Part 3

=A Lead Swab=: For use on marble, brick, or stone—especially good for removing smoke and rust stains. Sew a pound of buckshot rather tightly inside stout canvas, tie the canvas in chamois skin, and change the leather as it grows soiled.

=Sawdust=: Get a peck of clean non-resinous sawdust, sift, and sun or oven-dry. Keep dry. Use on floors, also for drying and polishing intricate surfaces. Heat for use, but do not scorch.

=Pine Needles=: Clean pine needles, if available, should be kept for polishing floors, either hardwood or stained. Heat very slightly and strew them in front of the weighted brush or broom.

=Brick Dust=: Beat a soft brick to powder, sift it and keep dry. Use with a chamois dipped in oil, else upon the cut surface of a raw potato. Especially useful for spots on steel or for polishing pewter and copper.

=A Wall Mop=: Cut washed cheesecloth into even strips, tack as many as can be firmly fastened to the end of a light rod, and shake free of lint. Clean by dipping up and down in soapsuds or gasolene after use.

=Care of Brushes=: All manner of brushes, especially floor and vegetable ones, should be washed clean, scalded by dipping to the back, no deeper, in boiling water, then dried, brush down, in open air, and kept dry. Whisk brooms should hang the same as full-grown ones, likewise hearth brooms. Stand clothes and hair brushes bristles down—this so they may not collect dust. The safest wash for them is gasolene, letting it come only to the back, not over it. Hot borax soapsuds, likewise used, clean without loosening the bristles.

=Renovators—Filler for New Wood=: Sift twice together half a pint of powdered corn starch and as much whiting. Stir gradually into a half gallon of raw linseed oil mixed with the same quantity of turpentine. Take care there are no lumps and keep well stirred while putting on.

=Oil Stains=: Use the same mixture of oil and turpentine. For cherry put into the gallon an ounce of Indian red, stir well through, test, if too pale add more color. If too deep, add oil and turpentine. Work with the wood grain in putting on any sort of stain.

=Mahogany Stain=: Four parts Indian red, three parts burnt sienna. Mix dry and stir evenly through the oil and turpentine. Use half sienna for a dull tone. To make stains dry quickly add a pint more turpentine and half a pint less oil.

=Walnut Stain=: Use burnt umber, an ounce to the gallon. A little dry ocher mixed with the umber gives a livelier tone. Red or yellow, or both, can be put in, but must be very well mixed.

=Oak Stain=: Raw umber is the basis of oak stain; proportion and mix like the others. Antique oak requires burnt sienna mixed well with a very little lampblack, also to have two parts of turpentine to one of oil. Apply it with a sponge or swab of cotton waste and rub into the grain lines, leaving the spaces between bare.

=Wax Finish for Stained or Hardwood=: Melt over boiling water half a pound of yellow beeswax with half a pint of sweet oil. Beat hard a minute, take from fire, add half a cup of turpentine, and beat until nearly cold. Keep covered in glass or earthenware. Apply soft, but not liquid, with a clean flannel, and polish by rubbing until hot.

=Dancing-wax=: Used on Colonial ballrooms. Melt together over boiling water a pound of yellow beeswax and half a pint of filtered neat’s-foot oil. Add resin the size of a walnut melted in half a cup of new unsalted butter. Beat well, take from fire, stir in a cup of turpentine, and keep covered. Apply soft, and polish with hard rubbing.

=Furniture Polish No. 1=: Equal parts of sweet oil, choloroform, and alcohol shaken hard together, rubbed on quickly, then polished by rubbing until hot.

=Piano Polish=: Shake hard together equal parts of sweet oil, turpentine, and vinegar. Add a very little naphtha, apply with silk or flannel, and rub hard afterward.

=French Polish=: For dark wood, especially old mahogany. Melt together over hot water ten parts pale resin, ten parts palm oil. Mix, take from fire, add eighty parts benzine, one part essence peppermint, and half a part essence of verbena. Keep sealed in glass, away from heat. Use away from light or fire. Apply with soft old silk, and polish by rubbing with very soft silk or flannel.

=The Glue Pot=: Melt glue only as required. Cover dry glue with cold water after breaking up well, put salt water in the bath outside, bring to a boil, then simmer until the glue ropes a little. Thin with hot vinegar. To mend things white or light-colored, melt the clearest glue in a china cup inside a saucepan, and thin after melting with gin instead of vinegar.

