ones, should be washed clean, scalded by dipping to the back, no deeper,
in boiling water, then dried, brush down, in open air, and kept dry.
Whisk brooms should hang the same as full-grown ones, likewise hearth
brooms. Stand clothes and hair brushes bristles down—this so they may
not collect dust. The safest wash for them is gasolene, letting it come
only to the back, not over it. Hot borax soapsuds, likewise used, clean
without loosening the bristles.
=Renovators—Filler for New Wood=: Sift twice together half a pint of
powdered corn starch and as much whiting. Stir gradually into a half
gallon of raw linseed oil mixed with the same quantity of turpentine.
Take care there are no lumps and keep well stirred while putting on.
=Oil Stains=: Use the same mixture of oil and turpentine. For cherry put
into the gallon an ounce of Indian red, stir well through, test, if too
pale add more color. If too deep, add oil and turpentine. Work with the
wood grain in putting on any sort of stain.
=Mahogany Stain=: Four parts Indian red, three parts burnt sienna. Mix
dry and stir evenly through the oil and turpentine. Use half sienna for
a dull tone. To make stains dry quickly add a pint more turpentine and
half a pint less oil.
=Walnut Stain=: Use burnt umber, an ounce to the gallon. A little dry
ocher mixed with the umber gives a livelier tone. Red or yellow, or
both, can be put in, but must be very well mixed.
=Oak Stain=: Raw umber is the basis of oak stain; proportion and mix
like the others. Antique oak requires burnt sienna mixed well with a
very little lampblack, also to have two parts of turpentine to one of
oil. Apply it with a sponge or swab of cotton waste and rub into the
grain lines, leaving the spaces between bare.
=Wax Finish for Stained or Hardwood=: Melt over boiling water half a
pound of yellow beeswax with half a pint of sweet oil. Beat hard a
minute, take from fire, add half a cup of turpentine, and beat until
nearly cold. Keep covered in glass or earthenware. Apply soft, but not
liquid, with a clean flannel, and polish by rubbing until hot.
=Dancing-wax=: Used on Colonial ballrooms. Melt together over boiling
water a pound of yellow beeswax and half a pint of filtered neat’s-foot
oil. Add resin the size of a walnut melted in half a cup of new unsalted
butter. Beat well, take from fire, stir in a cup of turpentine, and keep
covered. Apply soft, and polish with hard rubbing.
=Furniture Polish No. 1=: Equal parts of sweet oil, choloroform, and
alcohol shaken hard together, rubbed on quickly, then polished by
rubbing until hot.
=Piano Polish=: Shake hard together equal parts of sweet oil,
turpentine, and vinegar. Add a very little naphtha, apply with silk or
flannel, and rub hard afterward.
=French Polish=: For dark wood, especially old mahogany. Melt together
over hot water ten parts pale resin, ten parts palm oil. Mix, take from
fire, add eighty parts benzine, one part essence peppermint, and half a
part essence of verbena. Keep sealed in glass, away from heat. Use away
from light or fire. Apply with soft old silk, and polish by rubbing with
very soft silk or flannel.
=The Glue Pot=: Melt glue only as required. Cover dry glue with cold
water after breaking up well, put salt water in the bath outside, bring
to a boil, then simmer until the glue ropes a little. Thin with hot
vinegar. To mend things white or light-colored, melt the clearest glue
in a china cup inside a saucepan, and thin after melting with gin
instead of vinegar.
=To Make Glue Size=: Melt a pound of glue, thin with a quart of hot
vinegar, then stir well through two to five gallons hot water, according
to the strength required.
=Vegetable Size=: Tie a gallon of wheat bran or cornmeal bran loosely in
net or cheesecloth; boil for five hours in five gallons of water,
filling up as it boils away. Add a lump of alum after the bran bag is
removed. Apply hot to walls or wood.
=Calcimine=: Stir sifted whiting into strong glue size until it is
thicker than cream. Clear with a little blueing. Thin at need with
boiling water. Tint with earth colors in powder. Red and yellow ocher
mixed give a pinkish-cream tint; yellow alone true cream. Indian red
makes pink; by adding burnt sienna the color is pinkish fawn. Yellow
ocher with burnt umber gives various shades of brown. Always mix colors
rather pale at first, try out on a board, then add what is lacking.
