Today there are many "quickdrying" and "onecoat" enamels on the market, in a variety of colors and glosses. While it is true that when applied over a wood as hard and as light colored as maple or birch a single coat will hide with a uniform gloss, yet it is not likely that one coat will satisfactorily cover softwoods such as white pine and basswood, porous woods like poplar and spruce, coarse woods with the variegated grainings displayed by yellow pine and fir, or dark redwood or gumwood. On soft woods, a hardening coat of shellac, diluted 50 per cent with denatured alcohol, can be applied and sanded smooth when dry with 30 abrasive. A dark wood, or one with a prominent grain, should receive a priming coat of enamel that has been reduced at the rate of a tablespoon of turpentine to a quarter pint of varnish enamel. When thoroughly dry, this coat is sanded smooth and given a second coat at can consistency. Undercoater. The best professionally applied enamel finishes consist of at least three coats and a final rubbing. This insures both greater depth and smoothness in the final film. Instead of diluting the enamel for the initial coat, an enamel undercoater is used. This is nothing more than a heavily pigmented, flatdrying hard paint that possesses better hiding qualities than are offered by the glossy enamels. The fact that the undercoater is basically a paint does not mean that a flat wall paint can be successfully substituted for it; raw paint is too soft to stand up to the necessary sanding. If, however, an undercoater is not available when needed, a satisfactory substitute can be mixed from 8 parts of flat white paint to which 1 part of enamel has been added as a hardener. Although enamel undercoater comes only in white, it can and should be tinted to approximate the shade of enamel to be used. This is easily accomplished by thinning a small amount of color ground in oil with turpentine and stirring it graduallv into the white undercoater. Since an exact match is not required, the FURNITURE FINISHING 317 final shade should not be markedly darker or lighter than the enamel. The following table indicates the approximate tint that will be produced by an ounce of thinned color added to a gallon of white undercoater, enamel, or paint: Desired Tint Pigment Color Cream Golden ocher Yellowish Medium chrome yellow Warm ivory Raw sienna Yellowish ivory Yellow ocher Peach Burnt sienna Apricot Orange chrome yellow Coral rose American vermillion Lavender pink Rose pink Orchid Rose lake Light gray Raw umber Warm gray Burnt umber Cream gray Vandyke brown Dove gray Drop black Steel gray Lamp black Gray blue Ultramarine blue Robin'segg blue Prussian blue Light blue green Blue green Light yellowish green Yellowish green Enamel Undercoat Schedule. 1. Sand surface with a 20 abrasive, clean thoroughly, and seal end grain. Seal knots with aluminum paint. 2. Apply one coat enamel undercoater tinted to approximate shade of final coat. 3.