[CHAPTER XII.]
ROSEWOOD.
This wood is seldom imitated in this country except on piano-legs and caskets or coffins, and then it is done in stain on the wood without first being painted. Whitewood is given two coats of logwood stain, and after that is dry the grains are put in with a bamboo brush, which is made by beating the pulp out of the ends of short strips of bamboo, leaving the harder portions of the wood, which act as bristles for applying the graining-color. Four or five strips of bamboo an inch or more wide are fastened together with wire, so that their edges interlock at the point of the brush; the brush is then dipped in the graining color, which consists of iron-filings dissolved in vinegar. The surplus color is shaken out of the brush, and the grains are put in in the same manner as that in which an overgrainer is used in water-color. The darker veins are added with a sponge after the finer grains are put in, and the work after being grained is generally filled with rose-pink. This process can be used only on new surfaces, and is of little value to the grainer to the trade.
The ordinary way of imitating rosewood is to do it in water color, although it may be done in oil. I prefer to do it in distemper, as the work can more quickly be finished in this way. The colors used are Vandyke brown, ivory black and rose pink. The basis of the color is Vandyke brown and a little black added to it. The ivory black and the rose pink are mixed separately, and applied to the work as desired while the color is wet, carefully blending where necessary. The rose-pink is first streaked through the color and blended; then the sponge is used to remove the color and make the lighter shades. The black veins are then put in, and after the whole is dry the overgrainer and the fitch tool are used to put in the fine grains. Last of all, the edges of the dark veins are sharpened with the fitch tool, using thin black for this purpose; this final application of black may be done in oil. Care must be taken not to take too much black, or the effect will be too sombre. The natural wood is almost invariably darkened by being stained as we see it on pianos, and its beauties are obscured by so doing. When the water color is finished and dry, the hand should be lightly passed across the work to remove any surplus color that may not thoroughly adhere, as, if not removed, it works up into the varnish, or the varnish strikes in where the graining-color is thick; and for this reason two coats of varnish are better than one coat on any dark wood that has been done wholly in water color.
In operating entirely with oil the tools are much the same as those used for water color; the bristle piped overgrainer is best for oil color. The work is done in much the same manner as with water color, using the rag where the color is to be lightened, with a little more spirits of turpentine and japan in the color than ordinarily.
The grains of rosewood are not easily copied. The wood exhibits a variety of grain second only to oak, and I think that, after oak, it is the most difficult wood to imitate, as to do it justice requires the free treatment which can be given only by a trained hand and a correct eye. The average veins are free and graceful without being set or constrained, and the grains are constantly interlocking and branching off from the main hearts.
CYPRESS-WOOD
has but recently appeared in this country as an interior finish. It is a very soft and porous wood, and is a good kind to keep out of a house, owing to its liability to shrink and swell, but occasionally we find rooms finished with it, with the exception of the doors, which the grainer is called upon to match. I am informed that cypress trees have to be girdled in the spring and killed, so that they contain but little sap when cut in the fall, as, if cut green, they would sink in the water before they could be floated to the mill. This shows how ill suited this wood is for an interior finish.
Plate 44.
ROSEWOOD AS FINISHED.