Staining Wood a Dull Black.—The work required to be stained should be colored with drop-black and size. When this is thoroughly set it should be papered off and colored again, and then be papered off again. The polish should also be stained with drop black and a little indigo. Next polish to a perfect surface, and let it set. After the wood has absorbed all the polish possible, polish again, and dull it with the finger dipped in fine emery; a fine metallic surface will thus be obtained.
Staining Floors.—The best and cheapest and only permanent stain for floors is permanganate of potash. Buy it by the ¹⁄₄ lb., and at a wholesale chemist’s; mix about ¹⁄₄ oz. in a quart of water. Apply freely and quickly to a dry floor with either cloth or brush, the latter if you care for staining your hand. Repeat the process for a very dark oak color; when dry, oil with burnt oil or beeswax and turpentine; you cannot wash this color out. Benson’s stain is only permanganate of potash. At first for a few moments the color is bright magenta, but this at once changes to a dark permanent brown. For fifty cents a whole house may be stained.
Varnishing Wood.—After smoothing wood with veneer scraper, brush on thick coat of shellac varnish; then use fine sandpaper, No. 0. Do this three times for close grained woods, such as black cherry, and four times for porous wood, such as chestnut. Have two dishes. Into one put finely ground pumice; into the other raw or boiled oil. Apply a mixture of these with a piece of hair-cloth or broad-cloth. Don’t rub too hard. Finish up with rotten stone, which will remove pumice and oil. Above is a good dead varnish. Another.—Take encaustic wax, heat, and apply with a cork; rub in well, brush on thin coat shellac varnish, finish with pumice and oil.
Solvent for Old Putty and Paint.—Soft soap mixed with a solution of potash or caustic soda, or pearlash and slaked lime mixed with sufficient water to form a paste. Either of these laid on with an old brush or rag, and left for some hours, will render the putty or paint easily removable. Another.—Slack three pounds of stone quicklime in water, then add one pound of pearlash, and make the whole about the consistence of paint. Apply it to both sides of the glass, and let it remain for twelve hours, when the putty will be so softened that the glass may be easily taken out of the frame. Another.—Break the putty up in lumps the size of a hen’s egg, add a small portion of raw linseed oil, and water sufficient to cover the putty, boil this in an iron vessel for about ten minutes and stir it when hot. The oil will mix with the putty, then pour the water off and it will be like fresh made. For removing hard putty from a window sash take a piece of square iron, make the same red hot, and run it along the putty till it gets soft. The putty will peel off without injuring the wood work.
Wash for Outside Work.—For woodwork slake half a bushel of fresh lime, by pouring over it boiling water sufficient to cover it 4 or 5 inches deep, stirring it until slacked; add 2 lbs. of sulphate of zinc (white vitrol) dissolved in water. Add water enough to bring all to the consistency of thick whitewash; it may be colored by adding powdered ether, Indian red, umber, etc. If lampblack is added to colors, it should first be thoroughly dissolved in alcohol. The sulphate of zinc causes the wash to become hard in a few weeks.
Another for Brick, Masonry, and Rough-cast. Slake half a bushel of lime as before; then fill a barrel ²⁄₃ full of water, and add a bushel of hydraulic cement. Add 3 lbs. of sulphate of zinc previously dissolved in water. The whole should be of the thickness of paint. The wash is improved by stirring in a peck of white sand, just before using it. It can be colored as before described.
French Polish.—Coat with one or more coats of shellac and rub down smooth; make a rubber by rolling up a piece of flannel about 3 or 4 inches wide until it is about 1¹⁄₂ inches in diameter, and tie it round with cord. Lay the end of the rubber on the mouth of a thin necked bottle and apply the varnish to it, having previously shaken up the contents in the bottle; then enclose the end of the rubber with a piece of soft linen doubled, and moisten the face of the linen with a little raw linseed oil.
Pass the rubber with a quick, light and circular motion over the surface until the varnish becomes dry, or nearly so, and charge the rubber again with varnish until 3 coats have been laid on, when a little oil may be applied to the rubber and two more coats laid on. In the finishing coat wet the inside of the cloth with a little alcohol, and rub quickly and lightly over the whole surface. Lastly wet the linen cloth with a little oil and alcohol without varnish, and rub as before until dry.
The varnish is the usual preparation of shellac. See cabinet maker’s varnish.
Wood Filling Composition.—Boiled linseed oil, 1 qt.; turpentine, 3 qts.; corn starch, 5 lbs.; Japan, 1 qt.; calcined magnesia, 2 oz.; mix thoroughly. Another.—Whitening, 6 oz.; Japan, ¹⁄₂ pt.; boiled linseed oil, ¹⁄₂ pt.; turpentine, ¹⁄₂ pt.; corn starch, 1 oz.; mix well together and apply to the wood. Add coloring if required. Another.—Linseed oil, 1 qt.; spirits of turpentine, ¹⁄₂ pt.; lime, the size of a base-ball, broken fine. Let the mixture simmer on a stove, covered over, for two or three hours, then strain through a coarse cloth. It is to remain on 24 hours, then rub off with a woolen cloth and polish.