Series editors' preface - Wood Tools

Table 5.4 Some traditional colorants for wood
on wood to add colour while still maintaining
a high degree of transparency. Stains have
been used for decoration, for imitation and for
faking. Up to about 1650 furniture was generally
made from wood grown close to home
and stains were used to increase the range of
colours available. From about 1660, when
timber prices were rising, stain was used to
make cheaper woods simulate more expensive
ones. For example, beech could be made
to resemble walnut and pear to look like
ebony. Stains have also been used to offset
the variation in wood from tree to tree and
from sapwood to heart wood, no doubt
helping to reduce costs. From about the 1830s
the increase in volume of furniture production
and reduction in prices lead to the production
of ‘Old English’ furniture in which stain was
used to simulate age. Many different kinds of
materials have been used for staining (see
Table 5.4). Once in place, however it is often
Other materials and structures 231
Yellow Brown Red Green and blue Black
Turmeric (Curcuma
longa)
Saffron
Apple + alum
Ash + alum
Dilute nitric acid
Gamboge
Aniline dyes
Catechu
Blueberry + alum +
nut galls
Currant bush + alum
Tannic acid from gall
nuts and oak bark
followed by alkali
Strong nitric acid
Dilute sulphuric acid
Potassium
permanganate
Potassium/sodium
hydroxide
Ammonia
Sodium carbonate
Hot sand
Green husks of
walnut
Vandyke brown
Potassium bichromate
Aniline dyes
Alkanet root
(Anchusa)
Brazil wood (+
solution of tin in
aqua regia)
Dragon’s blood
Madder with gum or
starch + iron acetate
Red Sanders wood
Quicklime slaked in
urine
Potassium bichromate
Aniline dyes (e.g.
Bismarck brown)
Emerald rot
(Cholorosplenium
aeruginascens (see
Blanchette, 1992)
(green)
Boil in alum then
immerse in mixture
of verdigris, ammonia
and acetic acid. Used
on wood and ivory
for green
Blueberry berries +
alum + iron sulphate
(blue)
Aniline dyes
Logwood + vinegar
and rusty iron
mixture used to stain
sycamore and maple
grey (harewood)
Lamp black +
turpentine + drying
oil
Sulphuric acid (on
oak)
Hot sand
Anilines (e.g.
nigrosine)
difficult to find out what they are or even
whether they have been used. Recipes for
staining wood are found in the earliest
technological treatises and were copied and
re-copied over the centuries. Traditional
colorants for wood came from a variety of
sources. The textile industry was a primary
source for dyes such as cochineal, Brazilwood
and logwood and greatly increased the availability
of useful colorants for wood finishers.
Publications on textile history and conservation
serve as a useful resource on traditional
colorants (Landi, 1992). Aniline dyes were
discovered in the mid-nineteenth century and
subsequently applied in the furniture industry.
More recently aniline dyes have been replaced
by organic complexes of chromium, cobalt
and copper that are highly stable, light fast
materials. Further information on the history
of furniture colorants is given by Mussey
(1982, 1987).