=To Make Glue Size=: Melt a pound of glue, thin with a quart of hot vinegar, then stir well through two to five gallons hot water, according to the strength required.

=Vegetable Size=: Tie a gallon of wheat bran or cornmeal bran loosely in net or cheesecloth; boil for five hours in five gallons of water, filling up as it boils away. Add a lump of alum after the bran bag is removed. Apply hot to walls or wood.

=Calcimine=: Stir sifted whiting into strong glue size until it is thicker than cream. Clear with a little blueing. Thin at need with boiling water. Tint with earth colors in powder. Red and yellow ocher mixed give a pinkish-cream tint; yellow alone true cream. Indian red makes pink; by adding burnt sienna the color is pinkish fawn. Yellow ocher with burnt umber gives various shades of brown. Always mix colors rather pale at first, try out on a board, then add what is lacking.

=Whitewashes=: Either glue or vegetable size may be the foundation. Add a big lump of salt to five gallons of size, stir well, and pour boiling hot upon half a peck of unslaked lime. Clear with Prussian blue and apply very hot. For sanitary carbolic whitewash use vegetable size, dissolving in five gallons, boiling hot, two ounces of carbolic crystals. Then pour upon the lime and mix well. Two ounces of copperas—green vitriol—dissolved instead of the carbolic acid gives a faint-yellow tinge and is a good prophylactic. To kill vermin, as in poultry houses, nest boxes, and so on, mix through a pail of hot wash five grains of corrosive sublimate dissolved in a pint of water; put on as a first coat, and after a while give a second coat of plain whitewash.

=Milk Whitewash=: Stir into a gallon of sweet milk enough unslaked lime in fine powder to make it thicker than cream. Add a teacup of turpentine, stir well, and put on at once with a paint brush. This sticks to smooth wood nearly the same as paint, and can be colored with earth paints almost any shade.

=Paste for Paper-hanging=: Wet up smooth in cold water two tablespoonfuls of flour and stir it into a gallon of water on the bubbling boil. Stir hard to prevent lumps, add a small spoonful of tallow, cook for several minutes, then add an ounce of alum dissolved in half a pint of boiling water. Take from fire and add ten drops oil of cloves.

=White Mucilage=: For mending books and making scrap books. Cover clean gum tragacanth with cold water, let stand till dissolved, then add oil of cloves to keep from molding. Keep in a glass jar tightly closed. This leaves no mark.

=Gum Arabic=: For clear starching and shirt bosoms. Get four ounces of dry gum, pick over carefully, throwing out dark pieces and blowing away dust. Pour upon it a pint of boiling water, let stand till dissolved, filter, and bottle. A tablespoonful added to a quart of starch gives a high gloss. Two spoonfuls in a quart of tepid water will stiffen fine lawn or muslin sufficiently and restore the new look.

=Paper Dough=: Crumple newspaper very soft, tear to bits, dampen, pound, and knead well, then wet with strong glue size and knead to a dough. For wall breaks, rat holes, filling yawning cracks, or rounding corners, mix in plaster of Paris at the moment of application and pound in place before the plaster sets. Mix only what can be used at once.

=White Cement=: Mix sifted whiting to a soft dough with white of egg, for filling small holes in white walls or cracks in ceilings. Press in with a blunt knife and smooth the surface with the blade dipped in cold water.

=Sand and Plaster=: Sift together fine sand and plaster, wet with hot water, and use to fill bigger breaks in a wall. Wet only a little at a time and work quickly. Lay a board over the mortar as soon as in place, and beat with a hammer to smooth.

=Putty=: Sift two pounds of whiting into a bowl, make a hole in the middle, and wet with raw linseed oil, soft or stiff according to your requirements. Knead the same as dough. To keep, pack down in glass and pour a little oil over the top. Should be always on hand, as it is about the most useful of the renovators.

=Cement for Glass=: Cover isinglass with gin in a glass jar, set in sunshine until dissolved, then filter. It should be as clear as water. For mending colored glass rub down a trifle of oil color in a spoonful of the cement.

=Sugar Cement=: Cook to candy height the purest loaf sugar. Apply hot to heated edges.

