Journeyman’s Journal – This is a journal of the art of woodworking by hand

What put the shine on furnishings’s Golden Age
by Robert D. Mussey

That is an extract I painstakingly rewrote from an outdated FWW journal as a result of I believed it’s a good learn and value doing.

Ending is the least studied and most inaccessible facet of our vintage furnishings heritage. The proportions and workmanship of a Philadelphia highboy are direct and observable manifestations of the talents of its maker. However what of its end? Is the mellow patina, a lot admired in the present day, something just like the end that left the workshop 200 years in the past?
We will’t be taught a lot from the items themselves. Most museum conservators agree that maybe just one % of our vintage furnishings bears indeniable remnants of its authentic end. Scientific checks could inadvertently detect later refinishing or trendy supplies indistinguishable from the originals there’s no solution to inform new beeswax from outdated.
After we flip to historic paperwork, a lot obscure, ambiguous or mysterious materials conceals the pearls of exhausting info. The outdated craft guilds guarded their commerce secrets and techniques as intently because the impartial finishers who proudly, and
loudly, introduced the invention of the “excellent” ending potion.
Formularies, cabinetmakers’ and varnishes’ account books, payments, histories, and dictionaries of the interval are troublesome to interpret. Account books, for instance, so wealthy in details about woods used and costs charged, say little
about finishes.
When supplies are talked about, the names differ from area to area 25 totally different phrases could describe only one
materials. And greater than 200 totally different resins, oils, fillers, waxes and pigments had been utilized in 18th and early Nineteenth-century furnishings finishes.
It’s equally troublesome to say who did the ending in 18thcentury American workshops. I haven’t discovered a single reference to finishers in any of the a whole bunch of account books I’ve examined. Ending was not a specialised commerce within the U.S. because it was in Britain, although there have been one or two well-known specialists in massive cities, like Thomas Johnson in Boston, who did Japanning, graining, marbleising and gilding. Fancy portray, as on the Baltimore chair, was performed by fine-art painters. It appears possible that cabinetmakers, significantly in small outlets, did their very own ending, aided by numerous guidebooks and formularies.
I’ve spent the previous 5 years negotiating these obstacles, evaluating and analysing some 5000 paperwork, reformulating lots of the recipes for stains, dyes and finishes, and making use of them utilizing authentic strategies to see how they work and to observe how they age. I’ve positioned extra emphasis in my analysis on books that had been incessantly reprinted. Any of ten reprinted books was in all probability a well-liked one with working craftsmen. The primary furniture-finishing guidebook recognized
to have been printed in America, The Cabinetmaker’s Information, (Greenfield, Mass., 1825), was reprinted quite a few instances, and components had been pirated for different books all through the Nineteenth century. The Information was pocket-sized, straightforward to make use of. I’ve two copies, from 1827 and 1837, each are dog-eared, paint splattered and muddied indicators of a well-used e-book.
I’ve shaped some broad conclusions from my analysis a number of of those have shocked me. I began out desirous to show that shellac and French sharpening had been extensively used in the course of the 18th century. As an alternative, I found that French polish was not invented till about 1810, and that oil and wax had been the predominant finishes of the interval, favoured even on many
high-style items. And I discovered that the end that left the store was not mellow and glowing, however in all probability brilliantly colored, vibrant and glossy.
Stains, dyes, oils, and waxes might be mentioned right here, restricted to the interval 1700 to 1830. Earlier than that point, references are too scattered to be of use, and after 1830, mass manufacturing, chemical advances and burgeoning world commerce profoundly modified furnishings ending. I’ll focus on the varnishes of the 18th and Nineteenth centuries in a subsequent article.
