The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
CHOICE OF MATERIALS
A pigment glaze to be shaded and high-lighted by hand may be prepared in various ways, either with Van Dyke brown and burnt umber japan colors in turpentine or by adding to equal parts turpentine and pale japan dryer any of the following combinations of dry colors; (1) nine parts Van Dyke brown and one of white lead; (2) equal parts Van Dyke brown, burnt sienna and burnt umber; (3) equal parts burnt sienna and burnt umber with a trace of lamp black. Such glaze mixtures should dry in four to six hours and be protected by a wash coat of shellac or shellac substitute before the final lacquer or varnish finish coats. The undercoat must be hard dry or the glaze will soften it, resulting in a muddy, blotched or streaked appearance.
SPRAYING
Stain or lacquer antique shading materials to be applied by spraying only are best purchased ready-made, but may be shopmixed for small jobs as follows: (1) Stain—dissolve 3 oz. Bismarck brown, 11/2 oz. spirit nigrosene and 1/4 oz. loutre brown in 414 gallons denatured alcohol and add one gallon 4 lb.-cut white shellac.
(2) Lacquer—add to one part each black and clear lacquer, two parts light brown (tan will do) and reduce with 4 parts lacquer reducer. Both mixtures will dry in an hour to coat over, but will be dry enough to handle in half the time— hence no attempt should be made to wipe or high-light by hand.
The first is for use over paint or lacquer enamel and should be given a clear shellac, lacquer or varnish protective coat; the second is for use over lacquer enamel only and may be left unprotected.
If the surface is large like a table top or bed end, or hard and smooth, as with rubbed enamel, spraying is the best method of application; if a spray is not available or the work is porous, as with paint undercoater, or the surface is small or irregular as in the case of legs, carvings, flutings, lamp bases, turnings, etc., the glaze is more easily applied by hand. If the work is both small and very smooth, an artist's spray will give very excellent results. Generally speaking, the spray, large or small, will give finer, mistier results and is probably superior for cabinet work of all kinds, but for smaller novelty objects a coarser, more "hand-painted" effect is often preferable. It is difficult with words alone to make a clear distinction—only practice with each medium can make it really plain.
