Useful Receipts. Staining Wood and Ivory.

Scientific American 11, 10.9.1864

Yellow.
Dilute nitric acid will produce it on wood.

Red.
An infusion of Brazil wood in stale urine, in the proportion of a pound to a gallon for wood; to be laid on when boiling hot, and should be laid over with alum water before it dries. Or, a solution of dragon's blood, in spirits of wine, may be used.

Black.
Strong solution of nitric acid, for wood or ivory.

Mahogany.
Brazil, madder and logwood, dissolved in water and put on hot.

Blue.
Ivory may be stained thus: - Soak it in a solution of verdigris in nitric acid, which will turn it green; then dip it into solution of pearlash boiling hot.

Purple.
Soak ivory in a solution of sal-ammoniac into four times its weight of nitrous acid.

Mahogany.
Plane the surface smooth and rub with a solution of nitrous acid. Then apply with a soft brish one ounce of dragon's blood, dissolved in about a pint of alcohol, and with a third of an ounce of carbonate of soda, mixed and filtered. When the brilliancy of the polish diminishes, it may be restored by the use of a little cold drawn linseed oil.