The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California

Furniture Finishing

BRONZE FINISHES

A bronze finish on wicker furniture may be produced in two ways. If the bronzing liquid be varnish, it is best to seal it with a coat of shellac substitute before frosting.

The speedier method is to use a lacquer bronzing liquid for the metallic powders, as no intermediate shellac coat is necessary before applying the frosting color which may also be applied much sooner. Bronze finishes on wicker furniture are often antique glazed, which should have a protecting clear coat.

PATTERN TWO-TONING AND SHADING

As a variation from frosting wicker furniture, it is often banded or two-toned, by applying an enamel color of harmonious or contrasting shade to the plaited band running along the front of a chair seat, or over the arms and back, around the top of a table, the feet or legs, or even on a design woven in the back or front of a chair or settee or in a table top. This latter must be done with care by means of a pencil brush, but of course is not necessary if the fibre has been colored previous to weaving in the pattern. For color combination, appropriate alike for this and for two-toning by frosting, see Book III, Chapter VI. Shading and color glazing by spraying are extremely handsome as an additional decorative feature.


Radio cabinets


THE finishing of radio cabinets depends in the main on three factors, the wood, speed of production and grade. High class radio cabinets are made of veneered mahogany or walnut and are finished exactly like furniture of the same quality; cheaper cabinets are made entirely of gum or poplar or veneered on fronts and tops with walnut or mahogany. Moreover the cheaper cabinets are turned out on a quantity basis, usually on a contract that calls for the utmost in speed and low cost of finishing. For simplicity we shall refer to these latter as Grade B and the former as Grade A work.

GRADE A

On Grade A work a water or non-grain raising stain of desired shade is used (the former followed by a wash coat of shellac), paste wood filler, then a coat of 2 1b. cut shellac if over mahogany veneer, otherwise a coat of lacquer sealer; then a coat of flat lacquer or on extra fine work two coats gloss lacquer, the last rubbed and the tops polished in addition.