=Whitewashes=: Either glue or vegetable size may be the foundation. Add
a big lump of salt to five gallons of size, stir well, and pour boiling
hot upon half a peck of unslaked lime. Clear with Prussian blue and
apply very hot. For sanitary carbolic whitewash use vegetable size,
dissolving in five gallons, boiling hot, two ounces of carbolic
crystals. Then pour upon the lime and mix well. Two ounces of
copperas—green vitriol—dissolved instead of the carbolic acid gives a
faint-yellow tinge and is a good prophylactic. To kill vermin, as in
poultry houses, nest boxes, and so on, mix through a pail of hot wash
five grains of corrosive sublimate dissolved in a pint of water; put on
as a first coat, and after a while give a second coat of plain
whitewash.
=Milk Whitewash=: Stir into a gallon of sweet milk enough unslaked lime
in fine powder to make it thicker than cream. Add a teacup of
turpentine, stir well, and put on at once with a paint brush. This
sticks to smooth wood nearly the same as paint, and can be colored with
earth paints almost any shade.
=Paste for Paper-hanging=: Wet up smooth in cold water two
tablespoonfuls of flour and stir it into a gallon of water on the
bubbling boil. Stir hard to prevent lumps, add a small spoonful of
tallow, cook for several minutes, then add an ounce of alum dissolved in
half a pint of boiling water. Take from fire and add ten drops oil of
cloves.
=White Mucilage=: For mending books and making scrap books. Cover clean
gum tragacanth with cold water, let stand till dissolved, then add oil
of cloves to keep from molding. Keep in a glass jar tightly closed. This
leaves no mark.
=Gum Arabic=: For clear starching and shirt bosoms. Get four ounces of
dry gum, pick over carefully, throwing out dark pieces and blowing away
dust. Pour upon it a pint of boiling water, let stand till dissolved,
filter, and bottle. A tablespoonful added to a quart of starch gives a
high gloss. Two spoonfuls in a quart of tepid water will stiffen fine
lawn or muslin sufficiently and restore the new look.
=Paper Dough=: Crumple newspaper very soft, tear to bits, dampen, pound,
and knead well, then wet with strong glue size and knead to a dough. For
wall breaks, rat holes, filling yawning cracks, or rounding corners, mix
in plaster of Paris at the moment of application and pound in place
before the plaster sets. Mix only what can be used at once.
=White Cement=: Mix sifted whiting to a soft dough with white of egg,
for filling small holes in white walls or cracks in ceilings. Press in
with a blunt knife and smooth the surface with the blade dipped in cold
water.
=Sand and Plaster=: Sift together fine sand and plaster, wet with hot
water, and use to fill bigger breaks in a wall. Wet only a little at a
time and work quickly. Lay a board over the mortar as soon as in place,
and beat with a hammer to smooth.
=Putty=: Sift two pounds of whiting into a bowl, make a hole in the
middle, and wet with raw linseed oil, soft or stiff according to your
requirements. Knead the same as dough. To keep, pack down in glass and
pour a little oil over the top. Should be always on hand, as it is about
the most useful of the renovators.
=Cement for Glass=: Cover isinglass with gin in a glass jar, set in
sunshine until dissolved, then filter. It should be as clear as water.
For mending colored glass rub down a trifle of oil color in a spoonful
of the cement.
=Sugar Cement=: Cook to candy height the purest loaf sugar. Apply hot to
heated edges.
=Lime Water=: Pour a gallon of boiling water upon a lump of quicklime
the size of two fists. Stir hard, let settle, pour off the clear water,
bottle, and keep corked tight.
=Javelle Water=: A bleach so effectual it must not touch colors.
Dissolve half a pound of washing-soda in a pint of boiling water, and
add it to a quart of boiling water in which a quarter pound of chloride
of lime has been dissolved. Stir, let settle, pour off clear, bottle,
cork, and keep dark.
=Chloride-of-lime Water=: Pour a gallon of boiling water upon a pound of
dry chloride. Stir well, let settle, pour off clear, bottle, and keep
well corked, dark, and cool. Dissolve in wood or earthenware—metal
corrodes.
=Oxalic Acid=: Put four ounces of crystals with half a pint cold water
into a quart bottle, shake hard and often till the crystals dissolve.
This makes a saturated solution. If ragged crystals remain, add a gill
more cold water. Keep plainly labeled “Poison.” Take care not to let it
touch a scratch or fresh cut on the hands, also to keep it away from
children.
=Copperas Water=: Dissolve a heaping tablespoonful of copperas in a
gallon of boiling water. Pour through drains, sinks, or into gutters.
Sprinkle bad-smelling places plentifully with it and spray it over
green-scummed pools. It is an ideal disinfectant—cheap, odorless, and
effectual, withal safe.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV
CHINA, GLASS, AND FURNITURE
=Washing Fine China=: Never soak fine china, never wash it with
scouring-soap, soap powder, nor yellow-resin soap. Unless very greasy
clean with borax water. Wipe and scrape off as much soil as possible
before washing. Have the water pleasantly warm—boiling water is ruinous.
