Keith Graff, owner of Fenton, Mo.-based Graff Floor Sanding LLC, is one of the industry’s most avid collectors of wood flooring history, whether that means sanding machines or large thumbtacks promoting oak strip flooring. “I’ve gotten stuff from all around the world—Australia, Russia, the U.K. ... everywhere,” he says. “I’m always looking; it’s an addiction. My wife is like, ‘What did you order today?!’” One of the more unusual items in his collection is the Chi-Namel “graining tool.” “Use Chi-Namel Graining Process to transform old, dirty looking softwood floors, doors, woodwork and furniture into beautiful hardwood effects,” says a Chi-Namel ad from the Saturday Evening Post dated April 14, 1923. The brochure even gives directions for “a border-effect of inlaid design” with perplexing directions including telling the user to “Hold brush parallel with the floor and whip the moist Compound with the tips of the bristles.”
