The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Coloring Finishing And Painting Wood
19. Helpful Hints on Water-Staining. —1. End-grain takes too much stain, consequently it becomes too dark unless care is taken to prevent this extra absorption. The open ends of the tracheal vessels,10 or the tracheids in some woods, absorb very avidly water and stains in general. Sometimes sponging the end-grain, and applying the stain while this part of the wood is wet, will even up the color as it may do on sap-wood. Some wood-finishers prefer to apply a coat of very thin glue sizing to the end-grain and sapwood, after experiments are made to determine the proportions of sizing glue and water which are needed in the mixture. End-grain usually requires more glue in the sizing mixture than does sap-wood.
The stain should not be applied until the sizing has dried in the pores of the wood and re sanding has been done where necessary.
Knots and different kinds of wood which are laid side by side sometimes require special treatment, but some variation of the methods suggested for end-grain and sap-wood are ordinarily used.
The end-grain of woods with large open pores especially is sometimes treated with a coat of paste wood-filler to prevent the stain from soaking in too much. None of the filler should run over on the faces and edges, or lighter spots or streaks will show where they are not wanted.
2. Brushes should not be kept standing in water-stains, because soaking will cause the bristles to become too soft and "moppy" for good work. They can be washed in water and dried, and thus kept in better condition for future work. A fitch-brush about 21/2" wide, set with a rubber ferrule, is frequently used. Polar-bear bristles, which should be rubber-set, are also preferred for some kinds of work. A rather soft brush will do good work in staining a close-grained wood; but, for wood with large open pores, a stiff bristle-brush is superior as the bottoms of the cell-openings are reached and covered to better advantage. Stiff brushes give a flatter or evener tone than flaccid brushes in staining a porous wood.
A soft brush, if used on wood with large open pores, leaves light specks in the cell cavities because stain thus applied docs not penetrate sufficiently into the tiny openings. Glue-set brushes cannot be used for any length of time in water-stains, because the bristles will come out. Either oval or flat brushes are satisfactory, but in any case a rather large size is preferable. On large work a 3" or 4" brush should be used, as it holds more stain.
3. Brushes used in applying water-stains should be kept quite wet or full of stain, because dry brushes are apt to cause streaks, laps, and an uneven tone. Too wet a brush, which is dripping with stain, will bring trouble through drops falling where stain is not wanted at that time.
