Remember the James B. Day Co. of Carpentersville, Illinois? For anything connected with wood finishing it was true north. I’d like to know why they went under and also how to source alcohol-soluble aniline dyes, which they sold in plastic bottles (red brown, yellow and orange). When first applied they would impart a very unpromising, muddy look. But once the finish went on the transformation would be like getting a silk purse from a sow’s ear, imparting a deep lustre, even to common softwoods. The alcohol base made it so easy to blend and match, a blessing when it came to bringing back old dinged-up & water-stained stripwood flooring, which was originally done in orange shellac. The alcohol would activate the shellac and enable a multitude of sins to be blended out. Pigmented discolorations would need to be sanded/scraped, however. Then, using Day’s own orange shellac, the whole could be restored, without having to sand the entire floor.
Shellac is available today, but I haven’t been able to locate the old-fashioned orange brand.
has both aniline dyes and orange shellac