Floor preparation-The standard of the piece decided. how a lot floor preparation it obtained. No elaborate
smoothing practices had been used on frequent items, and plenty of desk tops clearly show the corrugations left by hand planes. Finer furnishings required extra cautious preparation. Andre Jacques Roubo’s three-volume treatise, The Artwork of the Woodworker (Paris: 1769-74) suggests this elaborate sequence for veneered and marquetry items: smoothing planes adopted by a wide range of hooked cupboard scrapers, a tough rub with bundles of rushes (shave- or saw-grass), abrasion with strong pumice-stone blocks lubricated with water, additional abrasion with sealskin, and at last, burnishing with barely
rounded blocks of hardwood.
The Cabinetmaker’s Information recommends glasspapering the floor after cautious scraping. The creator complains that
glass-paper was being cheapened by including sand, then provides his personal directions: pulverise damaged window glass in an iron mortar, put it via sieves of applicable fineness, and sift onto the glue-covered floor of heavy cartridge-paper.
Early within the Nineteenth century, many recipes appeared utilizing plaster of Paris, “hartshorn “, and different pure clay-like supplies to fill open grain earlier than ending. These might be dyed or stained and had been combined with a binder equivalent to linseed oil or honey. Such fillers had been beforehand used solely on japanned and gilded items, the place intensely pigmented varnish-paints had been laid over a thick filler-ground. If clear finishes had been utilized over plaster-type fillers, the stain would finally fade, and the filler would seem as unpleasant white speckles.
In an earlier grain-filling methodology, the floor was coated with a skinny coating of linseed oil after which abraded with a flat block of strong pumice stone. With sufficient stress, the ensuing paste of oil and superb wooden mud would a minimum of partially fill the grain. After dyeing, the surplus was wiped or scraped off.
Colouring– Craftsmen of the 18th century experimented with an unlimited vary of supplies for colouring wooden and wooden finishes.
Paperwork of the interval complain that colors flee with the sunshine, and the seek for everlasting pure pigments and dyes, not just for wooden but in addition for materials and paints, spawned a whole business and huge “scientific” analysis.

The American colonies had been a significant supply of colorants, equivalent to logwood, indigo, oak bark and walnut bark, all of which had been exported in portions of a whole bunch of tons. Craftsmen then used the phrases “stain” and “dye” as imprecisely as craftsmen in the present day. We outline “stain” as a skinny layer of colored pigment calmly penetrating the floor of the wooden.
“Dye” is any substance producing color adjustments by chemical response with the wooden fibre or by diffusion of the colored dyestuff deep into the mobile construction of the wooden.
Most 18th-century stains and dyes would have colored the wooden in a number of methods without delay. Stains with strongly acidic automobiles, like uric acid, or stains containing materials like iron filings, would have colored by chemical response
in addition to by pigments contained within the stain. Likewise, many dyes contained pigments, which lodged within the wooden fibres.
The Cabinetmaker’s Information distinguishes stain from dye by levels of penetration: Staining differs from the method of dyeing, inasmuch because it merely penetrates slightly below the floor of the wooden, as a substitute of colouring its substance all through, because it does in dyeing; and the one is used for beautifying the face after the work is completed , whereas the opposite is employed on the wooden earlier than it’s manufactured, within the state of veneers, to be lower into strings or bands for inlaying borders and which has of late years bought a lot out of use, principally owing to the fault a lot complained of the colors flying.
Almost all of the stains and dyes of the interval had been extraordinarily fugitive by trendy requirements. Some wouldn’t have lasted various years. Typically a museum piece shows solely the pale glory of the finisher’s artwork. purple and yellow colorants, incessantly used, pale rapidly.
Brown stains, combined with reds, greens and blacks, quickly pale to the faint inexperienced tint we see in the present day on some antiques. I’ve discovered vibrant purple areas preserved beneath the brasses of mahogany items, a far cry from the brown, red- brown or yellow-brown stains used for interval reproductions. A few of my reformulations of authentic mahogany stain recipes come near this brisk hue.
There may be robust documentary proof that staining of furnishings earlier than ending was a lot much less frequent within the 18th century than we assume. Thomas Sheraton, in his 1803 Cupboard Dictionary, wrote, “The artwork of staining wooden was on the time when inlaying was in vogue; at current purple and black stains are these generally use. Additionally it is attainable that staining was extra frequent in America than in England, however the paperwork I’ve examined from all through the colonies occasionally point out staining and marking supplies.
