Very few people, even among workmen and artists, are aware of what remarkable and curious restoration the most decayed pieces of wood are capable. We will, however, begin with the simplest repairing, or that of furniture. When articles of furniture have been strongly and properly made of oak or other hard wood, and as properly used, they will last for centuries; and should some unforeseen accident take away legs or arms, they can be perfectly replaced, especially in the admirable old-fashioned German objects of the kind, which were all put together with wooden pins or by means of mortise and tenon, so that, when need required, they could be packed as boards;—nor were they the less elegant for this. But if furniture be simply sawed from soft, cheap deal or poplar, and merely glued together (as most cheap furniture made in England is), it will soon warp and break up, and all the mending in the world will not make it better than it was when new. Glue is, therefore, the great material Having a broken chair-leg, which can, however, be fitted together, first prepare your glue in a proper kettle—that is, a balneum mariÆ, or one kettle in another. In the outer is only boiling water; in the inner the glue, mixed with water. The reason for this is, that glue, when softened with water, dries up very rapidly under the action of air or fire, while the softer heat of water keeps it, so to speak, “alive.” But if, while the glue is soft, we pour, say, a teaspoonful of nitric acid into half-a-pint of glue, it will remain soft a much longer time—which is a valuable secret to many, especially where large, broad surfaces of veneers are to be glued on, and where, the process being slow, it is desirable for the adhesive to remain soft for many minutes. And here I would mention that the acid-glue will remain in a liquid state for one year if tightly corked up in a bottle. Its only defect is a disagreeable, pungent smell. This glue can be improved by being made as follows:—Take of best glue three parts, place them in eight parts of water, and allow the mixture to soak some hours. Take half a part of hydrochloric or muriatic acid and 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—that is to say, boil the glue as usual in a balneum mariÆ or in hot water, after soaking it all night in water. Then stir in the hydrochloric (or muriatic) acid and sulphate of zinc. This is a first-class glue. Keep it in a bottle with an oiled cork; any other stopper would adhere. But for all ordinary work the glue, with This glue, which keeps liquid for a long time, and which holds without scaling off, as common glue often does, may also be made with very strong vinegar. The latter, in fact, amounts to the same thing in most European countries, but especially in the United States, where, according to the New York Tribune, there is literally no vinegar sold or made, save from sulphuric acid and water. Perhaps when mankind shall have reached a higher stage of civilisation, all dealers will be compelled by law to place on every article of food sold the list of ingredients of which it is composed. We should then know how much oleomargarine passes for butter, and what proportion of “delicious conserves” are manufactured from apples alone or turnips. Observe that in glueing ordinary wood together the two pieces to be attached should be gradually but very well heated first. This renders them more inclined to “take” the glue. This is applicable to other substances. Also note that when two surfaces have been made to adhere with ordinary water-glue, should they come apart when cold, it is very difficult to make them unite again. But this is not the case with acid-glue. And if you have such surfaces which will not unite, wash them with nitric acid or very strong vinegar, and the glue then applied will “take.” Also observe that the acid-glue is far stronger than the common kind. Having the broken leg fitted, first with a narrow gimlet or brad-awl make a hole crossing the fracture, It seems strange that anything can be so mended as to be stronger than before; yet this is literally true as regards the broken leg of a chair, a cane, a beam, the mast or spar of a vessel, or any similar long piece of wood. This is effected as follows:—Cut the two separated pieces into two exactly fitting “steps” or mortises, as shown in this illustration. Fasten these with glue and screws; or, better still, by adding to both two sliding, tightly fitting ring-tubes, or one long one. This will actually make the stick stronger than it was at first. The rings should be covered with paper, glued, and then painted and varnished. The processes of glueing and screwing are applicable to most fractures of furniture. Where a piece of wood is broken away, it, or a similar piece, must be inserted. When wood is warped it may be straightened by applying wet towels. Observe that if a flat panel is warped thus— It will very often happen in mending furniture that neither nail, glue, nor screw can be relied on. In such case bore with a suitable gimlet and pass wire through the hole. Flexible wire twisted in two strands, with the ends properly secured, say to the head of a screw, all being sunk beneath the level, will hold almost anything. Frames for looking-glasses or pictures often “spring” at the joints. In such cases a screw with acidulated glue will make them permanently strong. Always put handles to drawers. The vile invention or device of using the key for a handle is by far too common. Metallic handles of brass are preferable to wooden knobs. Keys are often lost, or else break. When the bottom of a drawer, as frequently happens, shrinks and becomes too short, so that there is a long opening, the latter should be filled with a strip of wood. The chief cause why modern furniture is apt to become loose or separate is chiefly due to its being made either of unseasoned or soft wood, such as weak deal or poplar, which absorbs moisture from the air and then dries and shrinks, or because it is made of too many pieces only glued together, and that with cheap, bad glue. Restoring Decayed Wood.