Written by Stewart Schooley, compiled by Patrick Franzis
Many radios and furniture made in the 20's 30's and 40's used a thin paper with a photo finish on it to replicate expensive woods. Although it looks quite nice, over the years, it can become chipped and damaged. Many collectors shy away from buying these sets because it presents the restorer with a problem. How does one replicate this finish? Once the damaged photo finish is removed, how can it be brought back to its original appearance? We now have many tools at our fingertips that radio and furniture restorers did not have years ago. Laser and Ink jet printers, copy machines, and new computer printer paper types, huge art stores. The list goes on and on.
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Getting Black and White Prints
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You can use your scanner and then use Photo
Deluxe or a similar program to scan real wood and then convert your
scans to black and white. Use lightness and or contrast to get a wood grain
print that has dark grain lines and lightwood. Make it a high-resolution
print.
Take this to a copier and print out some black and white copies. Vary the lightness and darkness of these copies so that your tests will show you different options. You can also find wood grain images from various
web sites on the internet. For links to these sites, please see the links
section below. |
You should do some 8" x 10" practice pieces first to get used to this. Squeeze about 1/4" of oil paint onto a piece of wax paper, dip your brush into stain, swoosh it around in the paint and put it on the paper. Work rapidly and slop it on. Then brush in the grain direction and follow this with a light and even smoothing using paper towel or toilet tissue. Set aside to dry.
Add additional layers of color to these practice pieces and you will soon see the potential of this method. Toners for subtle adjustment of color can be made using stain with just a very little oil paint to provide better adhesion. None of this is "art work." You are simply coloring a piece of paper that already has the wood grain on it. It is essentially no different than when you use stains and toners to match new veneer to the rest of the radio. Copy machines allow you to do up to 11" x 17." Kip and OCE printers will do larger sizes.
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Use 3M spray glue when gluing the paper to wood. Prismacolor colored pencils will also color the black and white prints. Dampen the paper with paint thinner and the pencils will work in a hurry. After the first coat, add more paint thinner on the back only. Colored pencils are good for smaller pieces, for accenting wood grains and adding color to burls. |
Adding Oil Color Over a Color Print
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Because so many printer inks are unstable, they are not acceptable
for making wood grain prints. However, you can print in reduced color and
then add additional color with layers of oil paint. This will give you
the guaranteed permanence of artist's oil colors.
Left side is the reduced color print. Right side has oil paint over it. |
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The photo to the left shows a use of color pencil when wood grains have extreme changes of color. The general color is done first and the pencil over it in the areas you want. You don't have to "draw" the lines. Just scribble back and forth as you cover the area. The left side is without color so you can see the penciling. Color pencil work should receive a light spray of finish before a heavy spray. A heavy first spray will melt the colors. |
Inlay and Marquetry
| This is a pretty simple example of this, but shows the basic idea. One piece of paper was taped over another and the shapes cut out. Contrasting pieces were then glued down on a piece of wood. If any edges are exposed, put a rag on your finger and rub on oil paint directly from the tube. |
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Web Sites for Finding Grains
http://www.klimmek-henderson.com/KHtimber.html
http://www.clickthehabit.com/tocw/veneers.html
http://www.wood-veneers.com/
http://www.thruwayhardwood.com/species.html
http://www.freemancorp.com/sample1.html
http://www.follettveneer.com/library_frame.htm
http://www.griffinokie.com/woods/woods.html
http://www.woodworking.org/WC/woodsampler.html
http://www.fetzersinc.com/wood_samples.htm
http://www.woodveneers.com/
http://www.stevecaseydesign.com/materials.htm
http://www.cbveneers.com/
http://www.jsowood.com/woodveneer.htm
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Also, see Bill Meacham's web site "Sparkbench" for his results using Stewart's photo finish methods. |
Finding the Right Supplies to Do the Job
Oil Paints: Here is a list of oil paints you will need:
Yellow Ochre
Raw Sienna
Burnt Sienna
Burnt Umber
These in combination with oil based wood stains should do every color you will probably need for a radio. Look for Grumbacher Academy Oil Paint and/or Winsor&Newton Winton Oil Paints. These are called student grade colors because they have a little less pigment and some inert filler. They are cheaper and still permanent. They are 37ml and 4" long including cap. Keep the caps on and the paint will be good for years and years. Prices in catalogs are from $2.39 to $2.99. If you order by mail, check out http://www.dickblick.com
Colored Pencils: Buy all the browns including a yellow brown and a reddish brown. Cost is about a dollar each in art supply stores. Prismacolor thick lead pencils are what you want. Verithin and Mohawk's graining pencils are for touching up grain lines. They are all made by Sanford and are the same composition. A couple old soft bristle brushes, some paint thinner and rags and you are in business.
Click here to visit Patrick's web site, "Pat's Old Radios."
Need more information or have additional questions?
Click here to send
Stewart e-mail.
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