IMPROVEMENTS IN STAINING AND GRAINING "WOODS
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Morrough Murphy and James
Morrough Murphy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 14th July 1865.
We, JOHN MONROUGH MURPHY and JAMES MORROUGH MURPHY, both of
Cork, in the County of Cork, in Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STAINING AND GRAINING "WOODS,"
to be as follows -
Our Invention consists in staining and graining plain or raw timber, as pine,
deal, sycamore, or any light-coloured wood in imitation of the more costly
timbers, such as mahogany, rosewood, walnut, tulip, or maple wood, or in
imitation of marbles, as Sienna marble or verd antique, or in imitation of
inlaid work or scrolls or ornamental work.
The way in which we treat the panel, board, or other piece of wood on which
the imitation is to be made consists generally in first applying to it several
coats of boiling water according to the nature of the wood, applying each
successive one as the previous one becomes absorbed. We then have some
hot slacked lime water and give one full coat of it to the panel, board, or other
piece of wood under operation, which is then allowed to remain untouched for
about one hour. A coat of cold water is then 'applied and the stains are
worked in according to the designs intended, whether for plain staining or in
imitation of other woods. By this process the staining or graining may be
carried on for any length of time by occasionally wetting the panel or board
under operation with cold water as just described The stains we employ are
those generally employed in the trade, ground up either in vinegar or stale

page_text: .porter For inlaying bands and borders the process is the same, taking care
however to do only one portion at a time, and to lay on gold size to
prevent the one colour running into the other. The whole when hardened
may be French-polished or varnished if previously coated with isinglass
size. For ornamental scrolls of a different coloured wood from the panel the
process is different. The panel is not in this case to be wetted until the
following operation has been performed:-The design of the scrolls or orna-
mental work having been previously prepared on a sheet of paper, the blank
side of it is whitened, and it is then laid in the required position on the panel,
board, or other piece of wood under operation, and the design is transferred
by going over it carefully with a sharp-pointed stick, which leaves the design
in white lines on the panel or piece of wood. The design is then filled in with
copal-varnish,_to_which a few drops of turpentine have been added, and when
this is dry the scrolls and ornamental work is again gone over with dry-white
lead and turpentine to which a small quantity of copal has been added.
When this has dried the imitation wood may be fearlessly worked over
the scroll work on the panel in the manner above described. When the
whole is dry a soft sponge and turpentine will remove the white lead and the
scrolls and ornamental work will appear in the white panel or board under
operation, and may then be filled in in imitation of any other coloured wood.
The whole when dry is washed over with a coat of pearlash and water, which
hardens the stain and renders it impossible to get it off except by plaining.
The operation for producing imitations of marbles is the same as that for
wood, taking care that the lights are worked in first.