Rinse water should be a trifle hotter than the suds. Except in
emergencies, never put on any sort of soap. Put only a few pieces at a
time into the suds, wash, rinse, and stand to drain. Have a thick cloth
on the draining-board—with very thin ware have another thick cloth over
the pan bottom. Change suds as they grow dirty. Add hot water from time
to time. Even temperature is the thing. Wipe with soft clean towels
after draining well, but before the ware is dry. Wash things in sets; as
dried lay a paper napkin between, and set away the pile upon something
soft. Squares of Turkish toweling are excellent.
Use a soft thick brush for relief or incised decorations or lace edges.
Dip it lightly in powdered borax or white soapsuds and rub steadily but
not too hard. Set things which have held milk, creams, thick soups,
sauces, or gelatine compounds in clear warm water for three minutes, and
rub away as much of what sticks to them as possible before putting them
into the suds. Soap combined with milk or gelatine makes the water
slimy, the ware sticky. Boiling water sets either milk or gelatine. If
possible, rinse and wash things soiled with them as soon as empty. In
wiping do not rub gilt borders—rather pat them dry.
Burnish half yearly with a swab of sifted whiting tied in soft silk.
Intricate gilding may have the whiting sifted on while damp and brushed
off after drying. In storing keep sets and sizes together. Set things so
they will not jostle nor clatter nor tip. Stand platters on edge in a
special grooved shelf, the biggest at the back. If piled, put something
between, less to save breakage than to prevent a possible chipping of
glaze. Things bought in cases should be stored in them, the cases set in
drawers or on low shelves. High setting invites dropping and ruinous
breakage.
=Ironstone and Majolica=: Wash in warm (not hot) suds, with a clean soft
cloth, rinse in hotter water, and wipe almost immediately. Beware of
chipping, beware also of cracking glaze by setting in heat or boiling
water. Such ware is porous enough to take up grease and other things.
Cracked or chipped dishes should not be used except to hold things like
raw fruit, bread, sandwiches, or dry stores.
=Gilt and Cut Glass=: Remove cream or jelly with a quick rinse, wash in
suds or borax water, a little more than blood-warm, using a clean soft
brush on the cuttings. Have a cloth on the pan bottom if the cutting is
deep, the article of good size. Use white soap—resin soaps get into fine
lines and stay there. Pass from suds into a hotter rinse water, turn
over and about, lift, turn upside down, then plunge into another water a
very little hotter. If the ware is very white, the third water should
have salt in it—a tablespoonful to the gallon. With glass less white,
put blueing in the third water, turn about, and set upside down upon a
thick cloth for three minutes, then put in a box and sift over hot fine
sawdust—“jeweler’s sawdust” if possible, else dust with fine whiting,
set in a warm (not hot) place and leave till dry. Brush off sawdust or
whiting with a stiff brush, polish lightly with soft old silk, and store
when fully cool.
Glass with silver inlay or incrustation must be rubbed after washing
with a chamois skin dipped in whiting. Clean decanters and claret jugs
by putting inside either a few buckshot and shaking them about in a
cupful of tepid water dashed with ammonia, or else lightly folded
squares of stiff brown paper with barely enough ammonia water to
moisten. These remove wine incrustations. If the stains are obstinate,
fill the decanter with tepid water, add a pinch of borax, and let it
stand. Tiny pills of whiting wet up with alcohol and ammonia, dried,
dropped inside, and shaken about, then dissolved out with tepid water,
leave the insides clear and bright. So do crushed egg shells.
Wash gilt and Bohemian glass—indeed, any fancy glass—with a very soft
brush and tepid white suds, rinse in hotter water, drain almost dry,
then polish with absorbent cotton dipped lightly in powdered whiting.
Iridescent and bubble glass should not be wiped. Drain instead, and
polish when ready to use with a wisp of cotton. Cameo glass, or any with
patterns in relief, must be washed with a stiff brush, in weak suds,
rinsed thoroughly, and dried in gentle, steady heat rather than wiped.
=Pressed Glass=: Wash and rinse in water the same temperature, drain,
but not too long, and wipe. Beware of linty towels. Be sure to run cloth
or mop inside water glasses, otherwise they become dull quickly. Wash
pitchers the same way; water leaves sediment—accumulations of it are
hard to remove. Imitation cuttings must be brushed—they had better be
eschewed. Plain, clear surfaces are much handsomer. Bowls set one in the
other should have paper between. Load no glass thing heavily—the rumble
or jar of a passing wagon may cause breakage if you do.
