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Furniture Finishing

The shade of stick shellac should blend with the color of the knot, generally a deep reddish brown. A simpler method is to shellac the hole, then make up a sort of fluid paste prepared by mixing rose pink and Van Dyke brown dry colors in varnish. This is knifed in the hole with a putty knife, cleaning off well around the edges, with a benzined cloth if necessary. It can be sanded smooth the following day if the varnish is a quick-drying one, or use tinted lacquer wood putty.

The next operation is to spray or brush on at least two coats of two-pound-cut pure white shellac. This shellac coat is essential, for despite much experimentation, nothing else has been found which will as effectively seal up the cedar oil exuded by the wood. Moreover the shellac must be strictly pure—adulteration with rosin, copal or other gums will lessen its value and very likely result in a streaked finish, uneven as to lustre. It therefore goes without saying that shellac substitutes, varnish first coaters and the like cannot even be considered next to the wood.

"With the drying of the shellac coat it is sanded smooth and finished with one or two coats of rubbing varnish or body lacquer, the latter sprayed, the former brushed or sprayed. The number of coats and quality of varnish or lacquer depends on the selling price.

The cheaper grades are often given but one coat of varnish, rubbed only on the lid; the more expensive types are given two coats of varnish or three of lacquer, the last rubbed, on the top and front, with flat varnish or flat lacquer on the sides. Decorations are applied over the shellac coat and under the varnish or lacquer coats.

A peculiarity of natural finished cedar chests lies in the fact that on some the finish will seem to die away, as if by suction into the wood, in as little as six months, whereas other chests, finished identically, will show excellent body and lustre four or five years later. No adequate explanation for this phenomenon has ever been evolved, unless it be varying amounts of oil in the cedar.

Veneered.—For reasons previously stated, it is impractical to apply anything to bare cedar but shellac, beside which the strong red coloring and tight grain make the use of stain or filler or stained shellac out of the question.