purpose.

With the present system of buying all colors as near ready for use as possible, color manufacturers prepare special oil graining colors ready for use by simply thinning. They come ready for all sorts of woods, and where the color is not just the shade wanted, the operator can easily add the one that is lacking to bring it to the right tone.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON VII.

33. What is said in a general way about preparing graining colors, or megilp?

34. What are the requisites necessary to make a good graining color in oil?

35. What is said about the transparency of the colors used in preparing graining colors?

36. What substances may be added to colors to produce more transparency?

37. How may stock megilp be prepared for future use?

LESSON VIII.

MIXING GRAINING COLORS IN DISTEMPER, RUBBING IN, ETC.

38. When the colors have been properly ground in water or in distemper, as they are usually called, it is but little trouble to thin them out for use with stale beer or vinegar. Many grainers prefer to use dry colors when they have been finely dry ground, and they work as well as the distemper colors. They are much more economical to use, and for that reason will always be preferred if for no other. Some, however, are hard to mix up dry and it is preferable to buy these ground in distemper, as, for instance, Vandyke brown and ivory black.

39. It frequently happens during warm weather that the color dries so fast that the operator cannot possibly finish his work while the color is in a right condition, so he must resort to some means to prevent this hasty drying. The addition of glycerine will retard it for a good while, as glycerine is a good absorbent of water.

40. To prevent this rapid drying of graining colors in distemper many means are used, some too complicated and really no better than the one named in the preceding paragraph; wetting the wood with water into which a little sugar has been dissolved is another means to the same end. Afterward use the regular distemper mixture over it.

RUBBING IN.

41. This is the name that is given to the operation of laying on the oil megilped color previous to the graining. The professional grainer usually has a helper who works ahead of him and “rubs in” the color, while he follows him up with the wiping or combing. When the color is mixed and thinned just right there is no difficulty in its application. The brush should be any good, partly worn, or at least well broke in oval, or flat paint brush. In the flat the 3-inch size will be found the most convenient.

42. It was said in the preceding paragraph that the application of the rubbing-in coat presented no difficulties, but the proviso inserted relative to the color being properly mixed means what it says, for if it is not, trouble will surely follow. If the color is too thin and oily the operator will find it hard work to smooth it evenly. If it has been made more transparent by the proper megilping, the color will brush out evenly, and a full brush of color can be carried to the work. The operator should run over the mouldings of the upper panels, and if he has enough color on his brush, also the lower ones, then he should brush out the panels themselves, helping himself to the surplus color on the mouldings; then the short middle stiles, then the lock rail, upper and lower rails, then the end stiles, finishing up with the door edges last.

43. What a “rubber in” should not do is to try to skin his color on. Many are afraid to carry more than half an inch of color from the pot to the work, seemingly afraid they can’t manage it with a full brush, but that is a very poor way and if pains are taken to distribute the color along the panel mouldings first, its distribution will be much more even than if put on by skinning. It will take only about two dippings to do the side of an ordinary door, and it will be in just the shape that the grainer wants it. On the other hand again, he must not put it on too heavy, as the edges will not wipe clean, and if too oily will even run and show up ragged at the edges.

QUESTIONS ON LESSON VIII.

38. How should graining colors be mixed for distemper work?

39. What may be added to the thinner to prevent the color drying too quick?

40. What else is useful in retarding the drying of the distemper graining color?

41. What is meant by the operation of rubbing in?

42. How is the graining color applied?

43. What is it that the “rubber in” should not attempt to do?

LESSON IX.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF GRAINING OPERATIONS—CONTINUED.

APPLYING THE DISTEMPER COLORS.

44. A good-sized brush may be used for the laying of the distemper colors, but they are not absolutely necessary. A sponge is even more frequently used, especially when the character of the wood is to be shaped by the use of the sponge as the color is being laid on. It is hardly worth while to say that the man who does the graining must be his own “rubber in” in distemper work. The name itself is dropped for this class of work; the person applying it must be able to do the shaping as he goes along, excepting for “stippled” woods, when it may be well to have some one to help, especially if the color dries fast; he can then follow the helper closely and then there will be no trouble from that cause.

45. The color itself may be thickly or thinly thinned—it will all depend upon the kind of surface one is working upon, and also upon the kind of graining being done. Some grainers must have stale beer for a thinner, but others will do as good work who never use any, and such use vinegar somewhat diluted for that purpose. The proper thing is to have the color of the right working condition for the particular job. The kind of thinner does not matter so much so that it has tack enough to hold the color, so the colors will not run together when brushed over in the varnishing afterward.

46. The use of the check roller usually is the first operation done in graining woods which show weather checks. The proper way to use them is to fill a 3-inch fan overgrainer with the distemper color which comes nearest to the ideas of the grainer in showing up what he desires to produce. This fan overgrainer is laid upon the face of the check roller flat, and a few turns are given in order to spread, when it is ready to do its duty. Checks while they look all right in some oak work, are usually rather scarce in nature, and it is an easy thing to overdo them in the imitation. A few in well-chosen locations will look infinitely better than an oversupply. As overdoing nature is a fault which applies in all the other operations used in graining, it will be well to guard the student against this defect right at the beginning. Let him bear in mind that all graining will look better underdone than overdone, no matter what wood one tries to imitate.

47. Stippling is another operation which is used chiefly upon open grained woods or woods which show fine or coarse pores all over their surfaces, such, for instance, as black walnut in the dark woods and chestnut in the lighter ones. Some pretty effects are also made by partial very fine stipplings over certain parts of woods. As the particular graining of each wood will be related these effects will be noticed under their proper headings. The application of the distemper color (the only proper one) has already been noted. The operator doing the stippling must hurry his work with the flogger or stippler (see Fig. 1) before the color commences to dry, or the stippling will not be uniform. He at no time must let the brush rest upon the work, but must hit