Fig. 20.
To finish wood in any desired color, stains may be purchased at a paint or hardware shop. Over the stained surface, when dry, several thin coats of hard-oil finish or furniture varnish should be applied. The back and edges of a carved panel must always be painted to protect them from moisture and dampness; warping and splitting are thereby avoided. Some pieces of carving need only a coating of raw linseed-oil, while others may be treated to a wax finish composed of beeswax cut in turpentine, rubbed in with a cloth, and polished off. Another method of darkening oak (before it is varnished) is to expose it to the fumes of ammonia, or to paint on liquid ammonia, with a brush, until the desired antique shade is obtained. The staining process, however, is preferable.
Fig. 21 A. Fig. 21 B.
Chapter III
FRETWORK AND WOOD-TURNING
Nearly every boy has had, at one time or another, a desire to make scroll-brackets, fretwork-boxes, and filigree wood-work of various sorts. The art is naturally affiliated with other decorative processes in wood-working, such as wood-turning, carving, and marquetry, or the art of inlaying woods. Both fretwork and wood-turning are very old crafts, and were practised by the ancient Egyptians, specimens of their work being still extant.
A great deal of amusement and pleasure may be had in the possession of a scroll-saw, or “bracket machine,” as it was commonly known among boys some years ago. And first, as to the implements required.