The graining colors should be purchased in bulk, and if to be used merely for practice, obtain such cheap grainers and stainers as burnt umber, burnt sienna, vandyke brown, Venetian reds, Italian ochre, and after a little experience the madder lakes, scarlets and Prussian blues may be procured. Graining colors should be of the best, and in every case be ground very fine, since they are always used as transparent colors.

The following remarks apply to grounds and colors for oak graining. The basis of all oil ground colors for oak graining should be white-lead ground in linseed oil. Any colored pigments that may be added to obtain a dark ground can be considered only as stains, as none of them furnishes the opacity, solidity, or durability, for all of which qualities white-lead is so noted. Of course, if a very dark ground, such as that for antique oak, is required, not so much white-lead is used in its composition as for light or medium grounds. It may not be out of place to say that the grainer who relies on the use of white-lead to obtain a good ground seldom produces those unnaturally bright and garish grounds that always offend the trained eye. As a general rule, in making grounding paint, sufficient white-lead for the purpose, together with one-tenth the quantity of patent driers, should be broken up in linseed oil, and the staining pigments added and well mixed in. The paint should be strained through a mesh, and then thinned to a working consistency with about two parts of linseed oil to one part turpentine.

This gives a good gloss, but if a ground is required which may be quickly grained, the proportions of the lin seed oil and turpentine should be reversed.

The following are recipes for ordinary oak grounds: For light oak, use a mixture of white-lead and yellow ochre (sometimes with a touch of chrome to brighten it). Oxford ochre and Venetian red are used for dark oak, with the addition of burnt umber, and raw sienna for still darker wood. A rich tone of buff, given by vermilion and chrome, is sometimes adopted. A buff ground is made with 7 pounds white-lead, 1/2 pound of yellow ochre ground in oil, 1/2 pound of driers, mixed with linseed oil 2 parts and turpentine 1 part, and stained when thin enough for use. White-lead, stained with orange chrome, and thinned with one raw oil to two turps. Mix 1 pound of white-lead, 2 ounces of patent driers, and 2 ounces of Oxford ochre. Thin with oil and turpentine.

As regards the graining color, for water color work, it should be ground up very fine in beer, and kept in a bottle tightly corked, when used it should be thinned with weak beer and water. A permanent water color graining is obtained by melting gum arabic in hot water, and mixing enough of the gum with the graining color to bind it. If the gum is in excess it will cause cracks. Softness, flatness, variety and permanence are produced by this method. The grain of oak is frequently done in spirit color. Gilders' whiting is ground up stiffly in turpentine, and stained to the required tint with burnt umber and raw sienna, which are also ground up stiffly in turpentine. A small quantity of japanners' gold size and boiled linseed oil or ordinary varnish is now added to bind it, and it is then thinned with turpentine and strained through a piece of muslin into a large-mouthed pot, when it is ready for use. If too much varnish is used, the color will set so quickly as to he unmanageable. Only a small portion of graining, just enough to allow for combing, can be done at a time, as the color dries so quickly. The lights are taken out with a fitch, dipped in a fairly strong solution of soda in water or in turpentine.

Both the soda and the turpentine should be stained with a little burnt sienna, otherwise the markings will be too staring. Hold in the left hand a rag on which to wipe the fitch, so as to prevent the fluid running down and spoiling the work. Spirit graining should not be varnished for twenty-four hours, and even then must not be rubbed too much.

When oil is the medium in oak color, raw sienna, with burnt umber or Vandyke brown, according to the depth of color required, is finely ground in linseed oil. Patent driers is then added, this acting as a megilp, giving substance or body to the color; 1/2 ounce of patent driers to 1 pound of color, mixed with equal parts of oil and turpentine, is the proportion. Without this megilp the color will be flat and uninteresting. To get the ribbed appearance of the grain of oak, beeswax, soft soap, lime-water and rain-water are often used when patent driers is not available. The method of preparation is as follows: Wax must be thoroughly incorporated with oil by shredding the wax into an earthenware receptacle, covering it with linseed oil and stirring with a red-hot poker till the wax is thoroughly dissolved; then add the staining color, well mix and dilute it with turpentine. An excess of wax with the color will cause the combing to stand up too much. In the natural wood the markings are depressions, but in the graining they appear as ridges of color. The markings should not, therefore, stand up more than is absolutely necessary to produce the desired effect. The lines must to a certain extent be distinct, although softened down in places.

Soft soap must be broken up with either patent driers or whiting, and thinned with boiled oil, or it may be made up into a lather with plain water, and in this state mixed with oil color. The objection to soft soap is its alkaline nature, all alkalies weakening and destroying paint. Lime must be slaked in water, about 2 pounds of lime and 1 gallon of water, allowed to settle, and the clear liquid poured off for use. Sufficient lime-water is mixed with the graining color and well beaten up. But graining by this method is liable to fade, the lime destroying the color, and causing the paint to crack. Rain-water used alone and beaten up thoroughly with the color has many advantages; it does not exert injurious action, the color does not spread and as soon as the color has set the water evaporates.