curiously utilised. The bottom only had been broken, and it was cut off
round and evenly with a file. Within it there hung from the cork by a
cord a very large nail or small bolt of iron. Thus prepared, it made a
capital and appropriate dinner-bell. Here in Italy I have often seen
bells made of crockery or terra-cotta; their tone is better than would
be supposed.
WOOD-SHAVINGS
IN MENDING AND MAKING MANY OBJECTS
“_In human industry, there is on an average a loss of fifty per
cent. in labour or material._”--Observations on Art, by CHARLES G.
LELAND.
There is no country in the world in which the art of mending is so
much required as in the United States of North America. The reason for
this is the extraordinary and sudden changes in temperature, causing
the expansion and contraction of cells and fibre, especially in wood,
which results in cracks. Thus seasoned furniture and carvings, which
have remained unchanged for centuries, it may be for a thousand years,
in any part of Europe, shrink and split very often within a month after
being placed in a drawing or dining room in Boston or Philadelphia, as
I know by sad experience. Thus I have known a very beautiful Italian
mandoline, three hundred years old, richly inlaid with ivory, to so
shrink and warp in America that a professional mender declared that
nothing could be done with it. The sounding-board had curled up like a
scroll and split, and the mosaic or inlaying had fallen out in bits.
In such a case, carefully detach the warped piece or pieces, and dampen
the concave side carefully with a sponge till it resumes its flatness
or usual form. When this is attained, take very thin shavings of a
firm wood, as thin as they can be shaved, and glue them transversely,
or _grain across grain_, to the under or plain side of the board. This
will probably prevent all warping in future, especially if the best
mastic and fish-glue is employed. It may here be noted that where the
shavings cannot be obtained, thin parchment or even note-paper may be
used, and that good, strong varnish, or not too thin, may be used for a
binder. There are many cases in which parchment or paper are preferable
to wood in repairing, as being less liable to warp or crack.
[Illustration: _Patterns cut from Wood-Shavings._]
WOOD-SHAVINGS, which are as yet but little utilised in art, have,
however, before them “a great future.” Combined with glue, or other
binders, they can be made, even under the hand-roller, into boards,
which have the advantage that they can be moulded, curved, or turned
to suit many emergencies which would require a great deal of saw or
carving work.
It is not unusual to employ veneers, or very thin sheets of wood, as
a guard across the grain where shrinking is to be apprehended, as in
tablets for painting on or panels, and it is a great pity that this
very cheap precaution is so little used. But there are very few cases
in which shavings are not as applicable, and they have the great
advantage of being obtainable wherever there is a plane and wood.
Holes or defects in wood--for example, in American shingle roofs or the
clap-boarded sides of houses--can often be more cheaply and readily
repaired with shavings and glue (into which oil is infused) than by any
other means. And it may be observed that such a coating of shavings
and glue, laid on to a new roof, is the cheapest and most effective
protector against rain or sun or frost.
In certain work wood-shavings can be advantageously combined with paper
to give a solid, smooth surface and firm body. Here the paper-paste,
with or without sawdust, is first forced into the cavities, and the
shavings superadded.
Shavings and glue are excellent for the temporary repair of boats,
and if the mending be _properly executed_, it will be as durable as
the original wood. It would be an easy matter indeed to make a canoe
entirely of shavings and glue. If the hand-roller be well used and
thoroughly applied, the result will be a very firm fabric.
[Illustration: _Pattern to be cut out of Shavings and applied with Glue
to a Panel._]
It may be worth knowing in the wilderness, that where a backwoodsman
has a _plane_ (and he can always make one if he has a chisel, which,
again, can be made out of a knife-blade) he can make shavings, and
with these and some kind of _binder_--even clay--he can lay a dry, hard
floor, when perhaps boards are not to be obtained. The substratum may
be of beaten clay or stone. If of sufficient thickness and well rolled,
such a floor as this would be impervious to damp.
Any surface can be very well _veneered_ with shavings and glue.
Smooth the surface by pressure or rolling, and when dry glass-paper
it. Veneers are often not to be had; shavings may be got in every
carpenter’s shop.
