Part 6
That is to say, put the tool straight up and down, and _rock_ it from side to side, and it will require little practice to learn it. But to use it, not for ornament, but a cut, or rather dig, a _firmer_ or chisel is better than a gouge; nor need we be very particular as to the appearance of the marks made, as they are all, in the end, to be cut or smoothed out. Rock up and down with the firmer, pressing a little flatter than if the object were to only make lines, or so as to scrape away some of the ground. Then from another direction go over this ground, digging and scraping away again. In this manner a shell may be bosted rapidly, and by it one can work at the bottom of a bowl when even the bent tools are of little or no use. When the whole ground is excavated by this process it may be easily smoothed with files or carving tools. The cuttings from cocoa-nut shell, or waste bits, may be kept, and when pounded to a fine powder, and mixed with glue, they make an admirable cement for repairing walnut or other dark wood work.
CASKS. A cask when carved is an admirable object for waste-papers, or holding canes and umbrellas, Fig. 56. It should be of wood at least one inch in thickness. If held together by broad brass or copper hoops it will be much handsomer. A bucket or pail may be carved in like manner; and when lions' heads or other carved ornaments are _applied_, it will be found that a very ornamental object may be made with little trouble or expense. It is easiest to carve casks, kegs, buckets, or firkins, up and down, or in a perpendicular position, and to stand up while at the work, as a true carver is sure in the end to do at all his work.
TANKARDS AND WASTE-PAPER BOXES. Tankards, if small, may be turned from solid wood, but, when large, it is best to have them made by the cooper, of several pieces, and hooped with metal. To make the design for all such cylindrical objects, take a piece of paper which will _exactly_ go round, or correspond to the surface, and be sure to make the pattern continuous, that is, without breaks, unless it be designed in divisions. Wooden measures, such as are used by dealers in nuts, fruit, etc., are well adapted to carving for tankards. They may be bought at general furnishing shops.
The old Irish, and sometimes the Danes, made a rude kind of tankard, Fig. 58, by fastening together with nails, glue, or screws, four pieces of oak panel or thin board. It was like drinking from a box. It makes a useful receptacle for many purposes.
SIXTEENTH LESSON.
BOSSES, KNOBS, BARS, AND POLISHED ORNAMENTS.
There are several small effects in ornament which the carver should study with care; they are generally applicable to most kinds of decorative art. The first of these is the employment of bosses or knobs, some left plain, and some carved, hemi-spherical or less. They may be almost flat, but are always smooth at the edge and polished. They were very extensively used in early carving and metal-work, and the reader may see many illustrations of them in the works of Hulme. Sometimes the knob becomes a small spot or a mere dot, employed to introduce light into a dark ground. The practical theory is that the knob represents the plain or ornamental head of a nail used to hold the work to the wall, or the rivets of armour, which the Goths transferred from coats of mail to linen and woollen. But the real reason is to introduce points of light.
Knobs or bosses may be placed wherever there are wide spaces between patterns. The rule of employing them is either a few large points or many small ones; they must, however, be used sparingly. The principle of introducing them is of very wide extension. Thus, in all kinds of work, especially metal, grapes, melons, and other fruit are introduced solely that, by their roundness and polish, they may make points of light or "shiners." Old embossed work in leather and wood-carving often owes its chief beauty to the polish, which time and use have given to the reliefs on it. Of course the employment of "shiners" or bosses, and of all kinds of smooth polished relief, should, as a general rule, be sparing, subordinate, and judicious.
Nevertheless, in certain kinds of work, especially in much flat-carving, which is intended to simply ornament a surface, at no great expenditure of labour, just as tiles or tapestry might do, the stems and portions of the leaves, or sometimes all the pattern, may be polished as highly as possible, so as to make a relief against the dark ground. Grounds are pricked or punched or dotted to make them dark, and when the oil soaks into the holes they become permanently darker. Therefore the pattern is to be in contrast; and when the object is no more than to make a general decorative effect, not perfectly finished, but like a sketch, it may be polished.
There is another curious effect given by crossing the pattern alone, or the ground alone, with bars, lines, or stripes. It was very common at one time. In carving, it may be produced with a small gouge or fluter; though not natural, except where it is given in long and short lines to represent the graining of wood, it has a good effect simply because it distributes shadow evenly. It was probably derived from the effect of "ribs" in cloths, which were much admired by the Venetian painters.
Door-knobs are effectively bosses, that is to say, the same ornamentation may be applied to both, as to handles for bureaus, cabinets, and other furniture. Figs. 59 to 62 will give the pupil some examples and ideas for carving knobs and bosses.
SEVENTEENTH LESSON.
TO REPAIR WOOD-CARVING--GLUE--NITRIC ACID GLUE--PREPARING DECAYED WOOD--ARTIFICIAL WOOD--FILLERS--SPRAYING--TO MAKE GLUE "TAKE."
