or gutta-percha may be combined with benzole or ether, or rectified
petroleum in large amount, which soon becomes dense. Therefore, to
produce a surface or a skin, we first spread a _thin_ coat over the
object or mould, and then apply another with a broad, soft brush or
“dabber” with great care, so as to make it of uniform thickness. It is,
therefore, best to have the preparation always rather thin, and use it
at the right time, and not when it has become dense by long keeping. In
the latter case add more of the solvent.
Glass bottles or vials containing liquids are often broken, even by
the pressure of soft objects, such as clothing, when placed in trunks.
It is therefore advisable to dip or coat them with this solution,
which forms a bag which will contain the fluid; that is, unless it be
of a nature which will soften it. I have known a bottle of hair-oil
to be packed in a valuable cashmere shawl, which was almost ruined by
its breaking, and which could have easily been prevented by this easy
precaution.
Any apothecary will make up these recipes.
A very curious and valuable imitation of indiarubber waterproof cloth
is made as follows:--Caseine is macerated with water and with borax to
a solution. The cloth is dipped in this, and when quite dry, again
dipped into a strong infusion of gall-apples. This is a kind of tanning.
For exhaustive information on the subject of indiarubber the
technologist may consult _Kautschuk und Guttapercha_, by Raimund
Hoffer, Leipzig, 1892, which is, I believe, the latest and best work on
this important subject.
MENDING METAL-WORK OR REPAIRING BY MEANS OF IT
FIREPROOF CEMENTS, WITH IRON BINDERS
Metal-work, especially in iron, requires so much forging and so many
appliances that it is to a certain extent beyond the ordinary mender,
who must in most cases have resort to the smith or artificer. But there
is still much within the capacity of the amateur to effect, and this I
will describe.
One of the commonest requirements in repairing trunks and many other
objects is to make a strap or strip of metal hold either to a surface
or to itself. This is to be promptly effected by _riveting_. If the
iron band on a trunk is broken, you cannot well nail it again into its
place. A nail will not hold in the thin side, possibly of pasteboard.
To learn how to repair in such a case, take a piece of common hoop
iron, lay it on a block of wood or a board, and with a fine nail or
brad-awl and hammer knock a hole in it. Then take a rivet or any
flat-headed tack, put it through the hole, lay it with the head of the
tack down on iron or stone if possible, and then give the point a blow,
a little sideways. The result is that the point will be flattened and
the tack firmly held. The result will be the same if the rivet passes
through two thick pieces of metal. In this manner the two ends of an
iron hoop for a box are fastened. Therefore, if we take a piece of tin
or sheet-iron, put it in the trunk against the side, and bring down the
broken strip on the outside, we can, with a little care, rivet it. It
is advisable, when this is done, to paste a strong piece of muslin or
leather over the tin to prevent it from cutting anything in the trunk.
These riveted strips are _far_ better for surrounding and holding many
bundles than cords. They are better for books, because they do not
leave marks on the edges, neither do they untie nor are they hard to
fasten, requiring no knotting.
Riveted bands, corners, or bent pieces of sheet-metal are more
generally applicable to broken furniture than is generally supposed.
The plate thus applied can generally be concealed either by chiselling
a place for it or by hammering it into the wood, and then cementing and
painting it over.
Wire is also very useful for mending of many kinds, either in metal
or wood. To manage it we need a pair of cutting pliers or pincers, as
well as the long-nosed and flat pliers. Thus, to attach two bodies--for
instance, the two parts of a broken gunstock--begin by fastening one
end of the wire in one piece, and wind it round both, drawing it as
tightly as possible with the flat pliers. When united, fasten the other
end by driving it under the _twist_ or into the wood. This also can be
so adroitly treated that the wire, flattened with a file and hammered
down, can be concealed under paint and varnish. By means of wire passed
through holes made with long brad-awls or fine gimlets, picture-frames
can be firmly repaired. In many cases the wire should be brought round
and the ends fastened or wound together; in others, make a double ring
in one end of the wire and nail it down, then pass the wire through the
hole and fasten the other end in the same way. Many kinds of broken
implements may be thus mended. Endeavour to get strong, _flexible_ wire
for such purposes.
Boxes containing goods will be doubly strong when protected by strips
of iron nailed round them. Hoop-iron is generally used for this purpose.