Not only very strong and elastic canes, but even _bows_ of a superior
quality, can be made of shavings. The Indians in Pacific America make
the latter by pasting and pressing one shaving on another with great
care. It may be understood that where the grain, as in a piece of wood,
runs _altogether_ in one way, it will split with the grain. But where
it is not uniform or connected, and is very powerfully incorporated
by pressure with a good binder, we may easily have a very elastic and
tough fabric, not so likely to split as wood. Thus we can make from
hickory shavings a wood less liable to warp or split than the original
wood itself.
Wood-shavings and glue are admirably adapted to repair broken boxes
or any other articles of wood, especially for smoothing over roughly
mended surfaces and covering knot-holes or other defects. In all cases
when possible use the roller, and when pasting one piece on the other
cross the grains.
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, such as guitars, violins, and mandolins, are
very easily repaired with shavings and glue; and this is, indeed, in
many cases, the very best means of reparation, since, while a piece
of wood may or may not injure the tone, the shavings always give a
good vibration. And where it is quite beyond the power of any ordinary
amateur, say a lady, to set in a piece of wood or apply one, or to
get it of a proper thickness, anybody with care can paste on thin
shavings--the thinner the better--till the defect is repaired. In
many cases parchment or paper will answer just as well, and I have
myself thus perfectly mended violins which were apparently beyond
all bettering, and got to the stage of _lasciate ogni speranza_, or
hopelessness.
There are, however, many cases of badly fractured objects in which the
owner gives up hope, because it seems _impossible to make a beginning_.
Now, “whatever can be made can be mended” is true of everything except
morals, and even in these there is more to be done than men wot of. And
in a great number of these cases parchment strips, thin linen tape, or
especially wood-shavings, can be used with success. Bring the broken
edges together if they warp apart, and attach them with the strip and
strongest cement; that is, with small pieces of the “fastener.” Do not
attempt to do everything at once. When the edges are united and the
_binder_ dried, fill in all crevices or holes with a suitable paste
or “filler”--not too much at once, in certain cases. Then, as will
generally be required, cover the surface with thin shavings and binder;
as it dries, file or glass-paper it smooth. The shavings will make,
with mastic and fish-glue, in many cases, a far better repair than
could be effected with a piece of wood or parchment, because they will
never _split_, like the former, if they are applied lying transversely
or crossways, nor stretch like the latter.
It may depend, in many cases, on what _wood_ the shavings consist of.
As I have observed, even in the bush a plane can be made with a chisel
or a piece of a table-knife blade, set in a wooden block; but elsewhere
any carpenter will easily supply what is wanted, _ad libitum_.
The paste or filler of wood-powder or paper-pulp will be found
described in other chapters.
ORNAMENTAL WORK OF SHAVINGS--MARQUETRY
_A curious kind of ornament_ can be made by cutting out decorative
patterns, human figures, animals, flowers, &c., from shavings with
scissors or pen-knives, then glueing them on a smooth soft board.
Apply as much pressure as possible, so as to make them sink into the
wood, and when dry coat the whole with varnish, till an even surface
is established. Rub over the dried surface with finest glass or
emery-paper, and then smooth patiently with the palm of the hand. If
this be well executed the result will be a perfect imitation of inlaid
wood, although it is really an art by itself, which, I believe, is my
own invention. Thin veneers may also be used instead of shavings. Ebony
or walnut thus _appliqué_ on _larch_ or _holly_ make exquisite work.
This kind of ornament has great advantage over inlaid wood or
marquetry, for the pieces of which it consist are far less liable to
be detached or peel off, while it looks quite as beautiful. And be it
observed that, laid with a transverse grain, it prevents warping and
strengthens the ground, while inlaying weakens it; for to make the bed
for inlaying or mosaic we must excavate the bed till it is extremely
thin and liable to warp, whereas in shaving-work we make a light but
very strengthening addition.
A single experiment will suffice to convince the reader of the merits
of this very useful, elegant, and novel art. It is specially applicable
to ornamenting albums and book-covers, where it may be used even on
pasteboard.
