Part 7

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.

TO PREPARE WOOD FOR PAINT.--When you have a board or box, &c., however rough, and of any kind of inferior wood, first smooth the surface, if possible by planing, or else with a rasp and glass-paper. Fill all the holes and chinks with putty, or bread and gum, or gum and plaster of Paris. Then, with a mixture of glue (not too stiff) and fine white plaster of Paris, rub over all the surface to perfect smoothness, and when quite dry remove any irregularities with finest glass-paper. Then paint as desired. This is an approved method of repairing old panel pictures, which were all made with such a ground of plaster and glue.

TO REPAIR MARQUETRY OR INLAID WOODWORK.--This, as I have already said, and will now describe more in detail, is made of different pieces of coloured wood, glued on a panel. Take a piece of fine hard wood, such as holly, and saw it out to exactly fit the place where pieces are missing. Draw the pattern on it, and then outline it very neatly with a fine pen-knife-point, so as to cut a little way into the wood, but not _through_ it. Fill up this line thus cut with a composition of varnish and any black powder. Then with _dyes_, not oil paint or water-colour, but such as are made with spirit, colour the pattern, a separate colour to every piece. The dye will sink in and grow pale; then apply it again, and till it is of the hue desired. Polish the whole. This is what is called Venetian marquetry. It is, very easy to make, and produces beautiful results, quite equal to the sawed-out and inlaid work. It is, moreover, much more durable and far less expensive. MANDER’S dyes are used for such staining.

Even a single inlaid figure of wood, set into a panel, as in the back of a chair, gives a character, and apparently greater value, to the whole. Such inlaying is easily made with a fret-saw. If we take two thin plates of wood, one dark and one light, and saw the same pattern out of both, we can then set one into the other, and so make two inlays by one process. _Parquetry_ is large inlaying for floors. For this it is well to study such forms as can be _set together_, as, for instance, squares, diamonds, crosses, T’s and the like.

Violins, guitars, and lutes can be beautifully adorned by the Venetian process. As the colours do not wear away, and cannot scale off like common inlaying, it will be seen that it is by far the best way to decorate them. Furniture of all kinds can be ornamented in the same way. It is peculiarly appropriate to picture-frames. It being very little known, objects thus prepared meet with a ready sale.

When a corner of a pane in a window, as often happens--as also to the glass of a picture-frame or mirror--is broken away, we can easily make or have made a small ornament which will fit into the corner and conceal the defect, This can be made of wood, _papier-mâché_ (which is best), or hard putty or cement. It may be gilded or painted. Windows may be prettily ornamented in this manner, even if not broken.

ON REPAIRING AND RESTORING BOOKS, MANUSCRIPTS, AND PAPERS

WITH DIRECTIONS FOR EASY BINDING AND PAPER-MENDING--BOOK-WORMS

It happens often enough that some valuable old manuscript or early printed work, if not destroyed as useless, is sold for a trifle because it is torn and worm-eaten or otherwise injured. The loss to literature from this cause has been terrible, and it is all the more so because in most cases it was the result of sheer ignorance.

Paper is a composition of linen, cotton, or other vegetable fibre reduced to powder and then combined with _size_, which is a kind of glue, paste, or binding medium. Therefore paper can be mended by using, in the soft, macerated, or pasty form, _paper itself_--which very simple fact appears to have been hitherto a secret from the greater portion of mankind. That is to say, having a piece of paper with a small round hole in it--looking as if some one had fired a shot through it--take another piece of paper of the same quality and reduce some of it to a very fine powder or mash it fine with a knife, combine it with good flour-paste infused with a little clear white glue, and make a soft paste with the powder; then, laying a porcelain tile or piece of tin under the sheet, with a hole in it, to prevent sticking, spread the paste, which is really soft paper, with a knife over the hole. When dry it will be mended permanently. Observe that the pulp must be a fine _paste_, not merely paper mixed with paste--_i.e._, lumpy and stringy, but soft. Secondly, that a better “binder” or size than flour-paste is one made from scraps of parchment boiled, till all the gelatine is extracted. Take the latter and let it boil till thick. It makes a finely glazed surface.

Do not begin to do this with a book, but with a sheet out of which holes have been punched. It is delicate work, and you must not expect to succeed in it at once. But in time, with care, you will remake the paper with great skill. There are workmen who can even reunite torn edges in this manner so that the mending is almost imperceptible. This is remaking paper with paper. In some cases it will suffice to simply neatly paste a piece of paper over a torn-away space. This may be done--as in most cases--very clumsily, or it may be performed artistically and daintily. In the latter case, using a very sharp and specially _thin_ bladed penknife, shave down or scrape away the overlapping edge, and apply the paste sparingly with the point of a camel’s-hair small brush. Before it is quite dry lay the leaf on a smooth, hard surface, and with the penknife or a burnisher flatten down the thinned edge to an uniform surface. This also requires a little practice, but when learned the artist may effect miracles of restoration. One may, and that not infrequently, buy for shillings books which when mended sell for many pounds.

