paste or cement made as follows:--Take dried rose-leaves, or any
others as soft, steep them in just enough water to soften them, add
of gum-tragacanth and gum-arabic just enough to make a paste, and
sufficient ivory black to give it an ebony colour. Macerate the whole
in a mortar. In the East a few drops of otto of roses or of geranium
are added. From this heads are made, also medallions, or any other
small objects. The composition sets very hard, and much resembles
ebony. I have made many small objects of it myself, and can testify
to its excellence. It is in this manner that the black rosaries from
Constantinople are made.
A very good cement for filling cracks in furniture or other woodwork
is made as follows:--One part of finely powdered resin and two parts
of yellow wax are melted together, and to this is added two parts of
finely pulverised ochre, or other suitable colouring earthy substance.
This is an excellent cement in all respects, except that it yields
to great heat. For all such repairing sawdust and glue is much to be
preferred.
In repairing furniture, remember the screws hold much more firmly if
they are just dipped in boiling beeswax or turpentine. If you are not
accustomed to screwing or nailing, just make a hole with a brad-awl,
else you will find the screw or nail going out of the side of the box,
or in some other undesired direction.
Clamps, or pieces of wood connected by screws, ties, or elastic bands,
are indispensable in much glueing pieces together. They are, however,
easily made. A good clamp can be made by bending over the two ends of a
strong piece of wire. Hammer the ends into the wood.
Glue is more elastic when mixed with a little glycerine. This should
be borne in mind when mixing glue with sawdust to form artificial
wood, and, in fact, in many manufactures and combinations where it is
specially desirous to have a certain degree of toughness or flexibility
in the object made.
To utilise waste matter is allied to mending, which is only preventing
waste. For this purpose common wood-shavings may be used for a pretty
art. Take good shavings of any wood, and after moistening them with
glue or gum tragacanth and arabic, press them flat. Trim them with
scissors into leaves, or make them into flowers, and attach them
together. Then pour over them liquid plaster of Paris, in which there
is gum-arabic and alum dissolved. Take a bush, or plant without leaves,
and gum the leaves to it or to its twigs. Cover bare places with the
gypsum. When dry varnish the whole. A Professor HEIGELIN, in Stuttgart,
once had an exhibition of such work. Frames can be decorated in this
manner. Paint, gilding, and enamel, or bronze powders, can, of course,
be applied. Shavings combined with weak glue submitted to pressure form
artificial wood or boards, which can be improved by further combination
with waste-paper. Made with a solution of alum it is fireproof. Its
strength will be in proportion to the pressure applied. It can often
be employed in repairing when suitable wood is wanting, and has the
advantage that it can be turned to any shape.
The reader can easily satisfy himself by experiment that these
artificial woods made from sawdust or shavings, combined with
adhesives, are very easy to manufacture, very cheap, and, when properly
made, extremely strong. When strong pressure or rolling can be
applied, the quantity of adhesive may be diminished. Linen or muslin
rags, cotton-wool, or any textile fabric can be added to the shavings,
as well as waste-paper of all kinds. Anything fibrous or stringy will
aid in the binding.
This subject may be studied in detail in a work entitled _Die
Verwerthung der Holtzabfälle_--The rendering valuable of Refuse-Wood,
such as Shavings, Refuse Dye-Wood, &c., showing how they may be
converted to Artificial Wood, Fuel, Chemicals, Explosives, &c.--by
ERNST HUBBARD; Vienna, price 3 marks.
Wood of all kinds is in America sawed into such thin veneers that they
are used to serve as wall-paper, being attached with paste. When damp
they bend like paper. Such veneer is very useful for repairing wooden
surfaces.
Common putty is not always to be trusted in for repairing wood. It
sometimes shrinks, and is never very hard. The glue with glycerine and
sawdust or cocoa-nut dust is preferable.
“Scratches and chance cuts may be remedied by merely melting or washing
and rubbing in with cold water. But for most small defects a _filler_
is used. This is a kind of paint or liquid cement, the object of which
is to fill up the pores of certain coarse woods and make the surface
fine. Soft wax, flour, and varnish are used for this purpose.”
Any dealer in paints and varnishes will supply a filler for any special
work.