Rural cabinetmakers could have used stains extra typically than their metropolis cousins. Rural purchasers couldn’t afford the finely figured woods or costly mahogany favoured in high-style Boston or Philadelphia work. So unique woods had been imitated by graining, mahoganizing and marking, or they emphasised the wild grain of a favourited wooden, like tiger maple.
Almost all colorant formulation had been based mostly on water or alcohol. These have nice readability and penetration, and deeply intensify the construction and determine of wooden. The moderately muddy oil- based-pigment stains frequent in in the present day’s {hardware}
shops had been unknown within the 18th-century ending store. Likewise, solely a only a few interval stains resemble the trendy class of chemical stains, by which colourants or acids within the wooden react with chemical counterparts within the staining answer.

Multiple hundred totally different supplies had been used within the 18th century within the making of stains and dyes. These vary from the unique to the mundane-like outdated recordsdata or walnut husks in options containing vinegar, urine or wine.
The Cabinetmaker’s Information requires chipped logwood, a supply of a invaluable red-black dye, Verdigris (copper acetate), copperas (iron sulphate), and barberry root amongst different elements for dyes. Stains may require archil, a Canary Island lichen, or dragon’s blood, a resin from the fruit of the East Asian rattan palm. A purple stain was made out of brazilwood extract soaked in quicklime slaked in urine and painted scorching onto the wooden. If the shopper solely knew!
Trying to present extra sensible lightfast colors, lots of the recipes used such robust automobiles as sulphuric, muriatic or uric acids. Sadly, these acids contributed to the decomposition of varnishes utilized over the stains.
The resins and oils used within the 18th-century varnishes had been very delicate to acids and alkalis and could also be quickly degraded in response with these. This helps account for the survival of so few authentic varnish finishes.
Moreover staining and dyeing the wooden straight, finishers additionally colored the spirit varnishes they utilized to the wooden.
Used to match the colors of various woods or to enhance drab wooden, they had been referred to as ” altering varnish,” and had been colored with numerous uncommon substances in addition to with wooden chips and bark of oak, chestnut, walnut or sumac. Comparable mixtures utilized to tinware, brassware or furnishings brasses had been referred to as ” Ackers.” Shellac was the dominant resin in these ” ackers,” its reddish or golden color heightening the golden impact desired from brass.
Shellac is a spirit-soluble resin that polymerizes considerably, the method speeded by warmth.
Shellac-based ” ackers ” had been typically baked onto metals, giving a really exhausting, lustrous floor, immune to oxidation, discoloration, and the formation of copper acetates. Unique furnishings brasses had been in all probability vibrant and ” brassy,” in no way tarnished like these favoured on in the present day’s reproductions.
Finishes- As soon as the wooden surfaces had been levelled, smoothed, crammed and stained, one among a number of kinds of coatings was utilized. These fall inside 4 broad classes: oil finishes, wax finishes, varnishes, and combos of those.
Eighteenth-century writers on finishes record an entire array of standards for the best end: preservation of the wooden from decay and bugs, preservation of the color of the wooden, and exclusion of atmospheric moisture. It must also be exhausting, shining, clear and versatile, mustn’t yellow or crack with age or flip white with spills, and it ought to maintain as much as exhausting use. The identical qualities are sought by coatings producers in the present day, and no end, then or now, fills the entire invoice. Finishers experimented with an incredible vary of supplies within the 18th century, and a few of their options had been wonderful. Certainly, some are nonetheless used in the present day.
Since historic instances, craftsmen have recognized that numerous animal, vegetable and seed oils assist to protect wooden. A wide array of those was provided on the market by American retailers and producers within the 18th century. Linseed (flaxseed)
oil, the car for many housepaint’s, was by far probably the most incessantly used furniture-finishing materials. Poppyseed and walnut oils had been most popular for his or her mild color and transparency, however they had been costly. For the reason that males who
completed furnishings had been additionally gilding image frames, Japanning tea waiters and portray homes and carriages, it isn’t stunning that, the place attainable, they used the identical supplies all through their work.