—The worst cases of decay or of worm-eaten wood can be perfectly restored in this manner:—Take fine sawdust of the same kind of wood as the original. Let it be as fine as possible, either cut with a refined saw or powdered in a mortar. Sift it. Then with acidulated glue, or else plain, clear, white Salisbury glue for light wood, make a paste, well mixed. With this you can fill up holes (using a spatula or flexible knife or ivory paper-knife). But, what is more, you can thus make a very strong artificial wood which can be moulded into any form, and when dry polished by cutting over the surface with a chisel or flat gouge, and using a file or glass-paper to finish. In fact, you can mould or model figures with this wood-paste by itself. Putty is generally used for such repairs, but the wood-paste is like wood, and quite as durable. If you have a mould of plaster of Paris, boil it in oil, clean it, and then oil it. With the wood-paste you can make ornaments which can be applied to plain wood surfaces. Splints, fractures, cracks, holes, corners broken away, are all easily restored with wood-paste. In moulding it the fingers should be oiled to prevent its sticking. Any kind of dry sawdust can thus be converted into a paste, which, when dry, becomes wood. It may be very much hardened under a hydraulic-press or by a wooden hand-roller. Housekeepers should use this composition for filling up rat-holes, or any kind of crevices in furniture, or panels, or doors and walls, especially where such cracks harbour insects. It would be perfectly possible to construct an entire house of such wood-cement, and one which would be perfectly durable, or even more so than wood, since beams and planks thus made never crack, split, nor warp. With it the boldest vaulting and arch work can be more easily made than in stone or with wood, as the latter is usually worked. As builders in Turkey form domes by making circles of clay or mud, and gradually add to the first a smaller one, so by using wood-paste the largest space could be covered or domed over without building a scaffolding. There are many places in the world where (as in the prairies of America, Russia, and Hungary) large timber is wanting, but where small wood for sawdust is more available, and yet where, as cattle abound, glue would be very cheap. This material deserves more serious attention than it has ever received. More than twenty years after I had invented, or at least projected and put in practice, this method of making artificial wood, I found the following in the Manuel GÉnÉral du Modelage, par F. Goupil; Paris, Le Bailly:— “To make vases, take fine dry sawdust and pass it through a sieve. It may be made into a paste with a compound of turpentine, resin, and wax. Or mix the adhesive with five parts of best strong white glue (colle de Flandre) to one part of fish-glue. Melt them separately, ... pour them together, boil to a proper consistency, and mix with the sawdust. By this process figures can be cast which, when finished by hand, exactly resemble carved wood.” Another recipe is to take 750 grammes of strong glue to 1½ kilogramme of gall nuts. To be mixed cold. Mix in hot water with sawdust. Since writing the foregoing I have found the following recipe in a MS. of 1780, a family heirloom kindly lent me by Miss Roma Lister:— “To cast Wood in Moulds as fine as Ivory, of a fragrant Smell, and indifferent Colours.—Dry Lime Tree wood sawdust in a pan by a gentle fire, and beat it to a fine powder in a stone mortar. Sift it through Cambric, and keep it in a dry place free from dust. Then add to an equal quantity of Gum Tragacanth and Gum Arabic 4 times the quantity of Parchment Glue. Boil them in Pump Water, and filter through Linen. Stir into it the Wood powder till it becomes of the substance of a thick pastry; stir it all together, and set it in a glazed pan in hot sand, for the moisture to evaporate till it be fit for casting. Mix your colours with the Paste, and to give it a Scent put Oil of Cloves or Roses or the like, which, if you please, you may mix with powdered Amber. Anoint the mould with Oil of Almonds, and put your paste into it. Let it dry for 4 or 5 days, then take off your mould, and the Images will be as hard as Ivory. You may cut, turn, carve, and plane this wood, and it will have a fine scent. The mould may be Plaster of Paris, but it were better made of metal.” I would add to this, that where heavy pressure or hand-rolling can be applied this becomes really hard. Also note that any light, dry wood of fine texture can be dried and powdered for this purpose. The paste, even with common fine glue, can be used for very fine