Soldering is, however, the best and most usual means of repairing all
kinds of metal-work, and this is very far from being so difficult as
is generally supposed; indeed, a lady-writer on metal-work goes so
far as to declare that it is fascinating. As every tinker and tinman
knows how to “sodder,” and will willingly give instruction for a trifle
(children, indeed, often behold the whole process admiringly for
nothing), and, finally, as it is most unlikely that any reader of this
work should be in a place where neither tinkers nor tinmen are to be
found--for I have read that a gipsy tinker was once discovered mending
a kettle seated in the shadow of the Great Wall of China--it is hardly
necessary to describe in detail processes which any one can take in
at a glance. The principle is this:--As in cementing glass, the glue
which binds requires powdered glass to be mixed in it, so that it may
establish a quicker and closer affinity with the glass; so to unite two
metallic surfaces we must have a flux or some fusible substance as an
intermediary. For this purpose various substances, such as resin and
borax, are employed with the solder, which is a compound of metals,
which melts very easily, takes a firm hold of other metals, and sets
hard at once. There are many varieties of it, adapted to different
metals. It is generally sold in small sticks for use.
I lay some stress on the fact that there should be some one in every
family knowing how to repair, especially in metal, because there is no
household in which there is not damage of tin and iron ware, trunks,
kitchen utensils, and often even of jewellery, which a clever youth or
young lady could easily restore. A pin is detached from a brooch. You
could repair it yourself in five minutes, at a halfpenny’s expense;
but no, it must be sent to a jeweller’s to be mended for a shilling.
It is the same with earrings and chains and bracelets and clasps and
securing-rings. When they become shaky you fasten them with thread. It
will hold for the present, of course; and then comes an advertisement
in the _Times_: “Lost--Twenty-five Pounds Reward!” All because you
never learned how to repair or solder.
[Illustration]
But, as ’tis never too late to mend, and no one should be a mend
I-can’t, or go begging to others to do for him what he can do for
himself, I trust that reflection on this subject will induce many to
become practical repairers. If you have a valuable coin, do not take
half the value out of it, as most people do, by boring a hole through
it. Make a simple twist and eyelet of a bit of silver wire and solder
it on the edge. Do not tie a gold chain with twine; mend it properly.
Rivet your broken scissors, and when hinges come out screw them on
again. If there were really anything _difficult_ in all this I would
honestly say so, but there is not, and people who have received some
education learn how to do it all with ease in a short time.
A recipe for a cement to attach metal to any other substance is made as
follows:--
Purified flint-sand (or glass-powder) 10
Caseine or curd 8
Slacked lime 10
Mix thoroughly, and add water to a creamy consistency.
The following for metals is also very strong:--
Sturgeon’s bladder solution 100
Nitric acid 1
The acid is stirred in at the same time with the cement, which should
be as dense as possible, and with this mixture the surfaces of the
metal are covered. “The nitric acid is intended to make the surfaces of
the metal rough, but it has the drawback that it hinders the drying of
the glue” (LEHNER). This slowly drying is, however, a great advantage.
The same is found when it is mixed with common glue, which generally
dries too rapidly. Cements which dry rather slowly take hold the most
firmly and permanently. The acid hardens the mass by contracting the
cellular tissue. To hasten the drying, the metallic parts, which should
be very strongly compressed together, must be exposed to heat.
A simpler method for light articles of metal is to wet the surfaces
with nitric acid for a few minutes till they are roughened, then wash
away the acid in water, and cement the metal with sturgeon’s bladder
cement.
A special cement for zinc is made by thickening very strong dense glue
with powdered slacked lime, into which is kneaded one-tenth part of
flowers of sulphur.
A so-called Jeweller’s Cement, which holds firmly, is the so-called
Diamond, elsewhere given; also the following:--
Sturgeon’s bladder 100
Gum mastic varnish 50
The sturgeon’s bladder is dissolved in as little water as possible
with strong spirits of wine (equivalent to ordinary spirits). To
prepare the mastic varnish, mix finely powdered mastic with the most
highly rectified spirits of wine and benzine, and use as little liquid
as possible. The two mixtures must be then rubbed as intimately as
possible together. When carefully made this cement will serve for
anything--glass or china, &c.
A CEMENT FOR ZINC, especially for ornaments and small work:--In
ten parts by weight of silicate of soda (solution) stir two parts
of cleansed chalk and three of zinc in powder. This is kneaded for
some time into a putty, with which defects, roughnesses, &c., can be
remedied. After twenty-four hours, when polished with agate, this
cement has all the appearance of zinc.
