I shall now give some examples of turning different things which are useful and interesting to work. These are only hints, and I make no claim to discovery, or to anything specially novel or ingenious. It would be very foolish to do that, for what seems remarkably “cute” to the designer of any particular thing, is often shown to be slow and unmechanical, compared to other ways by other men. I hope, therefore, that the expert will bear in mind the fact that, while he may know better ways to do the same thing, beginners are glad to receive instruction first, and improve upon it, so much as they are able, after.

To make a pair of solitaire sleeve buttons.

—Solitaire buttons are those which have so lately come in fashion; that is, a single stud with two eyes on the back for the button-holes of the wristband. It is easier to make one stud on the back of the button, and easier to fasten it to the shirt, as that is the kind I shall describe.

Go to any dealer in box-wood, and procure waste stuff, which he will sell at a small price. Take a piece an inch square, put it in the chuck, and turn it round on one end as far as you can, then reverse it, and turn the other end; this will make a round plug. Take a ten-cent piece, and chuck it, either in a wooden or scroll chuck. Cut out the center, so that you have a silver ring. It will be necessary to have two rings, one for each button. Put the box-wood in the lathe and turn the end as in Fig. 41. On the shoulder you are to shrink the silver ring just made, Fig. 40. To fasten the ring properly, you have only to leave the center part of the box-wood a little larger than the silver ring—say the thickness of a sheet of paper—heat the ring slightly on a stove or over a spirit lamp, and clap it on to its place. When it is cool, if properly done, no power can remove it without destroying the button. When the ring is in place, it only remains to turn it off as ornamentally as the workman desires. The edge may be milled, and the face chased or left smooth. The center of the button, which is of wood, may be drilled in, and a square ebony plug put in, which will give it a unique appearance, as shown in Fig. 42. In like manner ivory buttons may be turned and breastpins spun up, either in gold or silver. Brass breastpins may be ornately turned, and afterwards electro-plated for a trifle. They will thus be cheaply made, and the ingenious turner can please his lady friends by presenting them with specimens of his dexterity and taste.

At the commencement of this book, I alluded to lathes with traversing mandrels, and to varieties of work done by tools not generally employed—that is, those which are not used by the hand, but in connection with the lathe, and driven by belting from a counter shaft over head. I give an illustration of such a tool, in one form, in Fig. 43. It may be screwed in the tool post of the slide rest, or otherwise attached to the lathe, and the belt from the counter shaft carried over the small pulley. The driving pulley over head should be very large, so as to give a great velocity to the cutter, at least fifteen hundred revolutions per minute. The use of this tool is to make ornamental designs—circular carving, it might be called—on all kinds of turned work, as, for instance, in Fig. 44, where a small box for pins or needles is shown. This box is made by putting a piece of hard, fine-grained wood in the chuck, boring the hole and cutting the thread. It is then removed, driven on a round mandrel held in the chuck, turned off round outside, and then prepared for the pattern as follows:—The design settled upon, the index plate must be brought into use, and the points inserted in such holes as will bring the pattern out right, or all the spaces equal—just as the teeth of gears are cut. The tool shown in Fig. 43, may be any desired shape. In the example of work, Fig. 44, it is made half round, and the pattern is called “bamboo,” from a resemblance to wickerwork. The pattern is made to break joint, as mechanics say, that is, it alternates, so that the commencement of one part meets in the middle of the other. After one course is made all the way round, the tool is shifted on to another course, and the index changed as above mentioned, until the whole has been gone over. This produces a beautiful effect.

It is easy to see that a change of pattern is produced at will, by altering the kind of tool and the index. As, for instance, in Fig. 45, where the pattern is entirely straight. When the design is to be cut on such work, it is extremely convenient to have a pair of centers to set on the lathe, across the bed; then the flying tool is not needed, nor the index on the lathe pulleys either, that on the centers being used instead. When this box is held between the centers so as not to mar it, the handle may be turned and the work run along under the cutter, with great facility. The grooves shown in the box are first drilled at each end with a common drill, just to the corner of the drill, so that a neat and handsome finish is given; a V-shaped cutter is then put in a mandrel between the centers of the lathe, and the pulleys set going, so that when the work is run under the tool, the slot or groove will be formed. The circlet, at the top of the box, is made by a crescent drill ground very thin and made sharp—a drill like a fish’s tail, only formed on a half circle.

Of course, these methods of doing this kind of work can, as I have said before, be varied infinitely, and are only cited as applicable to a common foot lathe.