repairing. By sifting and pulverising, the dust may be made as fine as flour. A little calcined and powdered glass adds to its strength. To make panels for furniture, walls, or boxes, take firstly a thin panel of seasoned wood, fasten two strips of sheet-tin across the back to prevent warping, and make or apply the cast to this. Very beautiful work can thus be produced very cheaply. It may be here observed that this principle of mixing a powdered substance with glue or gum or an adhesive runs through all the arts of mending. The powder of cocoa-nut shells, slate, of paper, plaster of Paris, of leather, clay, lime, fine sand, and many other substances, can all be combined with adhesives, acids, or chemical solvents in such a manner as to form what may be called generically cements, or substances, or pastes, which become hard. Any glue or gum, or liquid which will make two surfaces adhere, can be mixed with most organic or inorganic hard substances in powder so as to form a paste which, when dry, forms a solid, hard substance, because the grains of the powder are thereby cemented together. Most of these yield to the action of water, but there are a few which resist both water and fire, all of which will be described in this work. Broken ebony can be filled in cracks with a very neat and dainty paste or cement made as follows:—Take dried rose-leaves, or any others as soft, steep A very good cement for filling cracks in furniture or other woodwork is made as follows:—One part of finely powdered resin and two parts of yellow wax are melted together, and to this is added two parts of finely pulverised ochre, or other suitable colouring earthy substance. This is an excellent cement in all respects, except that it yields to great heat. For all such repairing sawdust and glue is much to be preferred. In repairing furniture, remember the screws hold much more firmly if they are just dipped in boiling beeswax or turpentine. If you are not accustomed to screwing or nailing, just make a hole with a brad-awl, else you will find the screw or nail going out of the side of the box, or in some other undesired direction. Clamps, or pieces of wood connected by screws, ties, or elastic bands, are indispensable in much glueing pieces together. They are, however, easily made. A good clamp can be made by bending over the two ends of a strong piece of wire. Hammer the ends into the wood. Glue is more elastic when mixed with a little glycerine. This should be borne in mind when mixing glue with sawdust to form artificial wood, and, in fact, in many manufactures and combinations where it is specially desirous to have a certain degree of toughness or flexibility in the object made. To utilise waste matter is allied to mending, which is only preventing waste. For this purpose common wood-shavings may be used for a pretty art. Take good shavings of any wood, and after moistening them with glue or gum tragacanth and arabic, press them flat. Trim them with scissors into leaves, or make them into flowers, and attach them together. Then pour over them liquid plaster of Paris, in which there is gum-arabic and alum dissolved. Take a bush, or plant without leaves, and gum the leaves to it or to its twigs. Cover bare places with the gypsum. When dry varnish the whole. A Professor Heigelin, in Stuttgart, once had an exhibition of such work. Frames can be decorated in this manner. Paint, gilding, and enamel, or bronze powders, can, of course, be applied. Shavings combined with weak glue submitted to pressure form artificial wood or boards, which can be improved by further combination with waste-paper. Made with a solution of alum it is fireproof. Its strength will be in proportion to the pressure applied. It can often be employed in repairing when suitable wood is wanting, and has the advantage that it can be turned to any shape. The reader can easily satisfy himself by experiment that these artificial woods made from sawdust or shavings, combined with adhesives, are very easy to manufacture, very cheap, and, when properly made, This subject may be studied in detail in a work entitled Die Verwerthung der HoltzabfÄlle—The rendering valuable of Refuse-Wood, such as Shavings, Refuse Dye-Wood, &c., showing how they may be converted to Artificial Wood, Fuel, Chemicals, Explosives, &c.—by Ernst Hubbard; Vienna, price 3 marks. Wood of all kinds is in America sawed into such thin veneers that they are used to serve as wall-paper, being attached with paste. When damp they bend like paper. Such veneer is very useful for repairing wooden surfaces. Common putty is not always to be trusted in for repairing wood. It sometimes shrinks, and is never very hard. The glue with glycerine and sawdust or cocoa-nut dust is preferable. “Scratches and chance cuts may be remedied by merely melting or washing and rubbing in with cold water. But for most small defects a filler is used. This is a kind of paint or liquid cement, the object of which is to fill up the pores of certain coarse woods and make the surface fine. Soft wax, flour, and varnish are used for this purpose.” Any dealer in paints and varnishes will supply a filler for any special work. Staining or colouring wood is an important part of repairing. “Oiling alone is a kind of colouring, Soda dissolved in water gives to oak wood a much darker tone. Dark tea and alum is also useful, and still better