It may be observed that other metals in fine powder may be substituted
for the zinc, and that with bronze powders, oxides of metals, and
indeed with all the range of painters’ colours, combinations may be
formed of infinite application in the arts. According to LEHNER the
silicate of soda should be of 33°.
A specially strong and valuable cement, capable of many uses in
metal, wood, glass, or china, or to fasten glass to metal, is made as
follows:--Take best purified litharge, stir it with glycerine until it
becomes a thin homogeneous mass, which in less than an hour will become
a very hard mass, which is of almost universal application. It is not
affected by water, and resists the action (according to LEHNER) of
almost all acids, the strongest alkalies, as well as etherised oils and
the fumes of chlorine and alcohol. The surfaces which are to be united
with it must first be covered with pure, thick glycerine.
It will readily occur to the reader that in or to this, as in every
recipe given in this book, modifications, alterations, and additions
can be made, of very great value, adaptable to a great variety of
substances. It is to be observed that in such cases as this, where
one cannot be sure of the exact result, it is best, _e.g._, to first
experiment with a very little finest pulverised oxide of lead with the
glycerine.
Another form of this powerful metallic cement is given as follows:--
Concentrated glycerine ½ litre
Litharge 5 kilogs.
To make a cement to fill or close joints in zinc-work:--Soak three
parts by weight of glue in water, pour off the superfluous water,
dissolve the glue in warm water, stir into it six parts of slacked
lime and one of flowers of sulphur.
When ironwork, as, for instance, window-bars, is to be set in stone,
the following is commended as taking a firm hold:--
Calcined gypsum 30
Finely powdered iron 10
Vinegar 20
The following recipes, though I have found many of them in other works,
are here taken, with acknowledgment, from LEHNER, as his proportions
are invariably accurate, or confirmed by experiment.
AN IRON CEMENT which resists heat and moisture:--
Clay 10
Iron filings 5
Vinegar 2
Water 3
A VERY STRONG WATERPROOF CEMENT FOR IRON:--
Iron filings 100
Sal-ammoniac 2
Water 10
This in a few days will begin to turn into a hard rust.
Another OXIDISED CEMENT, which holds like iron, is made as follows:--
Iron filings 65
Sal-ammoniac 2.5
Flowers of Sulphur 1.5
Sulphuric acid 1
The sulphuric acid is diluted with water and added to the mixed powders.
A RUST OR OXIDE CEMENT, resisting fire:--
Common iron filings 45
Clay 20
Finest porcelain clay 15
Salt in water 8
Fine clay may be used in lack of the finest porcelain clay.
AN IRON CEMENT to resist heat:--
Iron filings 20
Clay in powder 45
Borax 5
Salt 5
Peroxide of manganese 10
The borax and salt are melted in water and then quickly mixed with the
remaining ingredients, which are in a combined powder. At a white-heat
this becomes a glassy substance, which seals hermetically.
IRON CEMENT to resist intense heat:--
Peroxide of manganese 52
White oxide of zinc 25
Borax 5
This is applied with silicate of soda. It must dry gradually.
IRON CEMENT to resist heat:--
Iron filings 100
Clay 50
Salt 10
Flint-sand 20
FIREPROOF CEMENT:--
Iron filings 140
Hydraulic cement 20
Flint-sand 25
Sal-ammoniac 3
This powder is made into a paste with vinegar. It must dry for a long
time before being submitted to heat.
Another cement of the same kind is as follows:--
Iron filings 180
Clay 45
Salt 8
This is also made up with vinegar, and must be dried for a long time.
TO SET IRON IN STONE:--
Iron filings, fine 10
Calcined gypsum 30
Sal-ammoniac 0.5
Also combined with vinegar.
When there are defects in iron castings, they may be filled up with the
following cement:--
Clean iron filings 100
Flowers of sulphur 0.5
Sal-ammoniac 0.8
To be mixed with water to a paste. It does not fuse nor act as a paste
until exposed to great heat. Before applying it wash the edges to
be united with liquid ammonia. Brimstone or sulphur melts iron very
promptly when the latter is red-hot, and applied to it, the iron will
drop like melted sealing-wax.
A CEMENT FOR IRON STOVES is made as follows:--
Iron filings 100
Chalk-marl 40
Flint-sand 50
Vinegar 20
This is made into a paste, which can be rendered porous by mixing with
it bristles, chopped straw, sawdust, or chaff. When the latter is
converted to coal by heat, the cement is, of course, full of cavities.