Staining or colouring wood is an important part of repairing. “Oiling
alone is a kind of colouring, for all oiled wood becomes much darker
in a short time.”[2]
Soda dissolved in water gives to oak wood a much darker tone. Dark tea
and alum is also useful, and still better very strong coffee. Also
porter or beer mixed with umber. Also a decoction of walnut-leaves
boiled down. In using these or any other colours the following rules
must be strictly observed:--(1.) Use a sponge or brush, and do not
apply the dye freely or pour it on, as you will run great risk of
warping the wood or making it split. (2.) Exercise the greatest care in
drying it near a fire. (3.) Do not expect to colour all at once by a
profuse application. However light the colour may seem, always when it
is dry rub off the colour with a rag or chamois-skin, and then make a
second wash. This process will make the dye strike in deeper and last
longer.
STEVENS’ Stains, also those of MANDER, are very good and strong. They
generally require dilution.
Ammonia is much used to give wood a dark rich colour. Wood thus
treated, if afterwards exposed to the smoke of a wood fire, assumes
a very ancient appearance. Bichromate of potash with water is a good
dark dye, but it must be carefully handled, as it is very poisonous
and injurious to clothing. It is used to give a waterproof quality to
certain cements.
Good writing-ink is a very good black dye. When it is quite dry, oil,
rub, and polish it, and the ink will resist a great deal of wetting.
It should be remembered that with ink, as with dyes, there should
always be at least two applications, and that the first should be
very thoroughly dried, if possible, in a strong light, though not in
sunshine, before the second is laid on. Three coats of blackest ink
well dried in, then rubbed in well, and finally oiled, form an almost
waterproof cover.
When panels of marquetry or of inlaid wood of different colours are
broken away or require to be replaced, it can be done in the following
manner:--Take a panel of very firm fine white wood--holly is the best;
next to it Swiss or German larch--draw on it your pattern, and then
with a penknife go over all the pattern, cutting into the panel about
a quarter of an inch, or rather less--in no case far enough to cut
through. Then carefully fill all these lines with a firm cement, and
let it dry well. Then with a dye--not with paint--color each piece
appropriately. The cement and lines will prevent the dye from spreading
from piece to piece. This is known as Venetian marquetry. When
finished, apply _Soehnée_ varnish, and rub down very carefully by hand.
It is a very beautiful and easy work, not to be distinguished when well
done from real inlaying. Very cheap and plain old furniture can be
easily made very elegant by having panels, &c., of this work applied.
The reader may begin with a small box or three-legged stool, working
directly on the wood, and will then probably be encouraged to proceed.
Dark brown patterns on light yellow wood look well.
This work is very easy and elegant, very little made, and may be
therefore profitable. Any kind of light or white wood, such as deal or
pine, may be used for common decoration. Cheap violins and guitars are
sometimes made into handsome ornaments for rooms by this process. For
designs for this purpose consult the Manuals of Design, Wood-Carving,
and Leather-Work, by the Author (Whittaker & Co., No. 2 White Hart
Street, London, E.C.).
Marquetry may also be mended by making and colouring wood-paste, in
which case prepare the ground with great care, by roughening, to hold
the glue; also by using coloured cements, such as bread, well worked
with powder and glycerine-glue.
It does not seem to occur to many people--even to those living in the
country--that there is a great deal of strong, plain, useful furniture
which can be easily made at home at no very great expense, boards of
good quality being cheap enough. With a few lessons from an expert, or
even with the study of a good elementary manual of cabinetmaking, any
amateur can succeed. Whoever can make a good box can make an antique
chair, and this can, however plain, be carved, stained, or marquetried
into beauty; but let him beware of sawed curves.
Where there are worms in furniture or other wood, they should always
be very promptly exterminated, else they will destroy it in time.
To remove them, dissolve 2 drachms of corrosive sublimate in 2 oz.
of methylated spirit and 2 oz. of water, to be applied freely with
a feather or brush. This is an unfailing remedy; but the mixture is
poisonous, and therefore should be kept labelled out of harm’s way
(_Work_, Sept. 1892).