very strong coffee. Also porter or beer mixed with umber. Also a decoction of walnut-leaves boiled down. In using these or any other colours the following rules must be strictly observed:—(1.) Use a sponge or brush, and do not apply the dye freely or pour it on, as you will run great risk of warping the wood or making it split. (2.) Exercise the greatest care in drying it near a fire. (3.) Do not expect to colour all at once by a profuse application. However light the colour may seem, always when it is dry rub off the colour with a rag or chamois-skin, and then make a second wash. This process will make the dye strike in deeper and last longer. Stevens’ Stains, also those of Mander, are very good and strong. They generally require dilution. Ammonia is much used to give wood a dark rich colour. Wood thus treated, if afterwards exposed to the smoke of a wood fire, assumes a very ancient appearance. Bichromate of potash with water is a good dark dye, but it must be carefully handled, as it is very poisonous and injurious to clothing. It is used to give a waterproof quality to certain cements. Good writing-ink is a very good black dye. When it is quite dry, oil, rub, and polish it, and the ink will resist a great deal of wetting. It should be remembered that with ink, as with When panels of marquetry or of inlaid wood of different colours are broken away or require to be replaced, it can be done in the following manner:—Take a panel of very firm fine white wood—holly is the best; next to it Swiss or German larch—draw on it your pattern, and then with a penknife go over all the pattern, cutting into the panel about a quarter of an inch, or rather less—in no case far enough to cut through. Then carefully fill all these lines with a firm cement, and let it dry well. Then with a dye—not with paint—color each piece appropriately. The cement and lines will prevent the dye from spreading from piece to piece. This is known as Venetian marquetry. When finished, apply SoehnÉe varnish, and rub down very carefully by hand. It is a very beautiful and easy work, not to be distinguished when well done from real inlaying. Very cheap and plain old furniture can be easily made very elegant by having panels, &c., of this work applied. The reader may begin with a small box or three-legged stool, working directly on the wood, and will then probably be encouraged to proceed. Dark brown patterns on light yellow wood look well. This work is very easy and elegant, very little made, and may be therefore profitable. Any kind of light or white wood, such as deal or pine, may be used for common decoration. Cheap violins and Marquetry may also be mended by making and colouring wood-paste, in which case prepare the ground with great care, by roughening, to hold the glue; also by using coloured cements, such as bread, well worked with powder and glycerine-glue. It does not seem to occur to many people—even to those living in the country—that there is a great deal of strong, plain, useful furniture which can be easily made at home at no very great expense, boards of good quality being cheap enough. With a few lessons from an expert, or even with the study of a good elementary manual of cabinetmaking, any amateur can succeed. Whoever can make a good box can make an antique chair, and this can, however plain, be carved, stained, or marquetried into beauty; but let him beware of sawed curves. Where there are worms in furniture or other wood, they should always be very promptly exterminated, else they will destroy it in time. To remove them, dissolve 2 drachms of corrosive sublimate in 2 oz. of methylated spirit and 2 oz. of water, to be applied freely with a feather or brush. This is an unfailing remedy; but the mixture is poisonous, and therefore should be kept labelled out of harm’s way (Work, Sept. 1892). In restoring or repairing woodwork we must have some knowledge not only of paints, varnishes, putties, and filling, but also of agents which prevent organic “‘Knotting,’ or, as it is usually written, Patent Knotting, is a quick-drying, semi-transparent fluid. It is made from naphtha and shellac; hence its quick-drying nature. The knots of woodwork, especially pine, contain much resin, which gradually exudes from the surface. This resin will speedily darken, and ultimately destroy, the covering film of oil paint with which woodwork is usually coated. The object of coating knots in woodwork with ‘patent knotting composition’ is to seal up, so to term it, the resin. In the earlier history of house-painting processes a mixture of red lead and strong glue-size, applied warm, was often used. The chief point in view is to stop the ‘cause,’ but without objectionable ‘effect;’ therefore the thinnest perceptible covering—so long as it is effectual—is the best. The patent knotting of commerce is the article now generally purchased and used. The knots are given one or two bare coatings—according to the nature of the knot, and the conscience of the workman. The best knotting is the colour of dark oak varnish; the worst is the blackest and dirtiest-looking. It always pays to have the best knotting, since ‘black knotting’ requires an extra coat of paint to cover the dark patches which ‘grin through’ any light tints. For the best work it is usually advisable—especially when the woodwork has to be finished, and perhaps hand-polished, in ‘ivory-white’ enamel—to have the knots cut out with a It is sometimes an advantage to “gouge”—i.e., to cut—out a bad knot and fill the cavity with wood, wood-paste, or carton-pierre. A very beautiful stain can be given to wood by rubbing it with nitric or sulphuric acid, and exposing it to the heat of a fire. In this way American hickory can be made to look like rosewood. Pine becomes red, which grows darker with increased heat. Mending Furniture.