For any DIYers, if not "look away now." This subject came up on one of the jukebox owners' message boards I frequent. Many of the old machines had cheap plywood cabinets, so they applied a photographic print form of artificial grain to them during assembly. The same process was used for many all metal mass produced cars of the same period achieving a "mahogany or beech look" or whatever to the steel dashboards. Eventually this was discontinued as it was expensive, but it's now possible to simulate these effects, though the kit looks expensive. There's some interesting videos of a modern process achieving a variety of the same results using rollers. http://www.woodgraining.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=37&sid=a404ea70693a060b756aed430bcd0170
That technique does look much more realistic Doghouse. Much better than that plastic stuff they stuck on car dashboards in the 1970s to try and make them look more upmarket - flipping stuff used to peel off in the sun. When we moved into our house all the internal doors had been painted with a fake woodgrain years ago. It was a very odd fashion fad, all the doors are wooden anyway so looked better when stripped :cnfs: Some of the window frames were also painted in the same way, yet they are nice hardwood underneath!
There's "fashion" for you! "Hardwood" is a bit of an oxymoron these days as none of it really is. If you can make a mark in it with your thumbnail, I don't consider it hard. There are still original pitch pine window frames in many Victorian houses which are still free of rot. But the stuff is virtually unobtainable. Though I've never seen one, I've read that Japanese pagodas were made of a form of cedar called Hinoki. Some of these are four hundred years old. To return the wood to its original condition during restoration, they plane a few millimetres off the surface and the original colour and smell returns. "For everything else, there's MDF."
In the 1940's/50's people used to use a special tool/device with which they created a 'woodgrain' effect on plain doors - I feel sure there was a name for this but cannot remember. It was hande held and I think had a 'sculpted' rubber face which was applied onto a wet painted surface - this sounds very odd but I do recall seeing it done.
I think I've seen "combs" that do the same job. But I don't think I'll be buying a kit. Someone on my jukebox message board alerted others to the kit, he bought it to restore his Seeburg "Trashcan." (one of these).
I have a set of graining combs that belonged to my great grandfather, so that would put it around the late 1800s. He apparently worked for a local brewery and had the job of "graining" doors windows and presumably bar fronts in the pubs the brewery owned. As for "hardwood" it comes from any tree that is broad leaved, so balsa is actually "hardwood". A lot of windows etc. these days are made of Meranti, the light stuff is very soft, the dark red, a bit harder. Where I work we usually make painted doors and windows in Sapele, its heavy and hard and durable, but expensive. Oak is good and not probably as expensive as is sometimes thought, but it would probably be American White, and not Euro oak. As for pitch pine, I doubt modern paint would stick to such a resinous timber, lead primers are now banned I believe. I think Hinoki might be a form of cypress? And dont mention MDF
