The color should be thoroughly mixed in a clean pot, and, if in oil, thinned with the following mixture, or sufficient of it to bring the color to the desired shade: Half a gallon of spirits of turpentine; two and a half pints of linseed oil (boiled is to be preferred); half a pint japan drier. It is better not to use too much drier, and, as the drying qualities of each maker's japans, etc., vary greatly, the workman's judgment must guide him as to the exact amount to be used. It is a matter of doubt as to what is the best article with which to thicken the color without altering the shade; a little bolted whiting is very good. Some grainers prefer melted beeswax or soap dissolved in hot water and added to the color while hot, or even cold water stirred into the color. As a rule, the less of these added to the color, the better.
After thinning to the desired consistency, a good brush is the next requisite for applying the color. Do not use stubby brushes, as in so doing you lose more time than you gain by making them last longer. By general consent the flat brush has superseded the round brush in the eastern states of America for grainers' use, as it requires no binding and is a much better blender, when used as such, than any round brush, and it is more quickly broken in for use. It is better to use a medium size rather than one too large; one about three and a half inches across the butt will be found the most serviceable. An oval or a flat sash tool and a No. 2 flat fresco bristle liner, to be used as a fitch tool in putting in hearts, etc., will be all the brushes required. A set of steel combs, or even two, a coarse and a fine steel comb and one or two of good rubber, are all the tools that are required. The rubber combs should be coarse and fine—that is, the spaces between the teeth of the fine rubber comb should measure from one-sixteenth to one-eighth of an inch and the coarse one from one-eighth to one-quarter of an inch. Sometimes a rubber comb with the teeth cut graduated looks well introduced among the other work. Where the work is to be shaded or over-grained it is better to cover the teeth of the rubber combs with a thin cotton rag before using, taking a clean place on the rag for every time the comb is used, but on cheap work this may be omitted.
When a piece of work is rubbed in, if it is desired to represent "champs," or "lights of oak"—better known as quartered oak—the rubber combs are first used and carefully drawn through the color—not necessarily in a straight line—and the coarse or finer, or both the steel combs, are drawn lightly over the track of the rubber comb; the work is then blended lengthwise with the flat brush, which has previously been rubbed out clean, and the champs or veins are put in across the grains previously made by the rubber and steel combs. The other implements necessary are a piece of soft rag and the thumb-nail. Many substitutes have been invented for the thumb-nail, but it is as yet unsurpassed for this particular purpose, as it is more sensitive than are the bone or horn substitutes sometimes used.
Plate 3.
PLAIN OR WAINSCOT OAK, LIGHT.
Plate 4.
FLAKED OAK, LIGHT.