=Annealing Glass=: Annealing lessens sensibly the risk of breakage. Pack
the glass snugly in a boiler, fill with cold water, bring to a boil,
keep simmering three to four hours, then throw over a thick cloth and
let cool very slowly. Remove only when fully cold. Especially useful for
thin tumblers, lamp chimneys, and finger bowls. Put a board or a handful
of clean sticks in the bottom of the boiler, so the heat shall not break
things set lowest.
=Knives and Forks=: Have a pitcher just tall enough to hold knives, up
to the handle. Do not quite fill it with very hot borax suds, stand
knives in it, and leave till other things are out of the way, then wash
blades, wipe off handles, rinse very quickly in clear tepid water, wipe
dry, polish with a clean chamois, and hold with a clean cloth in putting
away. This to save finger marks which grow often to stains or tarnishes
upon knives seldom used. All-silver knives can be treated the same as
other silver or plated things—still pitcher-washing is as good for them
as any other. Ivory handles or pearl ones, or those of stag-horn or
composition, all are injured by either soaking or very hot water.
Carving-sets are frequently defaced hopelessly by rubbing the handles
with scouring-soap. Instead use only lather, washing it off instantly.
If suspicious of grease in the seam, wrap a fine-pointed skewer in thin
cloth and run all around, pressing hard. Wipe knife handles very dry,
else lay them for ten minutes in gentle heat to expel possible moisture
around the rivets.
=Restoring Antique Furniture=: Take out grease or ink spots (see section
Spots and Stains), then go over with a turpentine cloth sopping wet, rub
and rub and rub. Follow with an alcohol cloth and more rubbing, then a
wash in strong hot suds, followed by rubbing dry. Now take stock of the
surface. If there are dents, raise them by laying on very wet
blotting-paper and drying it with a blazing-hot iron. Repeat if
necessary—steam does the work. Sandpaper away scratches, or rub them
with emery and a little oil, or scrape with broken glass. Go over again
with turpentine to remove the last traces of varnish or grime. Then
sandpaper to a new surface, and either oil, varnish, or give a wax
finish (see section Renovators).
Before resurfacing drive up loose dowels, wedging them tight, glue
afresh rickety joins, strengthening them further with slender brads
driven in from the under side. Glue broken bits in place—if they are
missing, make the break smooth and fit into it a new piece. Cut the old
wood, slanting outward—thus it is possible to drive very short brads
from underneath. A vise helps greatly in such repairs—the harder held
the pieces, the firmer and less visible the join. After it is dry,
sandpaper; if the new wood fails to match the old, stain and rub down
before waxing or polishing. Tiny gaps can be filled with putty mixed
with dry color approaching that of the wood. This will take either oil
stain or a wax finish.
Tighten rickety drawers so they slide easily. Remedy bad feet by
chiseling out shattered wood and putting in plugs of sound wood to hold
the castors. Glue in the new plugs, also nail them fast. Grease the
points of nails to save splitting the old wood. Set them invisibly and
drive gently, but see that they go fully home. Remove glass or brass
mounting while resurfacing. Clean and brighten them (see section Brass)
before replacing. Tighten metal linings about keyholes with putty, put
on inside. All padding, upholstery, or baize tops must, of course, be
taken wholly away. Save them, no matter how ragged, as patterns for new
stuff.
Refinish and repair frames thus stripped before recovering. Very
handsome things had better be put in professional hands unless you have
practised upon plainer ones. It is a waste of strength and material to
put handsome new covers over musty padding or to botch and pucker
hopelessly through inexperience. In the courage of her economies a
clever woman learns quickly the knack of upholstery. Minute directions
are impossible—each sofa or couch or easy chair is so much a law unto
itself. In a general way, have all necessary things handy—as covering
muslin, webbing, springs, tacks, twine, upholsterer’s needles, moss or
curled hair, brads in variety, sharp shears, and stout pliers for
dragging through reluctant needles. Press out old covers and use as
patterns for the new. Model your work as nearly as possible on what you
took away. Remember always before fastening on covers to mark the middle
of them and set it accurately to the middle of the frame, tacking it
thence both ways. Pad arms and backs first, then basket-weave webbing
across the bottom, drawing it very taut, put on springs, fasten them
with twine to the webbing, lay thin cloth over, put a thick layer of
stuffing upon it, then fit the muslin cover and tack smoothly to the
frame. Tuft or leave plain according to style and period. Cut the
ornamental covering very accurately, sew together, following the
original, fit smooth, and cover the edges with gimp. With figured
material, cut so the boldest figure shall appear in the middle of back
and seat or equidistant from ends of the panels of long sofas. Practise
upon something cheap—here as everywhere else experience is the best
teacher.