In restoring or repairing woodwork we must have some knowledge not only
of paints, varnishes, putties, and filling, but also of agents which
prevent organic change or are applicable to peculiar accidents. One
of the principal of these is known as _knotting_. Its properties and
general nature are freely explained in the following article from _The
Decorator_, Sept. 1892:--
* * * * *
“‘Knotting,’ or, as it is usually written, _Patent Knotting_, is
a quick-drying, semi-transparent fluid. It is made from naphtha
and shellac; hence its quick-drying nature. The knots of woodwork,
especially pine, contain much resin, which gradually exudes from the
surface. This resin will speedily darken, and ultimately destroy, the
covering film of oil paint with which woodwork is usually coated. The
object of coating knots in woodwork with ‘patent knotting composition’
is to seal up, so to term it, the resin. In the earlier history of
house-painting processes a mixture of red lead and strong glue-size,
applied warm, was often used. The chief point in view is to stop the
‘cause,’ but without objectionable ‘effect;’ therefore the thinnest
perceptible covering--so long as it is effectual--is the best. The
_patent knotting_ of commerce is the article now generally purchased
and used. The knots are given one or two _bare_ coatings--according to
the nature of the knot, and the conscience of the workman. The best
knotting is the colour of dark oak varnish; the worst is the blackest
and dirtiest-looking. It always pays to have the best knotting, since
‘black knotting’ requires an extra coat of paint to cover the dark
patches which ‘grin through’ any light tints. For the best work it is
usually advisable--especially when the woodwork has to be finished, and
perhaps hand-polished, in ‘ivory-white’ enamel--to have the knots cut
out with a chisel or gouge, then fill up with lead ‘filling-up’ in
distemper. I recently had to have the door of an elaborately decorated
drawing-room so treated, since, despite being fresh knotted, the resin
began to discolour the work, which had received some six coats of paint
and enamel, ere the room was furnished--a very annoying and costly
matter. Very occasionally knots are gilded over with best gold-leaf;
this is generally conceded to be an effectual plan to adopt, when
gouging is not resorted to, for finest work. Knotting woodwork is,
therefore, not an insignificant detail of house-painting, especially
when we are dealing with a door-side; that alone, when finished in
hand-polished enamel, may cost a ten-pound note to produce. ‘Tin-paint’
will do for common priming; good linseed oil is the chief element
required. All new woodwork requires three coats of good lead and oil
paint before standing any time--viz., priming and two after-coats. This
is known as ‘builders’ finish.’ When permanently decorated it usually
requires ‘getting up’ to a proper surface, and two or three more coats.”
* * * * *
It is sometimes an advantage to “gouge”--_i.e._, to cut--out a bad knot
and fill the cavity with wood, wood-paste, or _carton-pierre_.
A very beautiful stain can be given to wood by rubbing it with nitric
or sulphuric acid, and exposing it to the heat of a fire. In this way
American hickory can be made to look like rosewood. Pine becomes red,
which grows darker with increased heat.
MENDING FURNITURE.--There is but one rule for repairing creaky chairs
and tables with loose legs. They must be _carefully_ taken apart,
which can be done with chisels, a knife, and hammer, and then glued
and screwed or put together again as they were originally made. The
old-fashioned rounds or rungs of chairs, now so seldom seen, were a
great aid to strength and durability.
I have already remarked that when a drawer in a bureau table is
troublesome by continually sticking or catching, take it out, find
where it rubs, and plane away the obtrusive portion. If it is made of
badly seasoned, green, warping wood, nail across it strips of tin. To
which I add that doors of closets, cabinets, &c., which are shrunk must
have strips of wood glued to their edges. In some cases strips of paper
will do as a temporary substitute.
It is no exaggeration whatever to declare that two or three centuries
ago the slight and trashily made article of furniture was a great
exception, while at the present day it is the well-made, durable
article which forms the rarity--to the great shame, be it said,
firstly, of all furniture-makers, and, secondly, to fashionable
“taste,” which prefers slightness to strength.
This trashy and flimsy lightness is vastly to the profit of the
cabinetmaker, since he can thus utilise the cheapest and smallest
pieces of worthless wood by turning them into supports for light
_étagères_ or shelves, cross-backs and legs of spider-like little
chairs, and all parts of small curved sofas, which are to be duly
puttied, French polished, or completely hidden in velveteen or rep.
It is not unusual to see what is considered a handsomely furnished
room in which there is not one absolutely well-made or strong article
which would bear careful examination or turning up. It is a pitiful
sight indeed to see a load of such furniture on its way from the
cabinetmakers, or the mill where it is sawed out by steam, to the
place where it is to be veneered or painted, glazed, and clothed into
elegance. The pieces of refuse pine wood and American greenish-yellow
poplar stuck together with glue, and as few short nails as possible,
look so shammy and shabby! I have wondered, in beholding them, at
the marvellous boldness of their makers, who could deliberately
calculate the time that such stuff would endure before its _débacle_.