In like manner, clay for water-coolers is made light and spongy by
mixing it with salt. The salt gradually melts in the damp clay, forming
a porous substance.
When iron doors are to be hermetically sealed at very high temperatures
the following may be used:--
Finest iron filings 100
Sal-ammoniac 1
Limestone 10
Silicate of soda 10
When the iron plates about a fireplace give way the following may be
used:--
Iron filings 20
Iron dross or refuse 12
Calcined gypsum 30
Common salt 10
This mixture may be combined with either blood or silicate of soda,
preferably the latter, as the former has a disagreeable smell.
Iron filings mixed with vinegar are allowed to stand till of a brown
colour, and then driven with plugs and hammer into cavities, where they
form a rust cement.
FOR CRACKS IN IRON POTS, &c.:--
Iron filings 10
Clay 60
This is mixed with linseed-oil to a paste. It requires several weeks to
harden, but forms a hard cement.
A BLACK CEMENT FOR IRONWARE:--
Iron filings 10
Sand 12
Ivory black 10
Slacked lime 12
Lime water 5
SCHWARTZ’S IRON CEMENT for holes in pots, &c.:--
I.
Finely powdered glue 4-5
Finest iron dust 2
Peroxide of manganese 1
Common salt ½
Borax ½
To be powdered extremely fine or levigated and made with water to a
paste. Resists fire and hot water.
II.
Pulverised peroxide of manganese 1
White oxide of zinc 1
To be finely pulverised and combined with silicate of soda.
An important part of all metal-mending is soldering. This is based on
the principle that certain metallic compounds which fuse at a very
low heat can, however, be so brought into union with others which have
an affinity for them as by melting to unite the harder objects. Thus
bismuth, which will melt in hot water, has an affinity for lead, which
combines easily with tin and brass, &c.; as, in like manner, borax and
resin with iron.
NEWTON’S SOLDER (LEHNER):--
Bismuth 8
Tin 3
Lead 5
This melts at 94.5° Celsius.
ROSE’S SOLDERS:--
I.
Bismuth 2
Lead 1
Tin 1
II.
Bismuth 5
Lead 3
Tin 2
A METALLIC-GLASS SOLDER:--
Lead 30
Tin 20
Bismuth 25
The lead is first carefully melted, then the tin added, and the melted
mixture carefully stirred; the bismuth is put in last of all.
CEMENT FOR IRON STOVES:--
Wood-ashes 10
Clay 10
Calcined lime 4
To be mixed with water to form a firm paste. Also applicable to holes
in trees. Clay mixed with waste-paper is also applicable for the latter
purpose (LEHNER). (Glue may be added to it.) This mixture of clay and
paper should be well mixed with sour milk.
CLAUS’S CEMENT FOR METAL AND GLASS:--40 grammes of starch and 320
grammes purified chalk are dissolved in 2 quarts water, into which is
stirred ½ pint solution of caustic soda.
The most important part of mending broken metal-work is _soldering_,
and this is so difficult to practically teach by mere _writing_, while
it can be so easily learned from any tinsmith, or even tinker, that
I deem it common-sensibly best to acquire it from the latter. Those
who would study it in all its details, scientific or technological,
may do so in _Das Löthen und die Bearbeitung der Metalle_, by Edmund
Schlosser; Vienna, A. Hartleben, price 3s.
REPAIRING LEATHER-WORK
TRUNKS, SHOES, OR IN ANY OTHER FORMS--JOINING STRAPS--MAKING CHEAP SHOES
Leather-work when much worn is seldom restored, and, except by a
few experts, it is generally regarded as incurable. That is to say,
that leather-work is only repaired by the same method in which it is
made--that is, by sewing--when in fact a great deal is lost which
might be saved, and much imperfectly repaired which might seem like
new by resorting to a more scientific process. And therefore, having
devoted much attention to it, I am persuaded that the worst cases may
be mended. Within a week I purchased two small folio volumes which
had been beautifully bound in black leather, embossed in deep relief,
about 1520, in a style which was then becoming antiquated. The pattern
had been cut in a wooden mould, stamped on the wet leather, and then
completely worked over by hand with tracers and matted or stamped in
the ground. But the black colour had been worn away from the relief and
turned brown, and it was otherwise dilapidated at the edges.