=Lime Water=: Pour a gallon of boiling water upon a lump of quicklime the size of two fists. Stir hard, let settle, pour off the clear water, bottle, and keep corked tight.

=Javelle Water=: A bleach so effectual it must not touch colors. Dissolve half a pound of washing-soda in a pint of boiling water, and add it to a quart of boiling water in which a quarter pound of chloride of lime has been dissolved. Stir, let settle, pour off clear, bottle, cork, and keep dark.

=Chloride-of-lime Water=: Pour a gallon of boiling water upon a pound of dry chloride. Stir well, let settle, pour off clear, bottle, and keep well corked, dark, and cool. Dissolve in wood or earthenware—metal corrodes.

=Oxalic Acid=: Put four ounces of crystals with half a pint cold water into a quart bottle, shake hard and often till the crystals dissolve. This makes a saturated solution. If ragged crystals remain, add a gill more cold water. Keep plainly labeled “Poison.” Take care not to let it touch a scratch or fresh cut on the hands, also to keep it away from children.

=Copperas Water=: Dissolve a heaping tablespoonful of copperas in a gallon of boiling water. Pour through drains, sinks, or into gutters. Sprinkle bad-smelling places plentifully with it and spray it over green-scummed pools. It is an ideal disinfectant—cheap, odorless, and effectual, withal safe.

IV

CHINA, GLASS, AND FURNITURE

=Washing Fine China=: Never soak fine china, never wash it with scouring-soap, soap powder, nor yellow-resin soap. Unless very greasy clean with borax water. Wipe and scrape off as much soil as possible before washing. Have the water pleasantly warm—boiling water is ruinous. Rinse water should be a trifle hotter than the suds. Except in emergencies, never put on any sort of soap. Put only a few pieces at a time into the suds, wash, rinse, and stand to drain. Have a thick cloth on the draining-board—with very thin ware have another thick cloth over the pan bottom. Change suds as they grow dirty. Add hot water from time to time. Even temperature is the thing. Wipe with soft clean towels after draining well, but before the ware is dry. Wash things in sets; as dried lay a paper napkin between, and set away the pile upon something soft. Squares of Turkish toweling are excellent.

Use a soft thick brush for relief or incised decorations or lace edges. Dip it lightly in powdered borax or white soapsuds and rub steadily but not too hard. Set things which have held milk, creams, thick soups, sauces, or gelatine compounds in clear warm water for three minutes, and rub away as much of what sticks to them as possible before putting them into the suds. Soap combined with milk or gelatine makes the water slimy, the ware sticky. Boiling water sets either milk or gelatine. If possible, rinse and wash things soiled with them as soon as empty. In wiping do not rub gilt borders—rather pat them dry.

Burnish half yearly with a swab of sifted whiting tied in soft silk. Intricate gilding may have the whiting sifted on while damp and brushed off after drying. In storing keep sets and sizes together. Set things so they will not jostle nor clatter nor tip. Stand platters on edge in a special grooved shelf, the biggest at the back. If piled, put something between, less to save breakage than to prevent a possible chipping of glaze. Things bought in cases should be stored in them, the cases set in drawers or on low shelves. High setting invites dropping and ruinous breakage.

=Ironstone and Majolica=: Wash in warm (not hot) suds, with a clean soft cloth, rinse in hotter water, and wipe almost immediately. Beware of chipping, beware also of cracking glaze by setting in heat or boiling water. Such ware is porous enough to take up grease and other things. Cracked or chipped dishes should not be used except to hold things like raw fruit, bread, sandwiches, or dry stores.

=Gilt and Cut Glass=: Remove cream or jelly with a quick rinse, wash in suds or borax water, a little more than blood-warm, using a clean soft brush on the cuttings. Have a cloth on the pan bottom if the cutting is deep, the article of good size. Use white soap—resin soaps get into fine lines and stay there. Pass from suds into a hotter rinse water, turn over and about, lift, turn upside down, then plunge into another water a very little hotter. If the ware is very white, the third water should have salt in it—a tablespoonful to the gallon. With glass less white, put blueing in the third water, turn about, and set upside down upon a thick cloth for three minutes, then put in a box and sift over hot fine sawdust—“jeweler’s sawdust” if possible, else dust with fine whiting, set in a warm (not hot) place and leave till dry. Brush off sawdust or whiting with a stiff brush, polish lightly with soft old silk, and store when fully cool.

