to do as good work sometimes as a novice would, because they have a false conception of it and keep on in the old rut, which was wrong from the beginning. It is not difficult of execution, but cannot be done right in a haphazard manner any more than by making lines and curves and expect to produce a good sign if not put in their proper places.

130. As hinted in paragraph 28, some grainers expect to do too much with the overgraining. They try to correct a faulty ground work and to put in many details which properly belong to the graining proper. It is possible, of course, to help very much in the correction of many faults, especially in those of bettering the mottlings, but if the graining has not been laid out nor grained pretty near right, no amount of overgraining will make it right, and more work that would have been passable is rendered worthless by overdone overgraining than from any other one cause.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXIV.

127. What is said of burled and root walnut graining?

128. How should the grounds be prepared for it?

129. How is burled walnut grained?

130. How is burled walnut overgrained?

LESSON XXV.

GRAINING ROSEWOOD, ETC.

131. Rosewood has never been very extensively used in interior finishing. Its dark, somber tone unfits it for most situations and its great cost unfits most people from even thinking about its usage. Therefore, while the last reason has not been a factor in discouraging its graining, the first one given has sufficed to confine its use to that of a few fancy articles of bric-a-brac or fancy pieces of furniture, and in the latter it has been mainly in the stained form that it is seen. As, however, it sometimes happens that a grainer is called upon to produce it upon a fancy box or something else, he should know how to do it.

132. The ground for rosewood should be compounded from venetian red brightened up with vermillion and lightened with white lead, but not too much. It should be of a decided red, and while but little of it usually shows through the dark superstructure of veins, and that little in the natural wood is always of a decided red tone, some grainers add ochre to the red, but that only serves to muddy up the red tone and should never be resorted to.

133. The main character of the wood should be put on with a sponge with distemper color consisting chiefly of ivory black, to which a trifle of umber may be added, but which is not necessary really. The main character of the wood is laid out in long, wide stripes, which should consist chiefly of a number of fine lines or veinings. The first laying out should be put on rather thin and allowed to dry, when the fine line work can be put on with the fan overgrainer, and the parts of the ground which have not been covered with the first wide stripe lay out mentioned should be gone over with the fan brush and a number of fine lines made running into the dark straight ones. It is between these that a little of the ground will show here and there only. The character of the wood should be well understood in order to make a fair imitation, and no one will attain that by being told "how it looks," for that is impossible, rosewood being so unlike any other wood.

There is usually no overgraining necessary if the work has been properly done. Nor should the fine line work done with the fan overgrainer be blended, as the veining stands out sharp. As sometimes the beginner will be apt to have it show too much of the red ground, it may be well to give a glazing coat of ivory black in oil over the whole surface and to wipe up a few of the parts where the red ground is desired to show through. This will act as a protection to the work, too, and when dry a coat of varnish can be given it which will usually suffice then.

134. Many more woods could be given, but of all the rest yellow pine is the only one which is ever likely to be imitated, and very little of that excepting in the matching of some repair work. There is no reason for giving it a special description, as that given in paragraphs 94 to 99, and especially in 99, will come as near to it as it would be possible to make it.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON XXV.

131. What are the principal characteristics of rosewood?

132. How are the grounds for rosewood to be prepared?

133. How is rosewood grained?

134. What else is said regarding the graining of yellow pine and other woods.

LESSON XXVI.

MARBLING.