Graining Grounds

Subjoined are a few recipes for mix ing ground colors.

Light Wainscot Oak

White lead and yellow ochre, mixed to the required tint. Some grainers prefer a perfectly white ground for very light oak for inside work, but it is always difficult for any but a perfect master of the art to proceed satisfactorily on a white ground, and the work, when completed, is apt to have a chalky effect, even though a dark varnish be applied.

A Darker Wainscot Oak

Mix while lead, middle chrome, and yellow ochre.

Dark Oak

White lead, Venetian red, and yellow ochre.

Very Dark Oak

White lead, raw sienna, burnt umber, and Venetian red; or burnt and raw sienna, white lead, and burnt umber.

These colors, mixed in different proportions, will produce a multiplicity of tints suitable to receive the graining color, their strength being of course determined by the greater or lesser preponderance of white lead.

Mahogany Grounds

There are various notions extant amongst grainers as to the best grounds for mahogany graining, some preferring a ground of a dee]) yellow cast, while others choose one approaching a bright red. The reds and yellows used are Venetian red, red lead, vermilion, raw sienna, burnt sienna, orange chrome, middle chrome, etc. These colors can be mixed to the tint required, an addition of white lead being made in each case, as the positive reds and yellows are too powerful unless diluted in turn by white. Venetian red. orange chrome, and white lead are the colors most generally used, and these three will, according to their predominance or subordination, make such a variety of tints that the most fastidious grainer need have no misgiving that the result will not come up to his expectation, if he exercise due discretion in mixing the colors.

Rosewood Ground

Venetian red, vermilion, and white lead. A little scarlet lake is added for superior work, but this of course is too expensive for general use. Some painters mix with the reds a small quantity of raw sienna or chrome yellow.

Bird's-Eye Maple

White lead alone is preferred by some grainers, but the majority of painters use a little yellow ochre to kill the rawness of the white, and this is much the better plan to adopt. Beginners are apt to make the ground too yellow, a mistake that should be avoided at the outset, as the varnish which has subsequently to be coated over the work will give transparency, and add a pale creamy tone, whereas, if the ground be too yellow, the result will be heaviness.

Spirit Graining For Oak

Two pounds of whiting, quarter of a pound of gold size, thinned down with spirits of turpentine; then tinge your whiting with Vandyke brown and raw sienna, ground fine. Strike out your lights with a fitch dipped in turpentine, tinged with a little color to show the lights. If your lights do not appear clear, add a little more turpentine. Turpentine varnish is a good substitute for the above mentioned. This kind of graining must be brushed over with beer, with a clean brush, before varnishing. Strong beer must be used for glazing up top-graining and shading.