This glossary of essential paint and color terms will help you, your colleagues and your clients stay on the same page when discussing projects.

This excerpt focuses on technique terms.

• Bleaching. The use of oxatic acid or other agents to lighten or restore discolored or stained wood to its original color.

• Bleeding. The diffusion of color matter from underlying surfaces through a coating, causing color change.

• Dull Rubbed Effect. A common furniture finish in which gloss is rubbed to a mar-free, dull finish with sandpaper, pumice or steel wool.

• Feathering. Blending the edges of a finished area by lifting the brush at the end of the stroke so that the edge becomes indefinite. Also, sanding a dry film and tapering the edge smooth with the underlying substrate.

• Graining. The process of applying a wood grain pattern onto a surface that does not possess natural grain textures.

• Marbling. A special-effect glazing technique that makes a substrate look like marble.

• Metalizing. A process of coating a surface with a layer of metal by spraying, vacuum deposition, dipping, plasma jet, cementation, or other methods.

• Yellowing. Development of a yellow color upon aging or curing.

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