It often happens that we find some curious little old book which has been sadly cut or worn, almost down to the type. Take it, and with a flat rule carefully cut out every page, leaving just a little rim of margin. Then having obtained old paper corresponding to your text, or good modern hand-made Dutch, using strong glue-paste or flour and gum-arabic, or paper-paste, make borders, on which paste the old pages. If you have old paper--there are dealers who can supply it--you may do this so well that the juncture will be hardly perceptible. In any case you will greatly enhance the value of the book. In this, as in all such work, never attempt to restore anything of value till you shall have succeeded by experimenting. This is very seldom done, and yet books thus restored sell for a price which must make the work very profitable. One reason, however, why we see so little of it is the _extravagant_ price charged for all such work by the agent who supplies it.

The prices paid for books thus restored and mounted are extremely high, simply because there are so few people who know how to do it well; and yet, as any of my readers may find, the art is an easy one, requiring only neatness and care. There are very few libraries where such restorers might not be employed, to the very great profit of the collection. All purchasers for libraries are continually rejecting books because they are tattered and worn or “holey,” which could be sent to the hospital and doctored into value. And it is, indeed, to be regretted for the sake of the public that our great libraries have not all shops attached where duplicates and damaged rarities restored could be sold at fair, not fancy, prices. For it is firstly the great librarian who sees and rejects the most books, and who could do an immense amount of good, and greatly stimulate an interest in collection and literature--and make money--if he would also facilitate acquisition. The art of restoring and of mending is as yet so much in its infancy, and is so little understood and practised, that there is not one book in a thousand, even of _rariora_ and _curiosa_, preserved as it might be.

It may be worth while to lay some stress on the fact that many persons, especially women, if they will take a little pains to experiment, can easily make a living by thus restoring books and injured documents. There are, indeed, many other means of earning money indicated in this work.

A CHEAP AND DURABLE VARNISH specially made for bookbinders is prepared as follows:--Take coarsely powdered gum-copal, add to it oil of thyme (_oleum thymi serpilli_) or pure oil of rosemary (_oleum rosmarini_), sufficient to form a solution. Pour off the superfluous liquid, and mix the remainder with sufficient alcohol to dissolve it well. In making take only so much of the oil of thyme or rosemary as will cover the copal, and of alcohol about eight or ten parts to the whole. Special varnishes, and perhaps better, are known to many bookbinders, who will sell them, or inform you where to obtain them. I know of none so good as that of SOEHNÉE, which is, however, very expensive, costing about ninepence per ounce. It is rather brittle, however, for pictures.

When a book is dog’s-eared, or its leaves have been turned, if the paper be of a thin, poor quality, its chances of restoration are better than if it were good and stiff. In the former case damp the leaves one by one with water in which a _little_ gum tragacanth has been infused. This is not so much an adhesive as a mere stiffener, and is used as such for laces. Then flatten them, putting a piece of smooth white paper between every leaf.

There is, I fear, nothing to be done where the reader is so utterly devoid of all the instincts of a gentleman or a lady as to turn over a stiff, thick, highly glazed paper to mark the place! I have just found this done in a magnificently illustrated work from a circulating library, and, to aggravate the offence, it was on pictured pages! I would here remark that if every reader would keep by him a piece of indiarubber or eraser, and obliterate, or at least render illegible, all the scribblings made on margins, this detestably vulgar practice would soon be at an end.

It may be observed that to repair pages which have been torn across, or engravings, the rent is usually _transverse_--that is, such as to leave a small flap edge. If we take very strong gum in very minute quantity on the point of a camel’s-hair brush, we may often succeed with great care in perfectly reuniting the edges. Observe that in this, as in everything, the mender should not draw his conclusions from the first effort, which will probably be a failure, but from frequent careful observation and experiment. There are marvellously few people in the world who take the pains to become really good menders of anything--excepting lace and the like--hence there are few things mended at all except by botchers and amateurs.

INK-STAINS can be removed from paper by laying underneath the blot a pad of clean blotting-paper or fine muslin. Take a fine sponge, dip it in lemon-juice, and press it gently on the stain, so as to moisten it. Then with a clean, white, soft rag, folded into a pad, press on the spot, and the pad, lifted off, will remove a little of the ink. Repeat this process a few times, taking care to change the pad in your hand every time _to a clean_ spot. Do not try to _rub_ the stain out (as most people do), but to _draw_ the ink away or out by sucking up or by absorption. If you simply rub or press the ink in again which has just been drawn out, you will only make bad worse. And here I would observe that by this process of pressing, absorbing, and changing the “sucker” applied, you can draw appalling stains out of almost anything. You cannot, of course, prevent chemical action or change of colour, but in most cases this is the best process.

It is better to begin with lemon-juice and a little salt and water where the paper is thin. When it is strong, a mixture of muriatic acid and water generally extracts ink.

In a great many cases the staining fluid can be drawn out by absorption before any chemical change in the colour of the stuff can have been effected. Therefore it is all-important to know how to do this yourself _at once_, and not wait till it can be sent to a dyer or scourer or cleaner. In a few hours’ time that which could have been promptly extracted will be past all cure. When you spill ink on paper, promptly apply, first of all, blotting-paper, and then try absorption. If any stain remains then, apply the acid.

