[EIGHTEENTH LESSON.]
COLOURING WOOD-WORK—OILING—SODA—STAINS AND DYES—IVORYING SURFACES—BLACK DYES AND INK.
Carved or any other wood is often dyed, stained, or toned. Sometimes this is done to make one piece or part match with another; or it may be to imitate the effect of age, or to give light woods a colour which will prevent them from showing defects. This is effected in many ways.
Oiling alone is a kind of colouring, for all oiled wood becomes much darker before long. The more frequently it is rubbed in with a pine stick the harder and darker the surface becomes. I have seen walnut tables which had been thus rubbed with a stick or a hard scrubbing brush, until a tea-cup wet with hot water on the outside would make no mark on them. Had they been only softly oiled or painted, or varnished, an indelible stain must have resulted. Care should be taken that the oil is pure, and that no wax has been boiled in it. A table which has had wax on it for a polish will always show marks or stains from hot water.