OF WOODS.
There are many beautiful English woods which are excellent for turning; beech is very universally used, and it should be cut into moderate sized pieces and boiled, to render it more durable, and to make it work smoothly.
Elm and chestnut are also much admired; if the latter be dipped in alum water, then brushed over with a hot decoction of logwood, afterwards with one of Brazil wood, it will be made to imitate mahogany. Green wood should never be used, as it is apt to split; it should be kept for at least a year before attempting to turn it. Some persons, if they fear the wood has not been sufficiently seasoned, cut it up and put it in a vessel filled with a ley made of wood ashes. In this it must be boiled for an hour, and allowed to remain in the liquor till quite cold, afterwards it must be dried in the shade.
Old walnut wood is very beautiful; to improve its colour, it may be put in the oven, and when worked, polish it with its own oil, very hot.
Sycamore, when grown in favourable situations, is as white and nearly as hard as holly; the cherry, yew, laburnum, and pear-tree woods, are also very beautiful; but though invaluable for plain turning, they are not hard enough, or of a sufficiently close and fine grain, to admit of ornamenting them in delicate and minute patterns. The milling tools are generally employed for them. Of all English woods, the holly is the whitest, and is rendered still more so by boiling; it is, when very good, used for inlaying, in imitation of ivory. Box is the hardest and toughest of our woods; when cut plank-wise, it is apt to warp, if not well seasoned; but its yellow colour, if highly polished, is much admired, and it will receive the most delicate patterns; it is also used as a substitute for ivory.
The foreign woods are those most prized by the ornamental turner, on account of their hardness, and the beautiful polish which can be given to them. Cocoas, or the wood of the palm, is much used for all kinds of ornamental work. It is of a beautiful brown, streaked with darker veins, and is found in the West Indies.
Ring wood is extremely hard, of a chocolate brown, with black veins; it is a good wood for turning, and comes from Brazil.
Partridge and leopard woods, tulip and snake woods, are also frequently used; the latter is of a very deep red, and very hard.
Calamander wood, a tree growing in the island of Ceylon, is very hard and heavy, and the veins in it most beautifully shaded. The principal colours are a fine chocolate, sometimes deepening almost into black, then gradually shading into a cream colour. It is a very hard wood, and takes a high polish.
African thorn is of a beautiful dark colour, and much prized when it can be obtained good, which is rarely the case.
Ebony, an exceedingly hard, smooth, foreign wood, is much admired by turners. The best is a jet black, free from any veins, and receiving a very high polish. There is some difficulty in keeping woods to prevent them from warping or cracking. The foreign woods, particularly, being usually very dry, often open in fissures while working. The best method of preserving them is to place them in a cool and rather damp place, and to rub a little oil now and then over the outsides, to keep them moist. If the wood is sufficiently large to allow of its being quartered, the danger of its splitting is much less; but the foreign woods are rarely large, as the trees are generally very high, but small in circumference. If foreign woods cannot easily be obtained, box wood and holly may be stained so as greatly to resemble them. The dying woods to be used must be in small chips or raspings. When the wood is ordered to be brushed over several times with the fluid, it should be dried between each time. If the stain is wished to be very deep, the wood should be boiled in the stain.