REPAIRING PANEL PICTURES WITH SHAVINGS
It is often a very difficult matter to obtain a thin panel or
strips and do all the work properly when we wish to put into shape
a warped panel, let us say of an old picture, which is on the point
of splitting. The inserting screws is very dangerous. I myself have
inadvertently thus made a fearful blemish in a Madonna’s face. But if
we use _shavings_ there is no such danger. Wet the back till the panel
is flat, and then _gradually_ glue on the shavings across the grain.
This is as well done with small bits as large. With a picture it would
be well to continue the coating to the thickness of one-third of an
inch or more, but a very thin coating will go far to prevent warping or
bending. The thinnest panels or veneers may be thus “backed up” into
solid boards. In all cases where practicable, use heavy pressure on the
roller.
REPAIRING WOODWORK
“_Among the thousand mad schemes which were proposed by projectors
was one for making sawdust into boards._”--History of the South Sea
Bubble.
Very few people, even among workmen and artists, are aware of what
remarkable and curious restoration the most decayed pieces of wood are
capable. We will, however, begin with the simplest repairing, or that
of furniture.
When articles of furniture have been strongly and properly made of oak
or other hard wood, and as properly used, they will last for centuries;
and should some unforeseen accident take away legs or arms, they can be
perfectly replaced, especially in the admirable old-fashioned German
objects of the kind, which were all put together with wooden pins or
by means of mortise and tenon, so that, when need required, they could
be packed as boards;--nor were they the less elegant for this. But if
furniture be simply sawed from soft, cheap deal or poplar, and merely
glued together (as most cheap furniture made in England is), it will
soon warp and break up, and all the mending in the world will not make
it better than it was when new. Glue is, therefore, the great material
for most woodwork, and, as I shall show, in two very different forms.
Having a broken chair-leg, which can, however, be fitted together,
first prepare your glue in a proper kettle--that is, a _balneum mariæ_,
or one kettle in another. In the outer is only boiling water; in the
inner the glue, mixed with water. The reason for this is, that glue,
when softened with water, dries up very rapidly under the action of air
or fire, while the softer heat of water keeps it, so to speak, “alive.”
But if, while the glue is soft, we pour, say, a teaspoonful of nitric
acid into half-a-pint of glue, it will remain soft a much longer
time--which is a valuable secret to many, especially where large, broad
surfaces of veneers are to be glued on, and where, the process being
slow, it is desirable for the adhesive to remain soft for many minutes.
And here I would mention that the acid-glue will remain in a liquid
state for one year if tightly corked up in a bottle. Its only defect is
a disagreeable, pungent smell.
This glue can be improved by being made as follows:--Take of best glue
three parts, place them in eight parts of water, and allow the mixture
to soak some hours. Take half a part of hydrochloric or muriatic
acid and three-quarters of a part of sulphate of zinc; add to these
the glue, and keep the whole at a moderately high temperature till
fluid--that is to say, boil the glue as usual in a _balneum mariæ_
or in hot water, after soaking it all night in water. Then stir in
the hydrochloric (or muriatic) acid and sulphate of zinc. This is a
first-class glue. Keep it in a bottle with an oiled cork; any other
stopper would adhere. But for all ordinary work the glue, with nitric
acid, will suffice, as it holds with great tenacity to anything.
This glue, which keeps liquid for a long time, and which holds without
scaling off, as common glue often does, may also be made with _very
strong_ vinegar. The latter, in fact, amounts to the same thing in
most European countries, but especially in the United States, where,
according to the New York _Tribune_, there is literally no vinegar
sold or made, save from sulphuric acid and water. Perhaps when mankind
shall have reached a higher stage of civilisation, all dealers will
be compelled by law to place on every article of food sold the list
of ingredients of which it is composed. We should then know how much
oleomargarine passes for butter, and what proportion of “delicious
conserves” are manufactured from apples alone or turnips.
Observe that in glueing ordinary wood together the two pieces to be
attached should be gradually but very well _heated_ first. This renders
them more inclined to “take” the glue. This is applicable to other
substances.
Also note that when two surfaces have been made to adhere with ordinary
water-glue, should they come apart when cold, it is very difficult to
make them unite again. But this is not the case with acid-glue. And if
you have such surfaces which will not unite, wash them with nitric acid
or very strong vinegar, and the glue then applied will “take.” Also
observe that the acid-glue is far stronger than the common kind.
