November 25, 1916 



HARDWOOD RECORD 



31 



tire rejuvenation for the demand for it would be accomplished. 

 Picture to yourself a house finished in quartered oak, and that 

 finish stained and in turn finished with care and precision. It is 

 not a makeshift job, not a house painter's job, but the color and 

 style of finish carried out according to convention and the ideals of 

 the old masters. With us in these hurry-up days it is stain, a filler, a 

 shellac coat, and enough varnish or surfacer to get by the archi- 

 tect 's specifications. In the good old days, when colors were produced, 

 they were obtained on oak mostly by the use of the manure pUe, the 

 now modern fuming process, and then later augmented by surfacing 

 the wood with brines, salt waters from salt wells that contained a 

 small quantity of iron salt, and other mineral matter and then sub- 

 jected to the manure pUe. A piece of furniture was made from one 

 tree, the boards were ' ' aged. ' ' After they had been brined and then 

 aged, they would take on a dark color, ranging from a light brown 

 to a brown black. This then was made up in the cabinet room and 

 when so made was given repeated coats of oil. Today, our linseed 

 oil does the trick, and the result is, a transparency that gives that 

 solid through and through color which is not obtained by hurried and 

 short methods which yield a color, but to the trained eye a super- 

 ficial color. At a glance they may be accepted as real, but do they 

 bear close inspection? 



I have seen chairs and other pieces of furniture brought into 

 market, purchased in the old English towns, pieces brought from 

 Belgium, Germany and Italy, carefully crated so they would arrive 

 here safely, and unmarrcd, in an endeavor to reproduce not only the 

 design but the color as well ; and many has been the order, ' ' get 

 this color, get this finish, — the shortest way possible," and when 

 the piece would be duplicated there would be the design, the style, 

 and the color, but it lacked something ; that something was the finish. 

 It didn't liave the age, it didn't have that meUow, through and 

 through appearance, and yet it passed, but it would have remained 

 with us much hmger had it been finished with the same painstaking 

 methods as the original. 



Can it be that we haven't realized in a measure the possibilities 

 of the goodness and thoroughness in our finishing department? Is 

 that possibly a reason why the trade is always looking for some- 

 thing difi'erent, for something new, and not knowing that it is really 

 looking for that one thing, an accepted standard of finish, brought 

 out in a uniform style, and one which wears eternally, so that a 

 chair five, ten or twenty years old, will retain its color, even in its 

 very edges? 



Oak as an interior finish, put up on these lines with its growing 

 beauties as it ages and mellows, becomes moi'e dear to the occupant 

 than any other known wood. Its softness of finish, retaining its 

 beauty and with all the years, spells that warmth expressed in that 

 one word ' ' home. ' ' Take any of the finishes on the softer tones for 

 that portion of the home where one wants rest, peaceful surroundings, 

 any of the brown finishes are adapted. 



In the billiard room, the den, -or the dining room, use such as the 

 greys, early English or Antwerp, possibly Belgium. That is where you 

 want life, animation. Conform the finish to the tenor of its 

 occupancy. 



Go into any cafe abroad and note the designs and style of finish. 

 Go into any living room and you do not find the clashes of period or 

 finish. The theme is carried out to completeness. No matter how 

 simple or humble, it is there, and it is there mostly in oak. This is 

 not saying that other woods haven't their place. 



I am on record for censoring the veneer man for not selecting the 

 different growths of oak more carefully when laying veneer. The 

 same is true of every other manufacturer of oak, whether it be the 

 man in a table factory, joining boards for table tops, or whether it 

 be a man in an interior finishing plant getting out the woodwork for 

 a home. In a chair factory, I have seen two distinct different growths 

 of oak in the seat of a $25.00 chair, and in that same chair factory 

 I have found plenty of chairs that could have been properly matched 

 had a least bit of care been taken in laying out the work. It is a part 

 of the education in the minor details that has to be brought home to 

 the manufacturer who supplies these articles to the trade. It is a 



part of the educational campaign that must be carried on relentlessly 

 by the seller, the retailer of various commodities built out of wood. 

 It fairly grates on one 's nerves to look at a beautiful table and look 

 down the pores in one piece of wood and over the pores in the piece 

 of wood joined directly to it. If he had only turned the board 

 around! Of course as long as the buying public will accept that sort 

 of thing, the manufacturer can get by, but is it for the ultimate good 

 of oak? 



The manufacturer of store fixtures has gone beyond the manufac- 

 turer of furniture. A modern store finished by our up-to-date fix- 

 ture houses carries with it a better selection of the wood employed 

 as to figure and growth than does the average piece of furniture, yes, 

 better than the average interior of a home. Is it an excuse in any one 

 of these projects not to give attention to each particular piece of 

 wood before putting it into place? If the figure, the growth, the 

 texture would be joined in a pleasing manner, in a way that does not 

 clash, the job would be of credit, and when the woodwork is admired 

 the admirer could do so with a conscience rather than for the sake 

 of good form. 



At present, the buyers of furniture, a body of men, who stand be- 

 tween the producer and the consumer have brought about a condition 

 that has been attempted at various times in years gone by. There is 

 demand for a standardization of color on the present day finishes. It 

 may be of interest to know just how this started. A western buyer 

 came to the market last January and purchased from thirteen houses, 

 six months' stock of one particular kind of wood, and when these 

 shipments arrived, he had just thirteen different shades of finish on 

 one kind of wood. Five thousand dollars were expended in refinish- 

 ing tliat years ' stock to make it possible to sell. He had paid for 

 the finishing once, and no matter how large the business, a refinishing 

 bill of this magnitude was a factor. This started the movement for 

 a standardization of one color to be known as standard on that par- 

 ticular wood. Of course, there are different finishes to go with this 

 wood, but instead of having twenty or thirty different shades of 

 fumed oak, according to this buyer's association theory, there is 

 going to be just one color of fumed oak known as standard. The 

 manufacturer, the buyer, and the consumer are to be educated to the 

 fact that there is now a uniformity. Certainly it is a step in the 

 right direction, especially as it comes from those that give the orders, 

 and is thus apt to be successful. 



This movement is to be carried on, beginning with the most pop- 

 ular finishes of the day, until a general standard shall be obtained 

 on all of the different finishes and woods. It has been endorsed by 

 many organizations of the furniture world. It needs the support of 

 the manufacturer of lumber, the consumer of lumber, in every way, 

 shape and manner, down to the retailer of products of wood, as well 

 as the architect, the designer, and builder. We must all think that 

 when a certain finish is recommended it is in the adopted standard 

 color and style of finish. That is what will work for the ultimate 

 good of everyone concerned. 



There are so many phases to the consumption of wood, so many 

 different angles to be considered, so many personal and individual 

 axes to grind that it must appear as an overwhelming job to arrive 

 at a uniformity and standardization as above referred to. 



Each wood-finishing house sends out its salesman who says that 

 he has the only correct color for so and so. It has been a ease where 

 the tail has wagged the dog. But now, when the man who buys the 

 goods says ' ' this is what I want, ' ' a period may have approached 

 that will mean a struggle for a time, but if we all talk standard, 

 think standard, and return a few carloads of goods, not up to stand- 

 ard, we will get somewhere with this proposition. 



If all these suggestions, ideas, call them pipe dreams if you want 

 to, bear but a bit of fruit, oak will remain our best friend, our 

 truest friend, and will come forth with better finishes and then a 

 higher place in the realms of woods. W. K. S. 



The manual training schools are begging for information about 

 wood and suitable material to work with. How long would they have 

 to wait if they wanted a substitute material t 



