The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
Some foremen believe that cement for burning in is all that is required, and if any frenching is to be done, shellac will suffice for this purpose. Of course many factories are well equipped for patching, but little proof is necessary that the finishing materials cannot be depended on for patching, and few will admit that they can patch any kind of damage with the assortment of materials to be found in the average finishing room. The following chapter will enumerate and describe the necessary materials for every kind of damage to any finish.
The present method of eliminating damages to lacquer surfaces is to sand down the damaged place and spray over the surface again with the last finishing material and repeat this as often as necessary to build up a level finish and feather it down with the wet sanding process or rubbing with pumice stone and oil. It is admitted that this probably is the best method to use in the factories where the same material is to be had without mixing or matching, and the damage can be noticed at once before another coat of material is sprayed on, but under different circumstances, and where most patch work must be done, the same conditions do not exist and the same materials, and especially the exact match, are not at hand.
Small spray patching outfits are obtainable from the different manufacturers, and the outfits are designed for use with many cups of different material. If one has sufficient patching for lacquer surfaces, both clear and opaque and of different colors, it is an advantage to have one or more of these outfits, for their utility is indisputable. A mixture of a clear lacquer with japan colors could easily produce the right effect if sprayed on a spot, provided the color was exactly matched. This matching of the color is the one bad feature of such methods, for one cannot add color to the work gradually, as one would do with the French polishing method. This process will be described later on.
All the clear, transparent finishes, showing the grain of the wood, allow an easy way of matching color by frenching and adding color gradually. Any part made too dark can be camouflaged by making an apparent grain in the surface. This cannot be done when matching solid color surfaces, such as enamel or lacquer, but must be an exact match to avoid detection of the patch. Few men can make a perfect match of this kind without the original material, and even then it requires a different tone to match perfectly, so it becomes necessary at times to patch the spot first as nearly as possible and then apply a light finishing coat of a very near match over the entire surface that was patched.
