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WOOD  FINISHING. 
A PAPER  READ  BEFORE  THE  AGRICULTURAL  SEMINAR. 
By  Willis,  T.  Pope, 
Professor  of  Botany  and  Horticulture , College  of  Hawaii. 
For  some  years  I have  been  considerably  interested  in  wood 
finishing,  particularly  that  part  which  involves  staining,  filling 
and  polishing.  It  is  a great  field  of  work,  ever  attractive  and 
pleasing  to  investigate.  New  matter  and  different  results  are 
constantly  presenting  themselves.  Though  wood  finishing  is  one 
of  the  very  oldest  arts,  and  one  that  requires  much  knowledge  of 
materials,  as  a craft  we  find  little  literature  regarding  it. 
Good  instruction  in  iron  work  and  wood  work  can  be  procured 
easily  in  almost  any  of  our  industrial  and  manual  training  schools, 
but,  as  a rule,  very  few  lessons  are  given  in  the  finishing  processes 
that  go  to  make  an  attractive  piece  of  wood  work,  whether  it  be 
a piece  of  furniture  or  the  interior  of  a dwelling.  As  a people, 
we  depend  almost  entirely  upon  untrained  workmen  for  our  in- 
formation. Good  polishers  very  seldom  know  much  about  ma- 
terials and  their  sources.  They  have  little  information  to  give 
away  and  the  secret  of  their  success,  when  found  out,  is  about 
the  same  old  receipt  made  good  by  hard  rubbing. 
In  discussing  briefly  the  subject  of  wood  finishing,  I will  no 
Grain  of  wood  caused  bv  the  annular  rings. 
