To Enamel Wood-Work. This is a process for creating an artificial, glossy surface of any color on wood, very durable, and highly ornamental. It consists of three distinct, successive operations; first, the colored coating or surface; next, the preparation of the surface for polishing; and finally, polishing.

3011. To Prepare the Filling-up Color for Enameling Wood

3011. To Prepare the Filling-up Color for Enameling Wood. The filling-up color, which forms the body of the enamel, is of the greatest importance to the ultimate success of the work. Of this material there are several kinds manufactured - black, brown, and yellow, for coach painters, japanners, and others; but for use in interior decoration it is preferable to use the white lead filling, as, by adding the necessary staining colors (which do not affect the properties of the enamel), a solid body of color is formed, of the same tint, or nearly so, as that with which the work is required to be finished, thus doing away with the objections which maybe urged against the black or dark-colored filling. It is evident that if work which has to be finished white, or with very light tints of color, be filled up with dark-colored filling, the number of coats of paint required to obscure or kill the dark color will be so many that there will be danger of the work becoming rough and uneven in parts. The white lead should bo ground stiff in turpentine, and about one-fourth part of the ordinary white lead, ground in oil added to it, in order to prevent the enamel cracking, which it has a tendency to do, except there be some little oil mixed with it. A sufficient quantity of polishing copal or best carnage varnish should now be added to bind it so that it will rub down easily, which fact cannot be properly ascertained except by actual trial, inasmuch as the drying properties of varnishes vary, and other causes influence the matter. If there be too much varnish in the stuff the work will be exceedingly difficult to cut down, and if too little, it is apt to break up in rubbing, so that it is always the safest plan to try the enamel color before commencing anything important.

3012. To Lay the Color on Enameled Wood

3012.    To Lay the Color on Enameled Wood. The color, being properly mixed, should be laid on the work in the ordinary manner, using it rather freely. It may be as well to state here that no filling should be put upon new work without the same having had 2 or 3 coats of ordinary oil paint, nor on old work without its having one coat. This gives a foundation for the filling. Successive coats of the filling should now be laid on the work until there is a sufficient thickness to cut down to a level surface. One day should intervene between each coat, in order to allow it to harden in some degree. When a sufficient number of coats are put on (which number will, of course, depend upon the state of

"the work to be filled up), it should stand for 2 or 3 weeks, until it is thoroughly hard; it will then be ready for cutting down, which is to be done with a felt rubber, ground pumice stone, and water.