Stain

“ One of the pieces of woodwork is yet in my possession,—with the stain still on it. Experts have pronounced upon it too,—with the result that opinions are divided. Some maintain that the stain was produced by human blood, which had been subjected to a great heat, and, so to speak, parboiled. ”

“ Stain is, however, used of giving an intended and perhaps pleasing color to wood, glass, etc., by an application of coloring-matter which enters the substance a little below the surface, in distinction from painting, in which coloring-matter is spread upon the surface; dyeing is generally said of wool, yarn, cloth, or similar materials which are dipped into the coloring liquid. Figuratively, a standard or a garment may be dyed with blood in honorable warfare; an assassin's weapon is stained with the blood of his victim. ”

“ Stains made by tarlike substances are hard to remove, especially from cotton material. First rub in petroleum jelly or lard to soften the stain, then sponge with one of the grease solvents—carbon tetrachloride, Stoddard solvent, gasoline, benzene—or dip the article in the liquid and rub lightly between the hands. ”

“ In oil staining ordinary house woodwork and cheap panellings, apply the size before the stain. When the former is dry, it will be found that the oil stain, which now is graining color, also can be spread much better and more regularly, and that those sappy places which would otherwise have absorbed much stain are scarcely noticeable. In sizing white or stained wood, poor work often results from the quirks and mitres of mouldings receiving too much of the froth of the warm size. ”

“ Give the work a light coat, and brush it out well and carefully. Too much pigment will make your work too dark. Wherever you want the light or worn spots to appear, wipe off the stain with a cloth, and with a badger blender carefully blend the stain into the edges of the worn or light spots. Don’t stain too much at once, for fear your stain may set so you cannot wipe out and blend. When the stain is dry, sandpaper lightly with No. 0 paper. Finish with two coats rubbing varnish, or [56] with hard oil finish. Polish with rotten stone and raw oil. ”

“ Amateurs in staining had far better coat twice or thrice with a weak stain than apply a strong one; for if too dark a tint is first obtained it is often irremediable. Flat surfaces will take stain more evenly if a small portion of linseed-oil is first wiped over, well rubbed off, and allowed to dry, then lightly papered down with fine glass-paper. End-way wood which is of a spongy nature should first have a coat of thin varnish, and when dry well glass-papered off. ”

“ They will not always produce the effects claimed for them, but with a little experimenting it is possible to find prepared stains that will give almost any desired result. They are somewhat expensive, however, and the amateur finisher may prefer to develop his own stain. ”

“ This effect of the stain is the result of the combination of the green vitriol with the tannin; the more tannin present, the darker the stain becomes. The hardness or density of the wood, too, exerts a marked influence upon the resulting stain. In a soft wood, having large pores, the stain not only sinks further in, but much more of it is required than in a hard dense wood; hence in the first place a stronger, greasier stain will be obtained with the same solution than in the latter. ”

“ Sometimes one is stained with dirt or with color, and not only does the stain run on further than the spot of contact, but it discolors other of the threads. And remember that the threads are living—are like electric wires, more, are like quivering nerves. How far, then, must the stain, the drag awry, be communicated! But eventually the long strands, the living threads which in their unbroken continuity form the individual, pass out of the shadow into the shine. ”

“ Shouldering one another to get next at the sharpening-stone, were men stripped to the waist, with the stain all over their limbs and bodies; men in all sorts of rags, with the stain upon those rags; men devilishly set off with spoils of women's lace and silk and ribbon, with the stain dyeing those trifles through and through. ”

“ The prints show a singular and very pleasing grain and need no transferring.--Dr. Eder’s Jahrbuch.
Every photographer is, no doubt, to his own sorrow, familiar with a yellow stain in the negative, caused by taking the plate from the fixing bath before it is thoroughly fixed. Mr. Belitski, the well-known photo-chemist, made some experiments recently to remove this stain, and succeeded very well. A slight stain can often be removed by placing the negative in the following solution: 50 parts alum, 1000 parts water, 10 parts bichromate of potassium, 20 parts muriatic acid. ”