Linseed oil finishes had been extensively used-despite their disadvantages: they weren’t sturdy, waterproof or alcohol proof, and so they darkened with age, although they had been repaired simply with recent oil and a few rubbing. Free from tariffs imposed by the English, each boiled and uncooked linseed oil had been low-cost and extensively obtainable.
In lists of a whole bunch of furnishings sorts, a number of influential English and American commerce price-books quote costs just for oil ending and sharpening.
Pressed chilly, linseed oil has a really mild color; pressed scorching, it’s extra plentiful, however significantly darker. To bleach out this color, fresh-drawn linseed oil was positioned in shallow pans or bottles within the daylight.

Alternatively, the strong impurities had been precipitated by including fuller’s earth (a naturally occurring aluminium silicate) which absorbed the brownish colouring matter. Egg-white was typically added as a air purifier.
Linseed oil dries very slowly by itself. Coatings of uncooked oil could stay cheesy for years. Over centuries, many strategies had been tried to make it extra siccative, or quick drying. Within the late Center Ages, the oil was merely boiled. Later,
burnt horn and bone, garlic, powdered lead-crystal glass, or alum had been added to the boiling oil to attempt to improve its drying properties.
Most recipes of the 18th century employed lead compounds as siccative: litharge, massicot or minimal, all lead oxides lengthy used as artists’ pigments.

As soon as boiled, filtered, cooled and bleached, the oil was prepared to be used. The boiling and purification of linseed oil offered appreciable revenue for a lot of painters and varnishers in New England, however the occupation carried with it the hazard of fireplace. Hearth and lead poisoning had been the bane of the finisher.
Oil ending was as easy then as it’s in the present day. The oil was utilized with a rag or brush, full power or thinned with turpentine, and allowed to soak into the wooden. The surplus was wiped off with a rough rag. After a day’s drying time,
one other coat was utilized, and ideally this was repeated till the wooden would settle for no extra oil. In observe, a couple of superficial coats had been in all probability all that had been used. Whole oil-finishing time for a desk could have amounted to solely two to 4 hours.
Costs for oil sharpening shaped a small proportion of the entire prices recorded for making a chunk.
Primary oiling practices assorted. Sheraton, in his Cupboard Dictionary, outlines a way utilizing brick mud and linseed oil, plain or stained purple with alkanet root. Brick mud and oil shaped a barely abrasive paste which was rubbed on the floor till the wooden warmed, then cleared off with wheat bran, leaving a vibrant floor. For off-colour mahogany, or higher grade mahogany that ” needs briskness of color.”
Sheraton recommends a reddish sharpening oil together with alkanet root, dragon’s blood, and rose pink, a pigment made with brazilwood dye.
I used to be shocked to seek out that wax finishes had been additionally amongst these generally utilized by 18th-century cabinetmakers. Wax, like oil, was low-cost, obtainable and straightforward to make use of. It was incessantly listed in account books and talked about within the literature of the interval.
Different pure waxes had been recognized, however beeswax had been favoured for hundreds of years as a end on wooden, a medium for paint, a water-proof stopping for boats, an embalming resin, and a flatting agent and ultimate moisture barrier for varnishes. It’s in all probability the pure natural end most immune to harmful oxidation. A contemporary evaluation of beeswax used on a Punic warship confirmed that the wax remained chemically unchanged after 2,000 years. This excessive longevity was famous repeatedly by 18th-century writers on finishes. Beeswax was produced in massive portions in New England, the place bee tradition was a extremely developed artwork. Samuel Grant, a distinguished Boston upholsterer and service provider, purchased as much as 450 lb. at a
time to be used in his personal store, on the market to different cabinetmakers and for export to England.
