Dying wood is mostly applied for the purpose of veneers, while staining is more generally had recourse to, to give the desired colour to the article after it has been manufactured. - In the one case, the colour should penetrate throughout; while in the latter, the surface is all that is essential.

In dying pear-tree, holly, and beech, take the best black; but for most colours holly is preferable. - It is also best to have your wood as young and as newly cut as possible. After your veneers are cut, they should be allowed to lie in a trough of water for four or five days before you put them into the copper; as the water, acting as a purgative to the wood, brings out abundance of slimy matter; which, if not thus removed, the wood will never be of a good colour; after this purifactory process, they should be dried in the open air for at least twelve hours: they are then ready for the copper. By these simple means, the colour will strike much quicker, and be of a brighter hue. It would also add to the improvement of the colours, if, after your veneers have boiled a few hours, they are taken out, dried in the air, and again immersed in the colouring copper. Always dry veneers in the open air; for fire invariably injures the colours.