flaking with a fine or coarse rubber comb, blending very lightly in the same direction the veins or comb take. The effect produced is to sink the flaking, making it look solid and true to nature.

For wiping out oak (as in samples shown), see description of process in our following chapter on black walnut, using the same tools, etc. (rubber combs, English or American steel combs in oak, not in walnut). Where flaking is done it is combed first with a coarse, then a fine steel comb, but where heart or growth-pieces occur, no comb should be used until wiped out, then comb with a fine comb very lightly in the same direction the grains may run.

In graining, particularly oak, care should be taken to have the grains lose themselves regularly at the sides, not leaving the heart-piece abruptly, but gradually (as shown in our illustration), preserving a proper harmony of colors from centre to outside.

BLACK WALNUT.

Illustrations of WALNUT include Plates 18-28.

The same care should be taken in puttying, sand-papering, mixing, and applying, as hereinbefore suggested in the chapter upon graining oak.

The ground-work for black walnut should be mixed with pure white lead, turpentine, oil, japan, etc., colored with chrome yellow or good Rochelle ochre, American vermilion, or English Venetian red, and burnt umber, which if properly combined produces the most proper ground-work attainable. This wood varies in color, some pieces bearing upon the yellow, and others upon the red, either of which may be correctly imitated by adding yellow or red as the case requires. There are some pieces, however, of a grayish cast, and if such a characteristic is desired in graining, add to the ground-work a little Vandyke brown.

The ground-work (last coat) should be so mixed as to have, when dry, an egg-shell gloss, in order to prevent the first coat of graining (which is "distemper-color") from crawling or running together. Black walnut is a very porous wood, and unless the pores are properly shown in the graining, the imitation will be far from perfect; no grainer, therefore, should depart so far from nature as to omit this necessary and absolute consideration.

For the accomplishment of a correct imitation in this respect, take a small quantity of sour or common ale, or, if not obtainable, a little vinegar and water (equal parts) will do (urine is an excellent substitute for either of the liquids named), and to this add, for coloring purposes, three-fourths burnt umber and one-fourth Vandyke brown; when this is applied, and before dry, take a dry brush (a flat one is preferable), and "whip" the color thoroughly with the same, keeping the hand close to the surface of the object to be grained; and as pores in some pieces of walnut show far more distinctly than in others, to imitate this, certain portions should be whipped very coarsely, while other portions should be whipped very fine. Care must be taken in whipping, to have all joints, etc., left perfectly square as constructed, and the whipping should invariably be done as the grain of the wood is designed to run. The distemper-color should be mixed to a thickness, that, when applied and properly whipped, the general tone of the ground-work shall not be materially changed.

Some grainers, before proceeding further in graining black walnut, have varnished the distemper-coat; we regard this as entirely useless, as well as detrimental to the general tone of the graining when done. The impression current among some painters, that when the graining-color is applied to the distemper-color, without first varnishing, it (the distemper-color) will rub up, is erroneous, for when perfectly dry it is all ready to receive the graining-color.

After