It will sometimes happen to a carver that, owing to bad wood or inadvertence, he splits away or breaks off a piece from his work. In this case he must have recourse to glue. This should be of the very best quality, perfectly light and clean. Glue is made in what alchemists used to call a _balneum mariæ_, that is, of a vessel containing hot water, within which is a smaller vessel. The glue, which is in the inner pot, is therefore to be boiled by the heat of warm water, and not of the fire directly. Before setting it to boil, break it into very small pieces, say of the size of a hazel nut, and let it stand in cold water for twelve hours. It will now be like a thick jelly. Pour off all the water not absorbed, and put the jelly into the inner pot, fill the outer with water and let it boil till the glue is like a thick cream. Use it while in this state.
If you add to the glue, while thus liquid, some nitric acid, say about a tea-spoonful to half a pint of glue, you will have a very superior cement, which holds faster than the plain glue, and is much less liable to crack or split. It dries more slowly, which makes it very valuable for veneering and for large surfaces, where glue often dries before the whole can be applied. Again, when an article fastened with common glue is detached, it is often almost impossible to stick it on again with the same. But with the acidulated glue this is easy.
The greatest advantage of this glue is, that if it be kept excluded from the air it will remain in a liquid state for at least a year, and can be used cold. Its disadvantages are a very pungent and not agreeable smell, and the fact that, when corked up, the cork is most certain to get glued to the bottle, and requires to be broken to get it out, rendering a new one necessary. This may be avoided, however, with great care. Stir the acid into the glue with a glass rod or tube.
It may happen that a rotten, broken place is found even in the best wood; or the carver may obtain possession of a piece of ancient, worm-eaten, half-decayed carving, and with a very little skill such pieces can be perfectly repaired. Take a piece of similar wood, and reduce it to fine sawdust by means of a rasp. For this purpose American walnut and dark old oak, or cocoa-nut shell, which is easily pulverized in a mortar, is excellent. Make this into a paste with glue, and repair with it any broken places. This, if properly made, is quite like wood itself, and may be moulded into any shape. It "takes hold" of the ground, and when dry it may be filed into uniformity with the rest. It may also be cut with ease or trimmed to shape, or, in fact, carved. If there is too little glue in it it will break too easily, if there is too much it will be too glazy. But a proper mixture makes it quite like wood.
Scratches and chance cuts may be remedied by merely melting them with hot water. But for such small defects a _filler_ is useful. 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. The squeezing wax, described in the chapter on making moulds, is a filler. Others are made by mixing flour with varnish, etc. Any dealer in paints and varnishes will supply a filler suitable to any special work.
When a piece of wood-work is so decayed that it is absolutely dropping to pieces, and cannot even be handled, it may be preserved and rehabilitated by the following process. Take some thin glue and water, or mucilage, or size of any kind, and a _spray_, that is, one of those articles such as are used for spraying perfumes, etc., and which are for sale in most chemist's shops. Spray or sprinkle the glue over the figure, and, if necessary, gradually throw on it fine sawdust or other powder. As it dries it may be shaped and worked more freely.
We read continually in the newspapers of the opening of old tombs and ancient subterranean caves, in which are discovered dead bodies, bones, dresses, implements of bone and wood or leather, or even of baked earth, which gradually dropped into dust a few hours after being exposed to the air. And I have never known a case in which these objects could not have been preserved; certainly all which I have ever seen could have been. All that is necessary to do is to make a thin size, and very gradually spraying or sprinkling it on the objects, allow it to dry, little by little. There are very few cases in which, indeed, the spray cannot be successfully used. It was by the application of this principle that Sir Joseph Hooker preserved the ivory articles brought from Nineveh by Sir Austen H. Layard, and which would have perished but for him. He advised that they should be boiled in gelatine. The student who becomes an expert in such repairing will find plenty to do, and it will be his own fault if it is not profitable. Nineteen people out of twenty have not the least conception of the degree to which repairs may be carried. Some years ago a gentleman in America had a very curious and valuable vase from the pyramid of Cholula in Mexico. It was very fragile, being made of the weakest terra-cotta, and having been broken to pieces, the owner was about to throw it away, but gave it to me. Some months after I repaired it so perfectly that the closest observation could not detect a flaw in it. I did this by fastening pieces of paper on the inside with gum, and so gradually bringing the fragments together, edge to edge, and fastening them with the acidulated glue. When all were together, there was, of course, a lining of paper. Where there was a fault or a deficiency outside, I filled it in with plaster of Paris, rubbed it all even, and coloured by "rubbing in" paint. This process would have been much easier with decayed wood.
