Imitation of Wood

Manufacturer and builder 12, 1890

Architects nowadays generally recommend hard wood, in its natural beauty, varnished or polished, as the most durable and practical for all the interior wood-word of the modern house. The hard woods are of such variety in shades, that they will allow of the selection of any desired tint to correspond with other decoration, carpets and furniture. Therefore, particolored or china-gloss finished doors are at present seldom demanded, the more as they need repainting from time to time, whereas the hard wood, once finished, lasts for years,a nd then a coat of varnish or a little re-polishing renews the same quickly, and with small expense.

Where old houses are to be re-painted, or when, as a matter of cost in new buildings, cheap pine woor-work is used, the same is now generally painted and grained in imitation of hard wood. This practice has called forth diverse methods to graining, which are used and improved by those who are experts and who make graining a special trade study. Very few house painters can imitate succesfully the grain of the wood, and generally give this work to a specialist who commands high wages. The demand for labor-saving devices in this field has caused the invention of the material known as "transfer graining paper," wherewith any person can do fair graining, and the expert, by proper and judicious shading, can produce such fine work that it cannot be distinguished from the real article. This substitute for graining has the great additional merit of being so easily applied that no expert skill is required to work with it at once without instruction and with good results.

In the manufacture of this product, the grain of the wood is printed on paper from well selected and prepared specimens of boards, with appropriate colors, and can be transferred on properly painted dry surfaces, white woods or plaster, by watting the blank back of the paper with a moistened sponge or brush evenly and thoroughly. Then it is laid carefully against the surface to be grained and gently brushed over the back so that every spot is in even contact with the surface, the color being so prepared that three to four impressions can be made from the same paper. In a few minutes this transfer is dry, and can be varnished, glazed or shaded with thin oil color, whereby the skill of the expert can achieve results unexelled by nature itself.

This paper is extensively used in all European countries, and has found many admirers and users here since it has been introduced.

This substitute is manufactured and for sale by the Stencil Company of New York (223 East Fifty-ninth street), from whom a specimen may be obtained, with directions for use, by addressing the company as above and exclosing a postage stamp for reply.