Having the broken leg fitted, first with a narrow gimlet or brad-awl
make a hole crossing the fracture, then glue the pieces together, and
before the glue dries put a screw or two through the hole; _i.e._,
_screw_ the pieces together. This will hold perfectly, if you will sink
the head of the screw in the wood, smooth it with a file, then putty it
over and paint it.
It seems strange that anything can be so mended as to be stronger
than before; yet this is literally true as regards the broken leg of
a chair, a cane, a beam, the mast or spar of a vessel, or any similar
long piece of wood. This is effected as follows:--Cut the two separated
pieces into two exactly fitting “steps” or mortises, as shown in this
illustration.
[Illustration]
Fasten these with glue and screws; or, better still, by adding to both
two sliding, tightly fitting ring-tubes, or one long one. This will
actually make the stick stronger than it was at first. The rings should
be covered with paper, glued, and then painted and varnished.
The processes of glueing and screwing are applicable to most fractures
of furniture. Where a piece of wood is broken away, it, or a similar
piece, must be inserted. When wood is warped it may be straightened
by applying wet towels. Observe that if a flat panel is warped thus--
[Illustration] you must wet the upper or concave side, put it under
heavy weight, and as soon as it becomes straight, screw it down with
transverse strips. Drawers which are made from badly seasoned wood
are a grief to the heart. They warp and stick. When you find that
such is the case you can save yourself much annoyance by examining
them, planing away the obstructions, and nailing transverse strips of
wood across; that is to say, pieces in which _the grain_ of the strip
crosses that of the wood. Very good and well-seasoned English furniture
often warps badly in India; therefore it should be thus protected.
This can in most cases be better done with strips of metal. In large
wardrobes, presses, or chests, where there are broad and often thin
panels, this precaution should always be taken. As I write I have just
seen two exquisitely painted and valuable pictures on panel, one of
which had curved and split in two, while the other was badly warped for
want of such a precaution, which would have cost only a penny’s worth
of strip and screws and half-an-hour’s work to save them.
It will very often happen in mending furniture that neither nail, glue,
nor screw can be relied on. In such case bore with a suitable gimlet
and pass wire through the hole. Flexible wire twisted in two strands,
with the ends properly secured, say to the head of a screw, all being
sunk beneath the level, will hold almost anything.
Frames for looking-glasses or pictures often “spring” at the joints.
In such cases a screw with acidulated glue will make them permanently
strong.
Always put handles to drawers. The vile invention or device of using
the key for a handle is by far too common. Metallic handles of brass
are preferable to wooden knobs. Keys are often lost, or else break.
The bottom of a drawer should always be secured by screws.
When the bottom of a drawer, as frequently happens, shrinks and becomes
too short, so that there is a long opening, the latter should be filled
with a strip of wood. The chief cause why modern furniture is apt to
become loose or separate is chiefly due to its being made either of
unseasoned or soft wood, such as weak deal or poplar, which absorbs
moisture from the air and then dries and shrinks, or because it is made
of too many pieces only glued together, and that with cheap, bad glue.
RESTORING DECAYED WOOD.--The worst cases of decay or of worm-eaten
wood can be perfectly restored in this manner:--Take fine sawdust of
the same kind of wood as the original. Let it be as fine as possible,
either cut with a refined saw or powdered in a mortar. Sift it. Then
with acidulated glue, or else plain, clear, white Salisbury glue for
light wood, make a paste, well mixed. With this you can fill up holes
(using a spatula or flexible knife or ivory paper-knife). But, what
is more, you can thus make a very strong _artificial wood_ which can
be moulded into any form, and when dry polished by cutting over the
surface with a chisel or flat gouge, and using a file or glass-paper to
finish. In fact, you can mould or model figures with this wood-paste by
itself. Putty is generally used for such repairs, but the wood-paste is
like wood, and quite as durable.
If you have a mould of plaster of Paris, boil it in oil, clean it, and
then oil it. With the wood-paste you can make ornaments which can be
applied to plain wood surfaces.
Splints, fractures, cracks, holes, corners broken away, are all easily
restored with wood-paste. In moulding it the fingers should be oiled to
prevent its sticking.