Glass with silver inlay or incrustation must be rubbed after washing with a chamois skin dipped in whiting. Clean decanters and claret jugs by putting inside either a few buckshot and shaking them about in a cupful of tepid water dashed with ammonia, or else lightly folded squares of stiff brown paper with barely enough ammonia water to moisten. These remove wine incrustations. If the stains are obstinate, fill the decanter with tepid water, add a pinch of borax, and let it stand. Tiny pills of whiting wet up with alcohol and ammonia, dried, dropped inside, and shaken about, then dissolved out with tepid water, leave the insides clear and bright. So do crushed egg shells.

Wash gilt and Bohemian glass—indeed, any fancy glass—with a very soft brush and tepid white suds, rinse in hotter water, drain almost dry, then polish with absorbent cotton dipped lightly in powdered whiting. Iridescent and bubble glass should not be wiped. Drain instead, and polish when ready to use with a wisp of cotton. Cameo glass, or any with patterns in relief, must be washed with a stiff brush, in weak suds, rinsed thoroughly, and dried in gentle, steady heat rather than wiped.

=Pressed Glass=: Wash and rinse in water the same temperature, drain, but not too long, and wipe. Beware of linty towels. Be sure to run cloth or mop inside water glasses, otherwise they become dull quickly. Wash pitchers the same way; water leaves sediment—accumulations of it are hard to remove. Imitation cuttings must be brushed—they had better be eschewed. Plain, clear surfaces are much handsomer. Bowls set one in the other should have paper between. Load no glass thing heavily—the rumble or jar of a passing wagon may cause breakage if you do.

=Annealing Glass=: Annealing lessens sensibly the risk of breakage. Pack the glass snugly in a boiler, fill with cold water, bring to a boil, keep simmering three to four hours, then throw over a thick cloth and let cool very slowly. Remove only when fully cold. Especially useful for thin tumblers, lamp chimneys, and finger bowls. Put a board or a handful of clean sticks in the bottom of the boiler, so the heat shall not break things set lowest.

=Knives and Forks=: Have a pitcher just tall enough to hold knives, up to the handle. Do not quite fill it with very hot borax suds, stand knives in it, and leave till other things are out of the way, then wash blades, wipe off handles, rinse very quickly in clear tepid water, wipe dry, polish with a clean chamois, and hold with a clean cloth in putting away. This to save finger marks which grow often to stains or tarnishes upon knives seldom used. All-silver knives can be treated the same as other silver or plated things—still pitcher-washing is as good for them as any other. Ivory handles or pearl ones, or those of stag-horn or composition, all are injured by either soaking or very hot water. Carving-sets are frequently defaced hopelessly by rubbing the handles with scouring-soap. Instead use only lather, washing it off instantly. If suspicious of grease in the seam, wrap a fine-pointed skewer in thin cloth and run all around, pressing hard. Wipe knife handles very dry, else lay them for ten minutes in gentle heat to expel possible moisture around the rivets.

=Restoring Antique Furniture=: Take out grease or ink spots (see section Spots and Stains), then go over with a turpentine cloth sopping wet, rub and rub and rub. Follow with an alcohol cloth and more rubbing, then a wash in strong hot suds, followed by rubbing dry. Now take stock of the surface. If there are dents, raise them by laying on very wet blotting-paper and drying it with a blazing-hot iron. Repeat if necessary—steam does the work. Sandpaper away scratches, or rub them with emery and a little oil, or scrape with broken glass. Go over again with turpentine to remove the last traces of varnish or grime. Then sandpaper to a new surface, and either oil, varnish, or give a wax finish (see section Renovators).

Before resurfacing drive up loose dowels, wedging them tight, glue afresh rickety joins, strengthening them further with slender brads driven in from the under side. Glue broken bits in place—if they are missing, make the break smooth and fit into it a new piece. Cut the old wood, slanting outward—thus it is possible to drive very short brads from underneath. A vise helps greatly in such repairs—the harder held the pieces, the firmer and less visible the join. After it is dry, sandpaper; if the new wood fails to match the old, stain and rub down before waxing or polishing. Tiny gaps can be filled with putty mixed with dry color approaching that of the wood. This will take either oil stain or a wax finish.

