ortions with water in which a
nodule of lime has been dissolved, or by common soda and water. The
darkeners for general use are dyed oils, logwood, aquafortis, sulphate
of iron, and nitrate of silver, with exposure to the sun's rays. For new
furniture in oak, ash, maple, etc., the process of matching requires
care and skill. When it is desirable to render all the parts in a piece
of furniture of one uniform tone or tint, bleach the dark parts with a
solution of oxalic acid dissolved in hot water (about two-pennyworth of
acid to half a pint of water is a powerful solution); when dry, if this
should not be sufficient, apply the white stain (see pp. 11, 12)
delicately toned down, or the light parts may be oiled. For preserving
the intermediate tones, coat them with white polish by means of a
camel-hair pencil. On numerous woods, carbonate of soda and bichromate
of potash are very effective as darkeners, as are also other
preparations of an acid or alkaline nature, but the two given above are
the best.

A good way of preparing these darkeners, says the "French Polisher's
Manual," an excellent little work published in Perth some years since,
is to procure twopennyworth of carbonate of soda in powder, and dissolve
it in half a pint of boiling water; then have ready three bottles, and
label them one, two, three. Into one put half the solution, and into the
other two half a gill each; to number two add an additional gill of
water, and to number three two gills. Then get the same quantity of
bichromate of potash, and prepare it in a like manner; you will then
have six staining fluids for procuring a series of brown and dark tints
suitable for nearly all classes of wood.

The bichromate of potash is useful to darken oak, walnut, beech, or
mahogany, but if applied to ash it renders it of a greenish cast. If a
sappy piece of walnut should be used either in the solid or veneer,
darken it to match the ground colour, and then fill in the dark markings
with a feather and the black stain (see pp. 10, 11). The carbonate
solutions are generally used for dark surfaces, such as rosewood
represents, and a still darker shade can be given to any one by oiling
over after the stain is dry. The better way of using these chemical
stains is to pour out into a saucer as much as will serve the purpose,
and to apply it quickly with a sponge rubbed rapidly and evenly over the
surface, and rubbed off dry immediately with old rags. Dark and light
porti