“ If it is scratched and spotted it can be scrubbed clean and given a new coat of Jackson’s varnish stain and be in a moment as good as new if not better. Just one word en parenthése, as it were, about stains. Do not let anything anyone can say induce you to attempt the beautiful green staining we all so much admire at home, for if you do, it can be nothing but a most ghastly failure. True, the particular piece of furniture will be green, but such a green! ”

“ WORK CAREFULLY but quickly. TRY SIMPLE METHODS FIRST. For a nongreasy stain, sponge with cold water. For a greasy stain, try carbon tetrachloride. AVOID HOT WATER on an unknown stain. Hot water sets many stains. TEST FOR COLOR CHANGE on a sample of the cloth before using any stain remover. USE REMOVERS SPARINGLY. Many brief applications are better than one long one. USE LIGHT, BRUSHING MOTIONS—never rub a remover into the stain. NEUTRALIZE acids with alkalies; alkalies with acids. ”

“ As in most of these dark varieties it is necessary to first stain the wood a general color, the pigments and fluids most serviceable for plain staining purposes may be considered from the painter's and grainer's point of view, not from the polisher's. ”

“ REMOVE INK STAINS FROM WOOD Prepare a mixture of 8 ounces of concentrated sulphuric acid and 13⁄4 pints of water. Scour the stain thoroughly with water and sand and then pour some of the mixture upon it and rub until the stain disappears.
56 TO CLEAN SMOKED OR BLACKENED WALLS AND CEILINGS Wash with a cloth wrung out of a strong solution of baking soda and water or use vinegar and water. If the stain is not all removed, dissolve gum shellac in alcohol to the consistency of milk or cream, and with it cover the sooty parts. Paint or whitewash over the shellac. The black will not show through. ”

“ The Stain in weathering does not become shabby like paint; but the surfaces assume weather beaten grays, very soft and harmonious, and varying slightly according to the original hue. The Stain may be renewed at any time with little trouble or expense, as the natural hues which nature gives in combination with the stain are allowed to stay. ”

“ Boiling water.—For washable materials, pour boiling water on the stain from a height of 3 or 4 feet, as for fruit stains, or launder in warm soapy water.
Denatured alcohol or carbon tetrachloride.—Some color stains can be sponged or soaked out with alcohol. Sponge greasy stains with carbon tetrachloride. A dry-cleaning soap helps to loosen them. Finally sponge with fresh carbon tetrachloride. ”

“ The stain is more conveniently applied upon cover-glasses than upon slides. Films much more than a month old do not stain well. In some localities ordinary tap-water will answer both for diluting the stain and for washing the film; in others, distilled water must be used. Different lots of Wright's fluid vary, and a few preliminary stains should be made with each lot to learn its peculiarities. ”

“ Nor is it advisable for the instructor himself to mix his own finishing materials. Even the most expert woodfinishers find it taxing their ability to mix a fresh lot of stain that will exactly match that of a previous lot. There is nearly always some boy, or boys, with pieces but partly covered when the stain in any given lot is exhausted. The best way, everything considered, is to make use of some standard color of finish in stain and filler. ”

“ Pour a little oak varnish stain into a small vessel, and brush the leaves all over, using a hog’s-hair tool for the purpose of laying on the stain, taking care to cover the edges, and brush it well out of the veined parts; should the leaves, when dry, not be so dark as desired, another coat can be given, but in no instance apply thick coats of stain, it will, if put on thick, most likely dry darker in one place than another, and will never have so smooth an appearance as when two thin coats have been applied; take care always that one coat must be dry before another is applied. ”

“ She was told that in case of a wine or fruit stain on tablecloth or napkins she should draw the spot tightly over a bowl, as soon after the meal as possible, while the stain was fresh, and pour boiling water through it and thus remove the stain at once, and that the water must be really boiling, as hot water would only set the stain. ”