TO TAKE OUT A GREASE-SPOT.--Heat an iron (I generally effect it with a burning cigar), and hold it as near as possible to the stain without burning the paper. If this be well done the grease, wax, &c., will rapidly disappear. If there are any traces left, place on it powdered calcined magnesia for a time. This is also a good means to extract grease, wax, or oil from cloth. Very often, where lemon-juice or acid would ruin the colour of a cloth or other fabric, chloroform will take out the spot and leave the colour unchanged.

_Bone_, well calcined and powdered, is an excellent absorbent of grease. It should be remembered that all such processes must be renewed, for after the powder or cloth applied has received a certain quantity of the grease or stain, it ceases to be taken in. A gentle pressure or rubbing, after laying paper over the powder, facilitates the absorption.

The celebrated ATHANASIUS KIRCHER, who wrote in the sixteenth century, has left an amusing account of how he one night, stopping at a convent in Sicily, took a book from the library (it was STEPHANUS FAGUNDEZ’ _In Præcep’a Ecclesiæ_)--“a new book and elegantly bound”--and spilt over it and in it all the midnight oil from his lamp! In great alarm he sent for quicklime, but there was none to be had. So he bade the monks bring him some _bones_, which he quickly calcined and pulverised and applied. And the next morning there was not a trace of a spot, only a little smell of oil, which soon vanished. He adds, that plaster of Paris would have done as well.

Ascertain carefully the nature of the spot before trying to extract it. For resinous substances use spirits, or eau de cologne, or turpentine. Benzine extracts several substances.

An old recipe for removing ink-stains was to take a spoonful of good aquafortis, in which break a piece of chalk the size of a large barley corn; add two spoonfuls of rose-water and one of vinegar. This should be mixed in a clean glass and left to stand for several hours. It is to be applied with a piece of new sponge, by pressure, and not too freely nor too long. When the paper is nearly dry renew the process, and when the ink shall have disappeared, promptly wash out the acid with pure water and a clean linen rag. (But it is _too strong_ for many fabrics.)

When the ink does not penetrate the paper it can be removed by erasure with a sharp penknife, or a preparation of vulcanised indiarubber and powdered pumice-stone sold by most stationers. When this latter does not “bite,” its action can be aided by very slightly moistening it. After erasure rub the spot scraped with very finely powdered pumice-stone, and polish with a burnisher or any smooth substance.

Even when an inkstand has been spilled over a printed or long-written page, we can by prompt action extract the new ink and leave the old plain as ever; but the reader who expects to work this miracle of changing night into day must not wait till the accident happens to first attempt to remedy it, or he will probably fail. Let him first of all, not once but often, pour ink on some waste and worthless page, and then experiment first with the blotting-paper, then with the dilute acids and the padding. The time will not by any means be wasted.

A fresh ink-spot can be easily removed from paper by rubbing it with a finely pulverised mixture of saltpetre, sulphur, alum, and pumice. If the spot is an old one, moisten it first a little with water.

Ink-spots, &c., in old MSS. were sometimes ingeniously covered by ornaments in gold or colour.

When an entire page or many pages of a book are missing, it often happens that, at much less expense than would be supposed, an ingenious printer can restore the whole. There are many books for which it would be worth while to have the type cast, for even with a page thus restored the book may be worth ten times as much as if it were wanting. Missing pages are often supplied by photographic fac-similes from another copy.

It was only yesterday, as I write, here in Florence, that I heard a tourist declare that there was nothing worth buying to be found, and that everything curious was snapped up at once. To which I could not assent, never having seen so many objects as of late which I regarded as great bargains. But they were all _dilapidated_, and the tourist generally likes to see everything in splendid condition. To him who can restore old books and ivories and leather-work and panel pictures, there will be no lack of bargains for a long time anywhere. The men who sell are not all such marvellous experts in mending up, repairing, and forging as literary dealers in the wonderful would have us believe. If they were so clever they would not let valuable panel pictures split in two before their eyes from ignorance of knowing how to straighten and tack them at a penny’s cost. There is abundance of clever forging, of lying ivories and silver-work and sham antique leather, but of restoration of smaller or of single objects there is very little; and there is, as I have said, in this a vast field for every collector who knows enough to make practical application of what is taught in this book. It is so far from true that everything is now snapped up, that I confidently assert that there is hardly a _bric-à-brac_ shop in Europe in which a skilled repairer cannot find a bargain, and in most cases several.

It will often be of service to the mender of books to be able to prepare parchment-paper for himself. If we take a mixture of one part nitric acid to three of water--the proportions varying very much with the quality of the acid and of the paper--and dip into it a piece of soft unglazed paper, the latter will at once harden into a substance like parchment. It should be at once washed in changes of pure water. I may here observe that neither in making this nor anything else should the operator be satisfied with a single experiment.

Regarding paper, there are certain curious facts worth knowing by every reader. Before the invention or general use of window-glass, a very transparent kind of paper was, according to KIRCHER (_De Secretis_), prepared as follows:--