STENCIL STAINING.
Ordinary plain staining can be done by almost any one who can handle a common paint brush. Yet it is not generally known, even to skilled decorators, that stain, on sound white wood, evenly planed, can be applied to imitate the most intricate of artistic designs; such, however, is the case. A decorator if asked to imitate in stain on white wood a piece of parquetry or inlaid wood, might reply that such a thing was impossible, alleging as a reason that by employing liquid stain in the same way as a distemper—that is to say, by the aid of a stencil to reproduce the pattern—the stain, as soon as it became absorbed would be found to “run,” and so giving to the pattern imitated an indistinct or blurred edge. Yet the most elaborate patterns are successfully stenciled direct on to pine, and the figured work on this wood has invariably come out distinctly and naturally as to be almost indistinguishable from the inlaid work they have so successfully sought to imitate. The great difficulty to be overcome in stenciling with stains is undoubtedly the “running,” but with a very little care and patience this can be easily obviated. Say a painter has a border to stain round an ordinary pine floor in imitation of a selected pattern of parquetry, the colors of which are generally in two or more shades of oak, the first thing he has to do after having properly prepared the floor—namely, making the part to be stained as smooth and as even as possible by filling up the crevices and nail holes—is to stain over the work in the lightest shade shown in his pattern; this can be done by diluting the ordinary liquid oak stain with water to the desired tint. Next let him cut out of a piece of lining, paper in the form of a stencil—the pattern he has to reproduce on the floor—care being taken to oil the stencil in order to strengthen and preserve it. He should then mix the stain into a stiff paste or to the consistency of a distemper used for ordinary stenciling; place a portion of this mixture on a smooth piece of wood, take up a very small quantity of it on a stencil brush and apply through the stencil plate in the same way he would a distemper. If a very dark shade is required apply more stain before removing the stencil plate.