ON STAINING FURNITURE

Evening Star, Issue 19760, 10 January 1928, Page 2

ON STAINING FURNITURE

JOB FOR THE HAHDYMAH The question is often asked: “How can I change the tone of a light piece of furniture? Can I stain it a dark old brown tone without removing the existing polish or varnish?’’ And many others wish to know whether it is possible for them to renovate a badly marked and scratched table top (writes John. Rogers, in ‘Homes and Gardens’). Within certain limits it is possible for the amateur to do much in the way of staining and polishing furniture, both new and old, and the following notes are put forward with the idea of giving some practical advice about the matter. TREATING AN OAK TABLE.

For the first example we will take a dining table in oak, of which the majority are sold “stained and polished a rich Jacobean shade,” i.e., imitating the color of an old dark oak piece. Actually it will have been French polished over a deep brown stain, and the marks of hot plates and liquids, plus scratches and friction received in moving, disfigure it. Many people have called in a polisher, who has renovated the surface with a new coat of French polish, which, in. its turn, goes as the first polish did. In any case, the only thing to do is to remove the French polish. This being quite thin will generally dissolve and wash off by applying methylated spirit. Should this treatment not succeed, it will bo necessary lo use a specially-prepared polish solvent which, under various names, is sold by all the leading firms dealing in paints, varnishes, and spirits. J u either case, spirit is the solvent which, after being ( brushed on the surface, softens and raises the polish in a few minutes, when it may be scraped off and washed over with methylated on a rag. If success! ul and complete, the table, when dry, should appear quite dull. If a little gloss still appears in places, apply more spirit (take care to do all this away from naked lights, and do not smoke while working at it). In all probability you will find that you have removed some of the stain, the surface tone-being lighter in place's, if not all over, than the original color. Now rub the surface well with fine glass-paper, giving particular attention to those parts which show a darker shade; then dust off. At this stage let me say that the most durable polish possible for table tops is that obtained with linseed oil, but it will take a year or more of frequent rubbing to secure a really good polish, and it is hardly possible for the amateur to apply oil and retain a dark stain. So, for those whose lirst desire is for a rich dark tone, the next job is to get a suitable stain. I give a choice of three which arc not difficult to use. SUITABLE STAINS.

(1) A water stain, composed of vandyke brown in crystal or powder form, which must be dissolved in water, keeping the solution very deep in tone and slightly muddy. When ready for use, pour some off and try on a piece of wood. Gauge it so that it is rather darker than yon wish, then add some strong ammonia solution, which will lighten the tone and assist in the staining of the oak.

(2) A brown stain entirely free from varnish, bought ready for use from the firms who sell steins, varnishes-, and polishes. (3) A proprietary slain with wax combined in it, and made in several brown shades.

I can well imagine that the amateur is likely to bo more successful with one of these three kinds than he is with the other two, and some enthusiasts may prefer to obtain a small cjnantity of each to experiment with, but they are all quite straightforward in use; No. 2 possibly is rather more difficult to apply well, because, being a spirit, it dries rapidly, while Nos. 1 and 3 have a water base and give you more time to deal with the edges, etc. In either case use a flat brush about 3 Jin or 2in wide, do not take up too much stain at once, and work in the direction of the grain. If the table top has separate leaves, do these singly. Also, if it be a draw top, do each of the three units separately, remembering that the smaller the area you have to cover at one operation the more successful you are likely to be in obtaining an even tone.

Having applied the stain to your satisfaction, allow the table to stand

till quite'dry. This is important; the time varying according to the stain you have used. No. 2 will be quite dry in, say, two hours. No. 1 should be left for forty-eight hours, and No. 3 should bo given about three days, or even a week, if possible, as it contains wax in suspension, and time must bo given for all moisture to evaporate and the wax to harden. THE POLISHING PROCESS.

When dry, the surface will appear darker than you expect, and quite dull. Now get a dry cloth, make a pad of it (or soft paper crumpled up will serve equally well), and rub well, but not too vigorously, all over the stain. This will impart a slight gloss. In the ease of Nos. 1 and 2 it is now necessary to apply the polishing material, and if a gloss of good quality is desired quickly, a wax proportion is the best to use. Rub on just a little over about a square foot of surface and polish off by lightly rubbing with another cloth. Proceed in this

way until the whole top has been treated. You will find that in waxing you lift a little of the stain. This is unavoidable without first giving the dull stain a brush coat of French polish, yet if you .apply such a coat and then wax, when it is quite dry and hard you will find it gives the same old trouble in use that you started out to remedy.

Alternatively to waxing on stains Nos. 1 and 2, you can rub on boiled linseed oil. This also will lift some of the stain—possibly a good deal of it—but if you want, ultimately, to secure a hard, impervious polish, this is the scheme. Just a few drops of the oil on a rag well rubbed in every few days, and in a year or so you will have a surface that defies almost everything but acids, and a beautiful gloss as well—but most people are too impatient to try it. As regards No. 3 stain, the initial

polishing is achieved by just rubbing it until a gloss is worked up, and no extra wax should ho applied until the preparation has had time to settle into the pores of the wood and harden off—say, six months. All wax-polished surfaces have a sheen much to be preferred to the rather sticky “grin” of French polish, as it is so often done to-day; but wax is marked by liquids, though with this distinction—that re-waxing is usually all that is required to remove all trace, and, in any case, marks caused by heat or liquids on waxed surfaces never appear half so aggressive as when French polish has been spoilt; moreover, the regular waxing is a cure for all but the most serious and unusual damage.

ment is made for the work carried out. Many architects give much of their time to ’ preliminary sketches, while .others specialise on this or that other phase of their practice. No one with a large practice executes the working drawings which bear Ins name, most of the work being relegated to his subordinates. Probably no one man could unite, with any great degree of excellence, all the attributes which could be alleged as essential to the complete architect.—Albert C. Freeman, in the ‘ Illustrated Carpenter and Joiner.’