And as it is all destined to be broken and mended sometime or
other, it is the more necessary that the art of repairing should be
studied. Unfortunately, badly seasoned deal cannot be repaired into
well-seasoned oak. Yet he who will take the pains to ascertain the
price of the latter will be amazed to learn that so few people have it
made into good, solid, strong furniture. “It is not _there_ that the
expense comes in.” If the reader, having some sense or taste in art,
would make his own furniture, employing an assistant at six shillings
a day to do the rough sawing and planing, he would find that he could
have strong, substantial furniture; and if he would add to this so much
knowledge of panel-carving as he could acquire in a few lessons, he
might make it beautiful.
A CEMENT FOR WOOD is made as follows:--
Caseine 10
Borax 5
This is carefully worked into a thickish milk-like mass. It may be
used as a glue for wood or as a paste for paper. It admits of many
modifications. To make a very good waterproof cement for wood, as
well as other purposes, take this cement when it shall have hardened,
or after it has been applied, and wash it over frequently with a very
strong extract of gall-apples. This forms, according to LEHNER, an
insoluble union with caseine.
A CEMENT MUCH EMPLOYED IN CHINA to combine and make woodwork,
basket-work, pasteboard, &c., waterproof is made as follows:--
Slacked lime 100
Stirred ox-blood 75
Alum 2
This is commended as being very strong and durable. It is probable that
a slight increase of the alum in solution, or an addition of strong
infusion of gall-apples, would improve it.
A WATER-PROOF CEMENT FOR WOODEN CASKS is made as follows:--
Strong solution of glue 10
Linseed-oil varnish 5
Oxide of lead 1
Boil together for ten minutes. This cement must not be brought into
connection with lye (LEHNER).
A good, strong, cheap cement for joining wood with metal or stone is
made with
Carpenters’ glue 50
Sifted wood-ashes 100
While the glue is soft stir into it the wood-ashes in greater or lesser
quantity, according to their quality and fineness, till a syrupy mass
is formed. Clay can also be combined with this mixture to make casts.
Common _peat_ of fine quality (for there are different kinds or degrees
of it), carefully cleaned from sticks and fibres, combined with common
glue infused freely with nitric acid, submitted to strong pressure, is
said to form a valuable substitute for wood, which may be used not only
for repairing, filling chinks in trees, making up decayed timber, &c.,
but also to form blocks and planks.
I have elsewhere mentioned that shavings are utilised in Germany.
Combined with glue, infused with glycerine, and submitted to pressure,
they form boards which are even less brittle than many which are in
ordinary use. The peculiar advantage of this artificial timber is the
limitless length of the boards which can be thus made, which is often a
great desideratum in flooring, or indeed in any building where piecing
should be avoided. A canoe can thus be made on another as mould, in
which case the shaving-cement is to be hardened by rollers. There is a
book on this subject, elsewhere mentioned.
It may be observed that, as long and broad timber becomes every year
more rare and valuable, artificial timber from smaller plants must
certainly take its place.
WHITEWASH FOR WOOD is rendered more durable and glossy by the addition
of liquid glue, well stirred in. It is still further improved by the
addition of milk. This lasts so much longer than common wash that it
is in the end perhaps ten times as cheap. When well made it has been
known, when applied to the exterior of certain Government buildings in
Washington, U.S.A., to last for seven years. If colouring matter, such
as umber, be added, let the latter be mixed separately with the glue,
and very thoroughly, before it is joined to the lime. The addition of
a few eggs to the mixture will improve it. The lime prepared with the
following forms a still better and stronger wash, which is well worth
the extra expense:--
Glue 60
Linseed-oil varnish 20
The varnish, while _hot_, is mixed with the boiling glue, and it is
to be used at once. This is (LEHNER) useful to coat and caulk casks,
especially those in which such fluids as highly rectified spirits of
wine are carried. Be it observed that the hotter the mixture is when
applied the more deeply does it penetrate, yet the less is in the end
required.