=Care of Antiques=: Old mahogany, rose-wood, ebony, cherry, or walnut
differ little in their requirements. Each and several, they film over.
To brighten, wash in warm (not hot) naphtha soapsuds, wetting only a
little space at a time, wiping it quickly with a cloth wrung from clear
hot water, and as quickly rubbing dry. Washing complete, rub hard with
old silk or flannel, then apply either French polish, piano polish, or
wax finish (see section Renovators). Put this on with a soft cloth and
rub in until the surface burns your hand. Washing is necessary about
half yearly, except in rooms where there is a great deal of gas or
candlelight and much greasy vapor. Dinner tables in steady use ought to
be washed and polished monthly. Rub deep carvings with chamois over the
point of a blunt skewer, changing its place every little while.
=Brass Bedsteads=: Respect their lacquer. Keep water far from them,
likewise alcohol, gasolene, or naphtha. Smears may be wiped off with
cloths slightly damp, followed by wiping with one dry and soft. Wipe
dust away with softened cheesecloth, remove finger marks by gentle
rubbing with crumpled soft silk or old flannel. Have a thick soft brush
to take dust from carving or curled rails. Wipe off grease with soft
flannel and polish the spot with a very little sifted chalk or whiting
on a clean cloth. Tarnish is a proof that lacquer has been destroyed—the
remedy is relacquering, but mitigate until that is possible by oxalic
acid or vinegar and salt (see section Renovators).
Brass trimmings upon enamel bedsteads, cribs, etc., need the same care.
So do brass frames, trays, etc. Elaborate chasings can be brightened
without injury by coating thickly with powdered starch, letting it stand
a day, then brushing it away.
=Mission Furniture and Fumed Oak=: Dust real mission pieces with a soft
damp cloth followed by a dry one barely sprinkled with turpentine. Use
any good leather dressing on seats and backs. Neat’s-foot oil and
beeswax, equal quantities, melted over hot water with twice their bulk
of turpentine, is a good thing, and safe. Apply soft but not liquid, put
on barely enough to rub over the leather, and rub until absorbed. For
fumed and Flemish oak use a soft, thick dust brush, followed by a thick
cloth slightly dampened. If greasy or grimy, wash very quickly in hot
naphtha soapsuds, wipe dry, and rub until hot. Once a year rub very
lightly over with sweet oil, turpentine, and alcohol, equal parts,
shaken well together. Varnished pieces can have thin white varnish
instead of alcohol. Put on with flannel and rub till hot.
=Gilt Furniture=: Dust well, and either sift on whiting, let stand an
hour, and brush off or cover a little at a time with whiting and
alcohol, as thick as cream, let stand three minutes, wipe with a damp
cloth, and rub dry with old silk or flannel. Take away specks of whiting
or tarnish with a swab of chalk tied in silk and wet with alcohol. Cork
sawdust tied tight in chamois makes a good burnisher if high polish is
desired. Garlands, bow knots, and traceries need to be rubbed out with a
blunt skewer inside a clean leather and polished the same way, using
silk or flannel in place of leather.
=Gilt Frames=: Cover with the cream of whiting and alcohol after wiping
and brushing away all possible dust. Remove and polish as above
directed. Repair breaks and chippings with plaster wet with white of
egg, and paint with the finest gold paint, then burnish. Take off fly
specks with a cloth dipped in alcohol, and rub away any obstinate dark
specks or remnant of whiting with the same cloth.
=Upholstered Furniture=: Cover the stuffings with a bath towel, whip
lightly, shaking the towel whenever it shows dust, then brush evenly
with a soft bristle brush, wipe out the tuftings with a swab of cotton
tied in silk on the point of a blunt skewer. Wipe quickly all over with
a flannel wrung dry out of hot water, following with a cloth wet in
alcohol. Change or wash the cloths as they grow dirty, especially upon
delicate colors. Neither cloths nor swabs must be wet enough to leave
marks. Alcohol, properly used, will leave no trace upon anything. Wash
the wood in white soapsuds, about blood-warm, wipe dry, and rub with a
flannel sprinkled with kerosene. This for ordinary wood; very fine
things, and especially inlaid ones, had better have sweet oil and
turpentine on the polishing-cloth, and not too much.
Upholstery can be dry-cleaned with starch and whiting sifted together
and applied thickly all over it. Let stand a day, in sunshine if
possible, then brush off, going over and over. If there are grimy
spaces, wet them with alcohol before putting on the powder. Brush hard,
and if flecks remain take them off with a cloth wet in alcohol.