Take of ivory-black and treacle, each 12 oz.
spermaceti oil, 4 oz.
white wine vinegar, 4 pints.
Mix.
This blacking, (recommended by Mr. Gray, lecturer on the
materia medica,) is superior in giving leather a finer polish
than any of those that are advertised, as they all contain
sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol,) which is necessary, to give
it the polishing quality, but it renders leather rotten and
very liable to crack.
_Another._
Take of vinegar, No. 18, (the common,) 1 quart,
ivory-black, and treacle, each 6 oz.
vitriolic acid, and spermaceti, (or common oil,)
each 1½ oz.
Mix the acid and oil first, afterwards add the other
ingredients; if, when it is used, it does not dry quick
enough on the leather, add a little more of the vitriol, a
little at a time. When there is too much of the vitriolic
acid, which is various in its strength, the mixture will
give it a brown colour.
_Liquid Japan Blacking._
Take 3 ounces of ivory-black, 2 ounces of coarse sugar, one ounce
of sulphuric acid, one ounce of muriatic acid, one table-spoonful
of sweet oil and lemon acid, and one pint of vinegar. First mix the
ivory-black and sweet oil together, then the lemon and sugar, with a
little vinegar, to qualify the blacking; next add the sulphuric and
muriatic acids, and mix them all well together.
_A Cheap Method._
Ivory-black, two ounces; brown sugar, one ounce and a half; and sweet
oil, half a table spoonful. Mix them well, and then gradually add
half a pint of small beer.
_Another Method._
A quarter of a pound of ivory-black, a quarter of a pound of moist
sugar, a table spoonful of flour, a piece of tallow about the size of
a walnut, and a small piece of gum arabic. Make a paste of the flour,
and whilst hot, put in the tallow, then the sugar, and afterwards mix
the whole well together in a quart of water.
_Bailey’s Composition for Blacking Cakes._
Take gum tragacanth, one ounce; neat’s-foot oil, super-fine
ivory-black, deep blue, prepared from iron and copper, each two
ounces; brown sugar-candy, river water, each four ounces. Having
mixed well these ingredients, evaporate the water, and form it into
cakes.
_Blacking Balls for Shoes._
Take mutton suet, four ounces; bees’ wax, one ounce; sweet oil, one
ounce; sugar-candy and gum arabic, one dram each in fine powder;
melt these well together over a gentle fire, and add thereto about
a spoonful of turpentine, and lamp black sufficient to give it a
good black colour. While hot enough to run, make it into a ball, by
pouring the liquor into a thin mould; or let it stand till almost
cold; when it may be moulded by the hand.