When you have your stain the satisfactory shade, rub it into the floor
well with a woolen cloth, and afterward rub off the superfluous color
carefully with another woolen cloth. You use for these stains the
colors in tin pound boxes, prepared with oil, costing about twenty-five
cents a box. If you have a hard pine floor you need simply the oil, no
stain. If the floor is either oiled or stained, it is best to leave it a few
days before the waxing. Do not use the room before the waxing ; but
if dust or footprints are on the floor, wipe it over with a cloth wrung
out of warm water, but use no soap. Have ready, as soon as the floor
is dry, two quarts of turpentine to a half pound of bees wax. If you
warm the turpentine slightly the wax will dissolve in a short time with-
out delay or the labor of shaving the wax. Do not put your pail of tur-
pentine in the middle of a hot stove or range, and go off and forget it
till a small explosion and a dense smoke remind you that turpentine is
at least inflammable. When the wax is dissolved rub it upon the floor
with a woolen cloth till the whole floor is covered. Wait from five to
ten minutes till the wax hardens a little ; then rub with a coarse woolen
cloth or brush, with the grain of the wood, not across it. After a few
times waxing, your floors will have a good polish, and the wax need be
applied but seldom. The rooms most in use, as a dining room or hall,
require more frequent polishing. A bed-room will keep in good condi-
tion with much less care. Waxing twice or four times a year will keep
a bed-room in tidy condition, while a dining-room would generally be
better for a weekly waxing. Waxed floors need only to be wiped up
with a damp cloth if kept in good condition.
PAINTING AND GRAINING. 367
Stain for Stairs — Put some burnt sienna, bought in a can (mixed oil
paint, twenty-five cents), with linseed oil, in an old vegetable can, so
that there will be a thick mixture at the bottom, while at the top the
mixture will flow freely. Have two brushes, such as house painters use :
add turpentine to make this work easily ; with your largest brush stain
your stair. Dip your small brush in the thickest part of the mixture
occasionally and follow the grain ; work the brush back and forwards ;
the large brush is to soak the stain into the wood, the small one is to
suggest graining. Paint every other stair, so as to reserve a place to
step until dry. Three days are necessary for this. When dry complete
your work by painting the untouched stairs. This harmonizes well with
the dark wood of the banisters. Too much caution cannot be used
regarding the oily rags ; burn them at once or they will burn you.
PAINTING AND GRAINING.
You may darken light mahogany so as to match a darker piece by
putting on a wash of soap lees or quicklime, dissolved in water ; make
the washes thin and go over till dark enough.
Grain is imitated in various ways. Take a flat brush, cut away some
of the hairs irreglarly, not carelessly, but so that none of the notches
shall be alike. The beauty of the grain of wood is its variety and con-
stant change. Keep this idea in your mind and take advantage of any
accidental effect. Points, circles, broken lines, waves, blending from
one color to another, then broken by a strongly marked color, are
characteristics to be seized and followed.
Page 325
Presented as published in 1886. Historical recipes may not meet modern food-safety standards. Cook from the modern interpretation, not the original instructions.
AI-modernized reading of the original text
When you have your stain the satisfactory shade, rub it into the floor well with a woolen cloth, and afterward rub off the superfluous color carefully with another woolen cloth. You use for these stains the colors in tin pound boxes, prepared with oil, costing about twenty-five cents a box. If you have a hard pine floor you need simply the oil, no stain. If the floor is either oiled or stained, it is best to leave it a few days before the waxing. Do not use the room before the waxing ; but if dust or footprints are on the floor, wipe it over with a cloth wrung out of warm water, but use no soap. Have ready, as soon as the floor is dry, two quarts of turpentine to a half pound of bees wax. If you warm the turpentine slightly the wax will dissolve in a short time without delay or the labor of shaving the wax. Do not put your pail of turpentine in the middle of a hot stove or range, and go off and forget it till a small explosion and a dense smoke remind you that turpentine is at least inflammable. When the wax is dissolved rub it upon the floor with a woolen cloth till the whole floor is covered. Wait from five to ten minutes till the wax hardens a little ; then rub with a coarse woolen cloth or brush, with the grain of the wood, not across it. After a few times waxing, your floors will have a good polish, and the wax need be applied but seldom. The rooms most in use, as a dining room or hall, require more frequent polishing. A bed-room will keep in good condition with much less care. Waxing twice or four times a year will keep a bed-room in tidy condition, while a dining-room would generally be better for a weekly waxing. Waxed floors need only to be wiped up with a damp cloth if kept in good condition.
PAINTING AND GRAINING. 367
Stain for Stairs — Put some burnt sienna, bought in a can (mixed oil paint, twenty-five cents), with linseed oil, in an old vegetable can, so that there will be a thick mixture at the bottom, while at the top the mixture will flow freely. Have two brushes, such as house painters use : add turpentine to make this work easily ; with your largest brush stain your stair. Dip your small brush in the thickest part of the mixture occasionally and follow the grain ; work the brush back and forwards ; the large brush is to soak the stain into the wood, the small one is to suggest graining. Paint every other stair, so as to reserve a place to step until dry. Three days are necessary for this. When dry complete your work by painting the untouched stairs. This harmonizes well with the dark wood of the banisters. Too much caution cannot be used regarding the oily rags ; burn them at once or they will burn you.
PAINTING AND GRAINING.
You may darken light mahogany so as to match a darker piece by putting on a wash of soap lees or quicklime, dissolved in water ; make the washes thin and go over till dark enough.
Grain is imitated in various ways. Take a flat brush, cut away some of the hairs irregularly, not carelessly, but so that none of the notches shall be alike. The beauty of the grain of wood is its variety and constant change. Keep this idea in your mind and take advantage of any accidental effect. Points, circles, broken lines, waves, blending from one color to another, then broken by a strongly marked color, are characteristics to be seized and followed.