In gluing ordinary wood together, heat the two pieces first. This renders them more inclined to "take" the glue. Sometimes it is a difficult thing to hold them together till they "set," that is, adhere so firmly that they will hold. For this the clamp, Fig. 7_a_, may often be used. In other cases, take two pieces of wood, put one on each side of the parts to be glued, and tie them tightly together; sometimes clamps may be used to connect the binding pieces, when they are not applicable to what is to be glued. Strong indiarubber rings or gummed paper strips may be used in some cases. But with thought, ingenuity can generally be awakened so as to help one out of any such difficulty.
A very perfect resemblance to carved wood may be made by taking cocoa-nut powder or fine sawdust and mixing it with the acidulated glue, so as to make a paste as already described. Then, having ready a mould, either of plaster of Paris or of sunk or incised wood, and oiling it, take the impression. These casts, retouched and glass-papered, are quite like wood, and they may be used for decoration in doors.
The following are also excellent recipes for glue.
_Liquid glue._ Take of best glue three parts, place them in eight parts of water, allow them to soak for some hours. Take half a part of hydrochloric acid (muriatic acid), 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.
_Exceedingly strong cement_ for glass and china. Take gum arabic and dissolve it in acetic acid instead of water. It must be melted in a hottish place; it will be much stronger if this be done. The finest quality of sheet gelatine makes a transparent glue.
EIGHTEENTH LESSON.
COLOURING WOOD-WORK--OILING--SODA--STAINS AND DYES--IVORYING SURFACES--BLACK DYES AND INK.
Carved or any other wood is often dyed, stained, or toned. Sometimes this is done to make one piece or part match with another; or it may be to imitate the effect of age, or to give light woods a colour which will prevent them from showing defects. This is effected in many ways.
_Oiling_ alone is a kind of colouring, for all oiled wood becomes much darker before long. The more frequently it is rubbed in with a pine stick the harder and darker the surface becomes. I have seen walnut tables which had been thus rubbed with a stick or a hard scrubbing brush, until a tea-cup wet with hot water on the outside would make no mark on them. Had they been only softly oiled or painted, or varnished, an indelible stain must have resulted. Care should be taken that the oil is pure, and that _no wax_ has been boiled in it. A table which has had wax on it for a polish will always show marks or stains from hot water.
_Soda_ dissolved in water, and applied to oak with a sponge or brush, will give it a darker tone, which may be increased by several applications. Dark tea with a little alum is also useful, also porter or beer, also a decoction of walnut leaves. In America butternut gives a very rich indelible dye. Let it be carefully observed that in using these, or any other colours, the following rules must be strictly observed. I. Use a sponge or brush and do not apply the dye profusely or pour it on, as you will run great risk of warping the wood, or causing it to split. II. It may be advisable to dry it near a fire, but in this case exercise great care that the heat be not too great. III. When dry, rub the dye off with a rag or soft old newspaper, or chamois skin. Do this very carefully, and do not be disappointed if it seem very light and to have taken but little dye. Apply the dye again, giving it plenty of time to dry between the coatings. Of course this depends on the dyes used, and the degree of colour required.
_Stephens' stains_ of different kinds, to imitate all kinds of wood, or those of _Mander_ (Oxford Street, London), are very good, and may now be purchased in every town. As a rule, most of these dyes are very strong, and it is therefore necessary to dilute them with water and make several applications, instead of putting on the whole strength at once. The diluted dye is carefully painted over the entire surface with a full flat camel's hair brush, and a smaller round brush is used in the corners and smaller recesses. After using dyes, and when perfectly dry, the wood should be oiled.
_Ammonia._ Wood, and especially oak, may be not only stained of a very dark rich colour, giving the effect of age, by washing it carefully with ammonia or spirits of hartshorn, and then exposing it for some time in a chimney, or otherwise to the fumes of smoke, especially of a wood-fire if it be possible. Strong spirits of ammonia, according to Rowe, may be placed in an open vessel and then shut up with the panel in an airtight chamber or box, the wood darkening according to the length of time it is left in. The ammonia may have to be renewed, as it quickly evaporates. For small work a glass shade may be used, or a box can be made with a glass lid, and after the panel and saucer of ammonia have been placed inside, the crevices can be pasted over with brown paper. When the depth of colour is obtained, which can be seen through the glass, the panel can be taken out. The wood must be so placed that the ammonia can pass quite round the parts which require darkening. But for ordinary purposes, it will be found quite sufficient to apply strong ammonia with a brush or sponge, and expose it to smoke.
_Umber._ Common powdered umber, which is used by the house painter, is much preferable to the Swiss brown liquid stain to produce an antique brown appearance. The Swiss dye is entirely too rich and uniform, making everything exactly alike, or similar to chocolate. But the umber must be properly applied. Mix it with beer or porter; strong coffee is also very good; and apply it with a brush. When dry rub it very carefully, clean, and apply it again. If it be desirable to make the wood very dark, add lamp-black to the dye, mixing and shaking it very thoroughly. But always let the first applications be of umber alone. By adding the lamp-black one can darken the wood almost to blackness, and if it be very carefully done, and not in a hurry, and exposed at intervals to smoke in a warm place, a colour second to none may be thus given.