Any kind of dry sawdust can thus be converted into a paste, which, when
dry, becomes wood. It may be very much hardened under a hydraulic-press
or by a wooden hand-roller. Housekeepers should use this composition
for filling up rat-holes, or any kind of crevices in furniture, or
panels, or doors and walls, especially where such cracks harbour
insects.
It would be perfectly possible to construct an entire house of such
wood-cement, and one which would be perfectly durable, or even more so
than wood, since beams and planks thus made never crack, split, nor
warp. With it the boldest vaulting and arch work can be more easily
made than in stone or with wood, as the latter is usually worked.
As builders in Turkey form domes by making circles of clay or mud,
and gradually add to the first a smaller one, so by using wood-paste
the largest space could be covered or domed over without building
a scaffolding. There are many places in the world where (as in the
prairies of America, Russia, and Hungary) large timber is wanting,
but where small wood for sawdust is more available, and yet where, as
cattle abound, glue would be very cheap. This material deserves more
serious attention than it has ever received.
More than twenty years after I had invented, or at least projected and
put in practice, this method of making artificial wood, I found the
following in the _Manuel Général du Modelage_, par F. Goupil; Paris, Le
Bailly:--
“To make vases, take fine dry sawdust and pass it through a sieve. It
may be made into a paste with a compound of turpentine, resin, and wax.
Or mix the adhesive with five parts of best strong white glue (_colle
de Flandre_) to one part of fish-glue. Melt them separately, ... pour
them together, boil to a proper consistency, and mix with the sawdust.
By this process figures can be cast which, when finished by hand,
exactly resemble carved wood.”
Another recipe is to take 750 grammes of strong glue to 1½ kilogramme
of gall nuts. To be mixed cold. Mix in hot water with sawdust.
Since writing the foregoing I have found the following recipe in a MS.
of 1780, a family heirloom kindly lent me by Miss Roma Lister:--
* * * * *
“_To cast Wood in Moulds as fine as Ivory, of a fragrant Smell, and
indifferent Colours._--Dry Lime Tree wood sawdust in a pan by a gentle
fire, and beat it to a fine powder in a stone mortar. Sift it through
Cambric, and keep it in a dry place free from dust. Then add to an
equal quantity of Gum Tragacanth and Gum Arabic 4 times the quantity
of Parchment Glue. Boil them in Pump Water, and filter through Linen.
Stir into it the Wood powder till it becomes of the substance of a
thick pastry; stir it all together, and set it in a glazed pan in hot
sand, for the moisture to evaporate till it be fit for casting. Mix
your colours with the Paste, and to give it a Scent put Oil of Cloves
or Roses or the like, which, if you please, you may mix with powdered
Amber. Anoint the mould with Oil of Almonds, and put your paste into
it. Let it dry for 4 or 5 days, then take off your mould, and the
Images will be as hard as Ivory. You may cut, turn, carve, and plane
this wood, and it will have a fine scent. The mould may be Plaster of
Paris, but it were better made of metal.”
I would add to this, that where heavy pressure or hand-rolling can be
applied this becomes really hard. Also note that any light, dry wood
of fine texture can be dried and powdered for this purpose. The paste,
even with common fine glue, can be used for very fine repairing. By
sifting and pulverising, the dust may be made as fine as flour. A
little calcined and powdered glass adds to its strength.
To make _panels_ for furniture, walls, or boxes, take firstly a thin
panel of seasoned wood, fasten two strips of sheet-tin across the back
to prevent warping, and make or apply the cast to this. Very beautiful
work can thus be produced very cheaply.
It may be here observed that this principle of mixing a powdered
substance with glue or gum or an adhesive runs through all the arts of
mending. The powder of cocoa-nut shells, slate, of paper, plaster of
Paris, of leather, clay, lime, fine sand, and many other substances,
can all be combined with adhesives, acids, or chemical solvents in
such a manner as to form what may be called generically _cements_, or
substances, or _pastes_, which become hard. Any glue or gum, or liquid
which will make two surfaces adhere, can be mixed with most organic or
inorganic hard substances in powder so as to form a paste which, when
dry, forms a solid, hard substance, because the grains of the powder
are thereby cemented together. Most of these yield to the action of
water, but there are a few which resist both water and fire, all of
which will be described in this work.