NEW AND VALUABLE RECIPE FOR TAKING BEAUTIFUL IMPRESSIONS FROM TURNING PATTERNS.
Take a sheet of rice-paper, paste it upon letter-paper with flour paste, which must be mixed as smooth as possible, and laid on very thin. Leave it till quite dry, then lay the rice-paper thus backed upon the piece of Turning, and with the thumb nail or a piece of cloth rub the back of the paper, pressing it gently so as to make it enter into all the deep, fine cuts of the Turning. The impression will be beautiful, and have the appearance of a raised medallion. It is invaluable for taking off patterns from ivory, as it can in no way injure the colour or delicacy of the work; and from the facility of bending the paper, impressions can as easily be taken from round articles (as the sides of a box or pillar) as from flat ones. The medallions may be left white, or the pattern coloured with water colours, leaving the ground white; and they can, besides their utility as patterns to which to refer, be employed in ornamenting various useful articles.
In turning the pillars in the temple, [pl. 13], great inconvenience and trouble have been found in working them, for want of the support of the puppet G, plate I; for as in each step the eccentric chuck has to be slightly altered, the point, J, of the puppet, when the work is moved, is apt to slide back into the hole it first formed, thus making the steps quite crooked. To obviate this difficulty, I should advise my readers to use the following simple contrivance. Take out the point, J, and replace it by a piece of wood turned to fit exactly into the tube, and on the end of which is left a circular piece the size of a half-crown. Take another bit of wood, of the diameter of your pillar; fix a short nail into the middle of it; glue the other side to the pillar, put it on the lathe, screw up the puppet, G, and you will find the nail will always, whenever you move the chuck, firmly fix itself into the wooden end which replaces the point J.
And now, having, I trust with sufficient clearness, explained the practical and ornamental parts of concentric and eccentric Turning, I will take leave of my readers, only adding that, if they wish to attain perfection in this interesting art, they must patiently continue their exertions, for experience and industry will alone enable them to avoid many faults, and discover the real cause of many failures; and to those who may feel disheartened with repeated disappointments, I will say—
“Courage! try thy chance once more.”
Let me also observe to those who cannot afford to purchase much expensive machinery, that with care, patience, and perseverance, the common tools may be made to work a great variety of very beautiful articles: and if they will also keep in mind the old-fashioned but true saying, “that whatever is worth learning at all, is worth learning well;” they will, I have no doubt, soon become proficients in an art that has been admired and practised for centuries.
THE END.
STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON AND CO.
PHILADELPHIA.