The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Furniture Finishing
The deeorative finishes are very difficult to patch, depending on the nature of the damago and the kind of finish you are patching. The latest instruction in this line Avill be found in Chapter VIII of this section, and will help the finisher eliminate much trouble when attempting work on this kind of finishes. Another thing to remember is that one man cannot easily patch a finish unless he understands what kind of material is used to make up the finish and the way it was applied. If this knowledge is available to the one trying to patch the finish he has a great advantage, because he will know just how each material will react on the finish when he applies it and whether he must use oil. lacquer, or spirit patching materials for that particular finish.
To sum up, patching of damages was once the job of the finisher who applied the first materials, and no special man was trained for this particular kind of work. Now every factory has special men for this purpose, called patchers, and in piano factories they work on a piece-work basis, in many instances, with a stipulation of so much for patching a case, no matter whether it has one or twenty damages.
It is now customary to have different men for each kind of patching. A man for burning in; another for French polishing, and others for rubbing, etc. Even the large retail establishments follow this method, and of course gain more in efficiency from constant practice on a certain kind of damage. This method allows for specializing, but does not allow the perfecting of a man in all the different operations. If one intends to follow patching as a vocation, it is well to acquire a knowledge of all finishing operations first and then pick up the simple operations in patching, eventually becoming an expert in every branch of patch work.
Advance in material manufacture for this patch work is equally important, and this, of course, always lags back of any new development in finishing material. Time must elapse from the advent of any new material until its success is assured before the patch material manufacturers will start to develop a material suitable for patching such a finishing material, and when a material for patching this kind of finish is developed, a certain amount of educational advertising must be done, in fact, a great deal of educational work must be done before the finishers and patchers will break away from tried and true methods to adopt a new way of patching.
A sure method for anyone to adopt, whether they be superintendent, foreman, finisher or patcher, is to try everything in spare time as fast as it appears on the market, and thus be up to date as to material.