Tighten rickety drawers so they slide easily. Remedy bad feet by chiseling out shattered wood and putting in plugs of sound wood to hold the castors. Glue in the new plugs, also nail them fast. Grease the points of nails to save splitting the old wood. Set them invisibly and drive gently, but see that they go fully home. Remove glass or brass mounting while resurfacing. Clean and brighten them (see section Brass) before replacing. Tighten metal linings about keyholes with putty, put on inside. All padding, upholstery, or baize tops must, of course, be taken wholly away. Save them, no matter how ragged, as patterns for new stuff.

Refinish and repair frames thus stripped before recovering. Very handsome things had better be put in professional hands unless you have practised upon plainer ones. It is a waste of strength and material to put handsome new covers over musty padding or to botch and pucker hopelessly through inexperience. In the courage of her economies a clever woman learns quickly the knack of upholstery. Minute directions are impossible—each sofa or couch or easy chair is so much a law unto itself. In a general way, have all necessary things handy—as covering muslin, webbing, springs, tacks, twine, upholsterer’s needles, moss or curled hair, brads in variety, sharp shears, and stout pliers for dragging through reluctant needles. Press out old covers and use as patterns for the new. Model your work as nearly as possible on what you took away. Remember always before fastening on covers to mark the middle of them and set it accurately to the middle of the frame, tacking it thence both ways. Pad arms and backs first, then basket-weave webbing across the bottom, drawing it very taut, put on springs, fasten them with twine to the webbing, lay thin cloth over, put a thick layer of stuffing upon it, then fit the muslin cover and tack smoothly to the frame. Tuft or leave plain according to style and period. Cut the ornamental covering very accurately, sew together, following the original, fit smooth, and cover the edges with gimp. With figured material, cut so the boldest figure shall appear in the middle of back and seat or equidistant from ends of the panels of long sofas. Practise upon something cheap—here as everywhere else experience is the best teacher.

=Care of Antiques=: Old mahogany, rose-wood, ebony, cherry, or walnut differ little in their requirements. Each and several, they film over. To brighten, wash in warm (not hot) naphtha soapsuds, wetting only a little space at a time, wiping it quickly with a cloth wrung from clear hot water, and as quickly rubbing dry. Washing complete, rub hard with old silk or flannel, then apply either French polish, piano polish, or wax finish (see section Renovators). Put this on with a soft cloth and rub in until the surface burns your hand. Washing is necessary about half yearly, except in rooms where there is a great deal of gas or candlelight and much greasy vapor. Dinner tables in steady use ought to be washed and polished monthly. Rub deep carvings with chamois over the point of a blunt skewer, changing its place every little while.

=Brass Bedsteads=: Respect their lacquer. Keep water far from them, likewise alcohol, gasolene, or naphtha. Smears may be wiped off with cloths slightly damp, followed by wiping with one dry and soft. Wipe dust away with softened cheesecloth, remove finger marks by gentle rubbing with crumpled soft silk or old flannel. Have a thick soft brush to take dust from carving or curled rails. Wipe off grease with soft flannel and polish the spot with a very little sifted chalk or whiting on a clean cloth. Tarnish is a proof that lacquer has been destroyed—the remedy is relacquering, but mitigate until that is possible by oxalic acid or vinegar and salt (see section Renovators).

Brass trimmings upon enamel bedsteads, cribs, etc., need the same care. So do brass frames, trays, etc. Elaborate chasings can be brightened without injury by coating thickly with powdered starch, letting it stand a day, then brushing it away.

=Mission Furniture and Fumed Oak=: Dust real mission pieces with a soft damp cloth followed by a dry one barely sprinkled with turpentine. Use any good leather dressing on seats and backs. Neat’s-foot oil and beeswax, equal quantities, melted over hot water with twice their bulk of turpentine, is a good thing, and safe. Apply soft but not liquid, put on barely enough to rub over the leather, and rub until absorbed. For fumed and Flemish oak use a soft, thick dust brush, followed by a thick cloth slightly dampened. If greasy or grimy, wash very quickly in hot naphtha soapsuds, wipe dry, and rub until hot. Once a year rub very lightly over with sweet oil, turpentine, and alcohol, equal parts, shaken well together. Varnished pieces can have thin white varnish instead of alcohol. Put on with flannel and rub till hot.