_Paint._ Wood which is to be exposed to the air must of course be painted in the ordinary way. But there is another method of applying oil paint which is not so generally known or practised, yet which gives very good results. This consists of _rubbing_ paint with the hand into wood or on plaster of Paris, papier-maché, or stone. As it is much thinner than with coats laid on with a brush, it appears more like an innate or natural colour. This was the finger painting of the old Venetian artists. The appearance thus produced, when it is skilfully done, is very different indeed from that of an ordinary coat of paint, and in most cases it is much more attractive.
_Ivorying._ Take a panel, the pattern may be carved, or even produced in the lowest relief by simply indenting the outline with a wheel or tracer. Any degree of relief will, however, do just as well. Apply a coat of thick ordinary copal varnish. When perfectly dry smooth it with finest glass or emery-paper. Then apply the paint; two or three coats are better than one. See that the last is perfectly smooth. Then work on the dry surface with tracer and stamps, as you would on wood or brass. When finished, take a very small fitch-brush and paint Vandyke brown into all the dots, lines, scratches, and irregularities. Let there be a dark line of brown close to the outline of the pattern. Sometimes the entire ground may be _rubbed_ with brown, allowing an indication or a few dots of white yellow to show here and there. When dry give two coats of retouching varnish (that of Söhnee Frères, No. 19, Rue des Filles du Calvaire, Paris, is specially suited to this work). By using olive, dark and light greens, a beautiful imitation of bronze can be thus obtained. In fact, by studying the effects of colour in many kinds of old objects, we may obtain hints for converting very ordinary wood-carving into beautiful objects.
_Bichromate of Potash_, diluted with water to the required shade, is a good dark dye, but great care should be taken not to spill a drop of it on the clothing, or to get it on the hands, or even to inhale its fumes, as it is a poison. Apply it with a brush.
_Black Dyes._ Of late years black dyes have been so much improved that ebony is imitated with holly, hickory, and beech, to absolute perfection. The best way for the carver, as regards these and all kinds of dyes, such as red, yellow, green, etc., is to go to a chemist or colourman, who will obtain them for him. For black the following recipes may be used.
I.
White vinegar 1 pint. Iron filings 2 ounces. Antimony (powdered) 2 ounces. Vitriol 1 ounce. Logwood 3 ounces.
Steep it in a corked bottle for eight days.
II.
Gall nuts coarsely broken 2 ounces. Rain water 1 quart.
Boil down to one half. (_Seaton._)
To stain wood, first apply No. II., when nearly dry put on No. I. and then No. II. again. It will occur to the reader that this is really ink, and, in fact, if he cannot get a stain, good common ink applied a few times and well dried will answer quite as well. After it has been thoroughly put on, and quite dry, oil the surface, and rub it well, and it will be found that it will not wash off from any casual application of water. Some of the writing inks now made are intensely black and almost indelible.
NINETEENTH LESSON.
MAKING MOULDS OR SQUEEZES FOR WOOD-CARVERS.
It will very soon become apparent to every wood-carver that it is easier to copy from a model than a drawing, and that this ease is very much increased when he has made that model in clay himself. However, it is also very advisable that he shall, after a time, practise carving from drawings and sketches also, as this of itself gives great skill and accuracy of perception. But he will very often need or wish to have copies of carvings or casts, and these he may obtain with ease, if the relief be not too great or the object too large. This is called "taking a squeeze," and it may be done in two ways. Firstly, by means of squeezing or modelling wax, which is sold by dealers in artists' materials. The use of this and the casting in plaster of Paris is, however, generally tiresome to beginners in carving. For all practical purposes squeezes in paper are quite sufficient.
_Paper squeezes._ Take any pieces of soft newspaper. Oil the wood or plaster cast which you wish to copy; soak, and then press on the paper and, with your fingers and a sponge or a very stiff brush, poke and squeeze it into every cranny of the original. If this be done _thoroughly_, the hardest part of the work is accomplished. Now give the paper a brush of flour-paste or gum or mucilage, or paste strengthened with glue, and press on new pieces of paper. To merely copy the original, a few thicknesses will suffice. Take the squeeze off and let it dry; if necessary, touch it up with colour. For this the first coat should be of _white_ paper. To make a cast, keep adding paper till the whole is at least half an inch in thickness. Press it as hard as you can while forming the mould. When it is dry you can paint or rub the inside with any dry powder, such as whiting, or varnish it, and then make a cast with the same material, _i.e._ paper and paste, or with plaster of Paris. Papier-maché casts, when rubbed by hand with brown paint, form perfect facsimiles of old wood-work. Rubbed with bronze-powders they resemble metals, or they may be ivoried, by the process described in the chapter on dyes.