The purification of wax by extraction of the honey impurities with water was low-cost and easy, and two types of purified wax, yellow and white, had been recognized. The yellow nonetheless contained some impurities and was cheaper. The white, or clear beeswax, fastidiously filtered and bleached within the solar, was most popular for the best work.
Thomas Sheraton describes two strategies of wax sharpening he says are typical. ” Generally they polish with bees wax and a cork for inside work. The cork is rubbed exhausting on the wax to unfold it over the wooden, after which they take superb brick-dust and sift it via a stocking on the wooden, and with a fabric the mud is rubbed until it clears away all of the clamming’s. At different instances they polish with smooth wax, which is a mix of turpentine and beeswax, which renders it smooth, a fabric of itself, might be ample to rub it off with. For chair polish, Sheraton combined wax with a small amount of turpentine, heated this in a varnish pan (a double boiler), added Oxford ochre for color and a bit copal varnish. The cooled combination was labored right into a ball and utilized with a stiff brush, compelled into the grain, after which rubbed off.
Wax finishes had been extensively used on high-style 18th-century French furnishings. The one full description of this course of that I’ve discovered is in Roubo’s The Artwork of the Cabinetmaker.
For veneered cabinetwork, best high quality wax was melted right into a polisher, which was a bundle of rags certain tightly with wire, and with which the entire floor was rubbed. The warmth generated melted the wax, and the rubbing compelled it into the pores. Roubo cautions in opposition to utilizing cork polishers, which may get too heat and loosen the veneer.
When the wax was evenly unfold, the surplus was scraped.
off. Roubo’s wax scraper was just like a cupboard scraper, however with a barely rounded edge as a substitute of a burr. Cleaned and polished with a rag, the work was ” extraordinarily even, and shiny as a mirror.” For porous or reddish woods like rosewood or amaranth, powdered shellac was unfold over the wax and rubbed in vigorously with the polisher to fill the open grain and heighten the color. Colophony (rosin) was used to cease up open grain in black woods like ebony.
A high-gloss end was typical of practically all high-style furnishings finishes of the 1 Eighth century. Experimenting with Roubo’s wax end, I discovered that it provides a a lot larger gloss than we affiliate with wax finishes in the present day. Roubo constructed up a wax end in the identical means as a varnish end, and the wax turned a reasonably thick coherent physique on prime of the wooden. And he used solely 100 % pure beeswax, which has higher refracting qualities than in the present day’s wax emulsions.
Roubo prescribes a special course of for frequent furnishings the wax was combined with one-third tallow and rubbed off with a serge fabric. ” With the intention to unfold the wax higher and drive it deeper into the open pores, one makes use of typically a sheet-metal pan by which glowing coals have been put, and that is held as shut as attainable to the work in an effort to heat the wax. Rather than the pan one may also use a glowing red-hot piece of iron, which is even higher, as a result of it makes the wax liquid which flows into the open pores extra simply.
Although it was attainable to get a excessive gloss end with wax, most finishers in all probability discovered the required methodology too time consuming.
Wax additionally has lots of the similar disadvantages as oil finishes. An 18th-century author summarized the benefits and drawbacks of the frequent wax end, noting: “Waxing stands shock; however it doesn’t possess, in the identical diploma as varnish, the property of giving lustre and of heightening their tints. The lustre it communicates is boring, however this inconvenience is compensated by the power with which any accident that will have altered its polish will be repaired, by rubbing it with a chunk of superb cork.
Straightforward to acquire, quick and straightforward to make use of and restore, oil and wax finishes had been ideally fitted to 1 Eighth-century ending wants.
Although pure beeswax finishes are hardly ever used in the present day, the numerous virtues of oil finishes, significantly their low sheen, are as soon as once more appreciated and have made them a end of selection, as they had been 250 years in the past.
Robert Mussey, of Milton, Mass., educated as a cabinetmaker and wooden finisher then served an internship in furnishings conservation on the Henry Ford Museum. He’s head of the furnishings conservation workshop on the Society for Preservation of New England Antiquities in Boston, Mass.