As this subject properly belongs to the painter
and decorator, it is not necessary to go into details
concerning the methods used to finish off your
work. As you may not be able to afford the luxury
of having your productions painted or stained,
enough information will be given to enable you, if
the character of the wood justifies it, to do the
work yourself to a limited extent.
Soft Wood.—As, presumably, most of your first
work will be done with pine, poplar, or other light-colored
material, and, as many people prefer the
furniture to be dark in color, you should be prepared
to accommodate them.
Use of Stains.—Our subject has nothing to do
with the technique of staining, but has reference,
solely, to the use of stains. I recommend, therefore,
that, since all kinds of stains are now kept in stock,
and for sale everywhere, you would better rely
upon the manufactured goods rather than to endeavor
to mix up the paints yourself.
Stains as Imitations.—It will be well to remember
one thing as to stains. Never attempt
to stain anything unless that stain is intended to
produce an imitation of some real wood. There
are stains made up which, when applied, do not
imitate any known wood. This is bad taste and
should be avoided. Again you should know that
the same stain tint will not produce like effects
on the different light-colored woods. Try the
cherry stain on pieces of pine, poplar, and birch,
and you will readily see that while pine gives a
brilliant red, comparatively speaking, pine or birch
will be much darker, and the effect on poplar will
be that of a muddy color. In fact, poplar does
not stain cherry to good advantage; and for birch
the ordinary stain should have a small addition
of vermilion.
By making trials of your stains before applying
them to the furniture, you will readily see the
value of this suggestion.
Good Taste in Staining.—Oak, mahogany,
cherry, black walnut, and like imitations are always
good in an artistic sense, but imitations of
unfamiliar woods mean nothing to the average
person. The too common mistake is to try to imitate
oak by staining pine or poplar or birch. It
may, with good effect, be stained to imitate cherry.
Oregon pine, or some light-colored wood, with
a strong contrasting grain may be used for staining
in imitation of oak.
Great Contrasts Bad.—Violent contrasts in furniture
staining have the effect of cheapness, unless
the contrasting outlines are artistically distributed
throughout the article, from base to top finish.
Staining Contrasting Woods.—Then, again, do
not stain a piece of furniture so that one part represents
a cheap, soft wood, and the other part
a dark or costly wood. Imagine, for instance, a
cabinet with the stiles, rails and mullions of mahogany,
and the panels of pine or poplar, or the
reverse, and you can understand how incongruous
would be the result produced.
On the other hand, it would not be a very artistic
job to make the panels of cherry and the mullions
and stiles of mahogany, because the two
woods do not harmonize, although frequently
wrongly combined.
Hard Wood Imitations.—It would be better to
use, for instance, ash or oak for one portion of the
work, and a dark wood, like cherry or walnut, for
the other part; but usually a cherry cabinet should
be made of cherry throughout; while a curly maple
chiffonier could not be improved by having the legs
of some other material.
These considerations should determine for you
whether or not you can safely use stains to represent
different woods in the same article.
Natural Effects.—If effects are wanted, the
skilled workman will properly rely upon the natural
grain of the wood; hence, in staining, you
should try to imitate nature, because in staining
you will depend for contrast on the natural grain
of the wood to help you out in producing pleasing
effects.
Natural Wood Stains.—It should be said, in
general, however, that a stain is, at best, a poor
makeshift. There is nothing so pleasing as the
natural wood. It always has an appearance of
cleanliness and openness. To stain the wood
shows an attempt to cover up cheapness by a cheap
contrivance. The exception to this rule is mahogany,
which is generally enriched by the application
of a ruby tint which serves principally to
emphasize the beautiful markings of the wood.
Polishing Stained Surfaces.—If, on the other
hand, you wish to go to the labor of polishing the
furniture to a high degree, staining becomes an
art, and will add to the beauty and durability of
any soft or cheap wood, excepting poplar.
When the article is highly polished, so a good,
smooth surface is provided, staining does not
cheapen, but, on the other hand, serves to embellish
the article.
As a rule, therefore, it is well to inculcate this
lesson: Do not stain unless you polish; otherwise,
it is far better to preserve the natural color of the
wood. One of the most beautiful sideboards I ever
saw was made of Oregon pine, and the natural
wood, well filled and highly polished. That finish
gave it an effect which enhanced its value to a
price which equaled any cherry or mahogany product