A GOOD CEMENT FOR CARPENTERS:--
Slacked lime 50
Flour 100
Linseed-oil varnish 15
WOODWORK which is to be under water or much exposed to rain may be
cemented with the following:--
Calcined lime 10
Flint sand 15
Iron (powder filings) 5
Ochre 20
Brick-dust 20
The powder must be well mixed by shaking, and, just before use, to be
mixed with water.
The following may be used for JOINTS IN TIMBERS, holes and cracks, or
for covering the surfaces, as it is an excellent protective against
wet. It may also be used for stone, &c.:--
Purified brick-dust 10
Calcined lime 10
Purified red iron ore 10
Work this to a paste with dissolved soda. Modifications of this
combination of soda with iron and brick-dust will readily occur to all
who have carefully studied this work.
A CEMENT FOR WOOD:--
Slacked lime powder 1
Rye-meal 2
Linseed-oil varnish 1
To which burnt umber or similar powder may be added at discretion. This
cement dries slowly, but becomes very hard. It is good for filling
cracks, holes, &c.
FRENCH GLUE FOR WOOD:--
Gum-arabic 1
Water 2
Potato starch 3-5
SAWDUST, as I have explained, from my own conjecture and experiment,
can be combined with cements so as to form an artificial wood, which
can be easily moulded or carved, and with which all kinds of worm-eaten
and decayed wood can be restored. I find that for this purpose LEHNER
gives the following:--
“Take the finest sawdust and combine it with linseed-oil varnish,
kneading the mass very carefully.”
This, when properly combined and worked, would form a very good
artificial wood. It may be here observed, that because the experimenter
finds at a first trial that the wood is too brittle or too hard, he is
not to conclude that the _recipe_ is good for nothing. Thus, to prepare
it with, glue we should take--
Water 20
Glue 1
First boil the glue very carefully, and stir into it the finest
wood-dust or cocoa-nut shell powder. The quality will be improved if
the latter has already been steeped for some time in a strong solution
of oak-bark or gall-apples in spirit, or, instead of the latter, water.
This disposes the dust to amalgamate with the glue. Stir the whole
thoroughly. A commoner or coarser preparation for simply repairing
is made by combining plaster of Paris, glue in watery solution, and
sawdust. Common bone-dust, plaster of Paris, and glue make a good
cement for light wood-dust. With a little glycerine it can be used for
moulding. Add a little pipeclay, and if the bone-dust be very fine the
surface will take a very high polish. Finish with oil and hand rubbing.
This composition combines well with perfectly softened and macerated
paper--not merely _soaked_--to form panels, which, however, to make
them hard, should be pressed or rolled.
CEMENTS FOR DEALS OR BOARDS OF SOFT WOOD:--
I.
Caseine 500 grams.
Water 4 qts.
Spirit sal-ammoniac 0.5 qt.
Calcined lime 250 grams.
II.
Glue 2
Water 14
Cement lime 7
Sawdust 3-4
FOR SPLITS IN TREES, or fractures in the bark:--
Pitch or resin 50
Tallow 10
Oil of turpentine 5
Spirits of wine 5
The resin is first melted, the turpentine then stirred in, then the
tallow, and finally the spirits.
I have spoken of artificial wood as chiefly made of sawdust combined
with a binder such as glue. There are, however, strictly speaking,
other kinds. The first of these is made from _cellulose_, which is
disintegrated wood which still retains its fibre. It was discovered,
I believe, by accident, in New York about thirty years ago. A stick,
which fitted tightly, had been left in a cannon, when the latter was
fired off. The result was that the stick was converted into a pulpy,
fibrous mass, which was found to be admirable as a material for making
paper. This, combined with glue, makes good boards.
Bark of different kinds is also combined in powder with glue to
make wood. In all of these mixtures, where it is desirable to avoid
brittleness or hardness, there must be an admixture of oil or
glycerine. There is generally about 20/100 of the latter to 80/100
of sawdust, but the proportion varies according to the degree of
elasticity or hardness required. To make boards the mixture is passed
under heavy rollers, and when dry it is further treated with alum in
solution, or tanner’s infusion of oak-bark, to make it waterproof. This
is not necessary for ordinary work or repair.
TO IMITATE CEDAR.--Take any white wood and boil it for several hours in
the following mixture:--
Catechu 200
Caustic soda 100
Water 10,000
This penetrates very deeply into any wood. It is a very good protective.