—There is but one rule for repairing creaky chairs and tables with loose legs. They must be carefully taken apart, which can be done I have already remarked that when a drawer in a bureau table is troublesome by continually sticking or catching, take it out, find where it rubs, and plane away the obtrusive portion. If it is made of badly seasoned, green, warping wood, nail across it strips of tin. To which I add that doors of closets, cabinets, &c., which are shrunk must have strips of wood glued to their edges. In some cases strips of paper will do as a temporary substitute. It is no exaggeration whatever to declare that two or three centuries ago the slight and trashily made article of furniture was a great exception, while at the present day it is the well-made, durable article which forms the rarity—to the great shame, be it said, firstly, of all furniture-makers, and, secondly, to fashionable “taste,” which prefers slightness to strength. This trashy and flimsy lightness is vastly to the profit of the cabinetmaker, since he can thus utilise the cheapest and smallest pieces of worthless wood by turning them into supports for light ÉtagÈres or shelves, cross-backs and legs of spider-like little chairs, and all parts of small curved sofas, which are to be duly puttied, French polished, or completely hidden in velveteen or rep. It is not unusual to see what is considered a handsomely furnished room in which there is not one absolutely well-made or strong article which would bear careful examination or turning up. It is a pitiful sight indeed to see a load of such furniture A cement for wood is made as follows:—
This is carefully worked into a thickish milk-like mass. It may be used as a glue for wood or as a paste for paper. It admits of many modifications. To make a very good waterproof cement for wood, as A cement much employed in China to combine and make woodwork, basket-work, pasteboard, &c., waterproof is made as follows:—
This is commended as being very strong and durable. It is probable that a slight increase of the alum in solution, or an addition of strong infusion of gall-apples, would improve it. A water-proof cement for wooden casks is made as follows:—
Boil together for ten minutes. This cement must not be brought into connection with lye (Lehner). A good, strong, cheap cement for joining wood with metal or stone is made with
While the glue is soft stir into it the wood-ashes in greater or lesser quantity, according to their quality and fineness, till a syrupy mass is formed. Clay can also be combined with this mixture to make casts. Common peat of fine quality (for there are different kinds or degrees of it), carefully cleaned from sticks and fibres, combined with common glue infused freely with nitric acid, submitted to strong pressure, is said to form a valuable substitute for wood, which may be used not only for repairing, filling chinks in trees, making up decayed timber, &c., but also to form blocks and planks. I have elsewhere mentioned that shavings are utilised in Germany. Combined with glue, infused with glycerine, and submitted to pressure, they form boards which are even less brittle than many which are in ordinary use. The peculiar advantage of this artificial timber is the limitless length of the boards which can be thus made, which is often a great desideratum in flooring, or indeed in any building where piecing should be avoided. A canoe can thus be made on another as mould, in which case the shaving-cement is to be hardened by rollers. There is a book on this subject, elsewhere mentioned. It may be observed that, as long and broad timber becomes every year more rare and valuable, artificial timber from smaller plants must certainly take its place. Whitewash for wood is rendered more durable and glossy by the addition of liquid glue, well stirred in. It is still further improved by the addition of milk. This lasts so much longer than common wash that it is in the end perhaps ten times as cheap. When well made it has been known, when applied to the exterior of certain Government buildings in Washington, U.S.A., to last for seven years. If colouring matter, such as umber, be added, let the latter be
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:—
Woodwork which is to be under water or much exposed to rain may be cemented with the following:—
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
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:—
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:—
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
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:—
For splits in trees, or fractures in the bark:—
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 To imitate Cedar.—Take any white wood and boil it for several hours in the following mixture:—
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, 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 |