“ A better plan, perhaps, is to stain the section with carmine or logwood, and mount in balsam by the ordinary process. The best course to follow, however, especially in the case of transverse sections, is the double staining method. [18] For this purpose the sections in the first place must be subjected to the action of a solution of chloride of lime (1/4 oz. to a pint of water) until they become thoroughly bleached. ”

“ In staining hardwoods with open grain, such as oak, chestnut, ash, etc., it is customary, when a varnished surface is required, to stain the paste filler with oil colors so as to secure the desired tint and then finish with three or four coats of varnish. The staining adds about 5 cents per square yard to the cost of varnishing. ”

“ Lamp-Oil can be removed, from floors, carpets, and other articles, by spreading upon the stain a paste, made of fuller's earth or potter's clay, and renewing it, when dry, till the stain is removed. If gall be put into the paste, it will preserve the colors from injury. When [Pg 298] the stain has been removed, carefully brush off the paste, with a soft brush.
Oil-Paint can be removed, by rubbing it with very pure spirits of turpentine. The impure spirit leaves a grease-spot. Wax can be removed, by scraping it off, and then holding a red-hot poker near the spot. ”

“ Control this by removing it from the staining-solution and examining it in water on a glass-slide without a cover-slip, using the low-power. Sections will always appear more deeply-stained when cleared than when examined in water, hence due allowance should be made. Celloidin sheets can be examined on glass-plates. The time-limits given in staining methods are only approximate; no absolute rules can be laid down as to the length of time necessary to obtain a good stain. The methods of fixation and hardening, age of the tissue, age of the stain, etc., affect the staining power. ”

“ This stain is practically blue, 1/4M, and is formed by thinning nigrosene to the proper value.
Aniline dyes are apt to fade if exposed to full sunlight. There are, however, certain preventives that are beyond the scope of this book to treat in detail. The natural color of the wood is inclined to make a stain warmer than when originally mixed. This should be allowed for. Wood filler, the wood grain, porosity, qualities, and hue of the wood, all influence the final value of the stain. It frequently becomes darker in value as may be seen by comparing Figure 456 and Figures 458 to 461. ”

“ Say a painter has a border to stain round an ordinary pine floor in imitation of a selected pattern of parquetry, the colors of which are generally in two or more shades of oak, the first thing he has to do after having properly prepared the floor—namely, making the part to be stained as smooth and as even as possible by filling up the crevices and nail holes—is to stain over the work in the lightest shade shown in his pattern ”

“ They enter the wood slowly, so that an even stain, especially on large surfaces, is secured. The disadvantages of turpentine stains are the lack of permanence of the coloring, when exposed to light and air, and their high price. ”

“ When staining pine dark, it is preferable to use the stain before sizing, if the grain is desired to be very prominent, a full coat should be spread, and then shortly afterwards all the stain lying on the surface may be rubbed off with old cloth or rag free from fluffiness. ”

“ The best vessels in which to stain sections are small jars of white porcelain, capable of holding about two fluid ounces, and furnished with lids—they are much preferable to beakers or watch glasses, for owing to the white background which they afford it is very easy to watch how the staining is proceeding. The carmine solution which we have just described is both too strong and of too great density to be used in its pure state. ”

“ But it is absolutely indelible; it can only be removed with the surface of the glass itself; time has no more effect upon it than if the glass were coated with yellow pot-metal. This silver stain was not only of a singularly pure and delicate colour, compared to which pot-metal yellows were hot and harsh, but it had all the variety of a wash of water-colour, shading off by imperceptible degrees from dark to light, and that so easily that the difficulty would have been in getting a perfectly flat tint. ”

“ Where cupboards and pantries are to be stained inside on the shelving, inside drawers, etc., they should receive a coat of shellac or good liquid filler over the stain, then a thin coat of hard-drying varnish, one which is not easily affected by heat, otherwise there is danger of warm dishes or other utensils sticking to it. ”