=Imitation Mahogany.=—­Half a pound of madder-root, and two ounces of logwood chips boiled in a gallon of water.  Brush over while hot; when dry, go over it with a solution of pearlash, a drachm to a pint.  Beech or birch, brushed with aquafortis in sweeping regular strokes, and immediately dried in front of a good fire, form very good imitations of old wood.  Venetian red mixed with raw linseed-oil also forms a good stain.

The following is a method in common use by French cabinet-makers.  The white wood is first brushed over with a diluted solution of nitrous acid; next, with a solution made of methylated spirits one gill, carbonate of soda three-quarters of an ounce, and dragon’s blood a quarter of an ounce; and a little red tint is added to the varnish or polish used afterwards.  Black American walnut can be made to imitate mahogany by brushing it over with a weak solution of nitric acid.

=Imitation Rosewood.=—­Boil half a pound of logwood chips in three pints of water until the decoction is a very dark red; then add an ounce of salt of tartar.  Give the work three coats boiling hot; then with a graining tool or a feather fill in the dark markings with the black stain.  A stain of a very bright shade can be made with methylated spirits half a gallon, camwood three-quarters of a pound, red-sanders a quarter of a pound, extract of logwood half a pound, aquafortis one ounce.  When dissolved, it is ready for use.  This makes a very bright ground.  It should be applied in three coats over the whole surface, and when dry it is glass-papered down with fine paper to a smooth surface, and is then ready for graining.  The fibril veins are produced by passing a graining tool with a slight vibratory motion, so as to effect the natural-looking streaks, using the black stain.  A coat of the bichromate of potash solution referred to on page 4 will make wildly-figured mahogany have the appearance of rosewood.

=Imitation Walnut.=—­A mixture of two parts of brown umber and one part of sulphuric acid, with spirits of wine or methylated spirits added until it is sufficiently fluid, will serve for white wood.  Showy elm-wood, after being delicately darkened with the bichromate solution No. 1, page 4, will pass for walnut; it is usually applied on the cheap loo-table pillars, which are made of elm-wood.  Equal portions of the bichromate and carbonate solutions (see page 4), used upon American pine, will have a very good effect.

Another method for imitating walnut is as follows:  One part (by weight) of walnut-shell extract is dissolved in six parts of soft-water, and slowly heated to boiling until the solution is complete.  The surface to be stained is cleaned and dried, and the solution applied once or twice; when half-dry, the whole is gone over again with one part of chromate of potash boiled in five parts of water.  It is then dried, rubbed down, and polished in the ordinary way.