I took a volume and where the surface was ragged moistened it, applied
gum-arabic in solution, and smoothed it down with an agate burnisher.
Leather treated in this way soon becomes like a paste. When it was
all even I painted it over with strong liquid Indian ink. Common ink
would have done as well. Then I varnished it over lightly with the
admirable _vernis à retoucher_, No. 3, of SOEHNÉE, which is flexible,
preservative, and does not crack. I may add for ladies that it smells
like _eau de cologne_. This dries almost immediately. It may be had
at all artists’ material shops. Finally, I rubbed it for some time by
hand. Then the binding was as good as new, yet not too new. It was
simply perfectly restored.
I have in the introduction mentioned another work which I also
restored. This was a Madonna in high relief, very much dilapidated;
that is to say, it was of thin leather, which had been originally
made in a mould, and was accordingly puffed out, so to speak, like a
pie-crust. On the mould there had been laid a coat of muslin or cotton
fabric; this, when dry, had been very thinly covered with _gesso_ or
plaster of Paris, and on this, when dry, a thin wet leather had been
pressed. I may here note that very often the _gesso_ was then blackened
without any leather being applied, and that when thus blackened,
covered, and varnished it looked exactly like leather--an easy art,
which may be practised to profit by any one who can carve or buy moulds.
On examining this, I found that it would be very difficult to repair
it with good leather. I found in a shop some thin black sham-leather,
such as the Japanese apparently manufacture from leather dust, made by
grinding up all kinds of leather waste to a powder. It was wretched,
rotten stuff as leather, but all the better suited to my purpose. Some
of this I cut into small bits, and with a knife soon mashed it, mixed
with gum-arabic and water, into a very smooth paste. With such a paste
one can repair any tear, roughening, or imperfection, care being taken
that the paste and leather be alike in colour. With this I filled the
hollows at the back, making the work solid; and having wetted all the
ragged edges and fractured or torn places, smoothed them down with gum
and a pen or paper knife, supplying deficiencies with the black paste.
When all was smooth and dry I applied a coat of SOEHNÉE’S varnish, and
then rubbed it well down by hand. It was quite restored.
As this varnishing leather may sound like a heresy to artistic
leather-workers, I would ask them if they would consider an application
of tannin in solution--which is the preservative principle of leather
itself--as “inartistic.” Certainly it is not, nor is the application of
SOEHNÉE (which is more of a simple preservative than a glaze) a mere
finish for show.
The leather-paste of which I speak has certain qualities of its
own which make it quite different from any other substance. We may
include in leather “paste” not only the mere dust made from the dried
substance, but all scraps, and also any thin leather, thoroughly
softened or macerated. Even in the latter form it is, combined with a
binder, really a plastic substance, since it can be worked into any
form with ease. Mixed with caoutchouc or indiarubber in solution, and
then dried, it is invaluable for mending boots and making waterproof
soles. As I have indicated, it is excellent for mending old books. And
here I may mention that if you have, let us say, one cover of a book
in high relief, and the other, it may be, lost or worn plain, you can
supply or make the duplicate very easily, very cheaply, and in a short
time as follows:--Take a sheet of soft, white newspaper, dampen it, and
press it on the relief. As soon as possible, taking care not to wet
the book, fill in the back of the _squeeze_ either with other coats of
wet paper, melted wax, or liquid plaster of Paris. When this is dry,
wax or oil carefully the face of the squeeze, wipe it dry, and make a
cast from it in _leather-paste_. Thus you will have a facsimile of the
relief. From a solid plaster mould, well oiled or boiled in wax, a cast
may be taken in softened or wet leather, which is even better; it sets
hard and tough.
I may here mention that it is very unusual to see books bound in deep
relief with _hand-worked_, black, or black and gold, antique patterns,
and that such a cover, say of eight by ten inches, would probably cost
at least a pound, and be cheap at that. And yet any girl of ordinary
capacity with, let us say, fifty shillings’ worth of moulds, and two
weeks’ practice in tracing and stamping grounds, could produce from two
to four such book-covers as those before me in a day.
There is now generally sold in furnishing or chemists’ shops a good
waterproof glue. Leather softened and then well incorporated with this
is also waterproof, and may be used to mend trunks. I have known a
torn boot to be mended in this manner, and that so well that it lasted
for a long time. Even a leather strap which is subjected to great
tugging may be restored, if cut or broken in two, by shaving the edges
obliquely, so as to sharpen them.
[Illustration]