MENDING BROKEN CHINA, PORCELAIN, CROCKERY, MAJOLICA, TERRA-COTTA, BRICK AND TILE WORK.
Fictile or Ceramic ware embraces, roughly speaking, all that is made of clay, or mineral bases or materials, and which is subsequently baked to give it hardness. The better the material and the more intense the heat, or the greater the number of bakings to which most kinds are subjected, the harder and more lasting will they be. The old china ware which preceded porcelain, a great many specimens of old Roman vessels, and, for a more modern example, old Italian majolica and Hungarian wine-pitchers, made all within a century, are as hard as stone. They chip a great deal before they break, just as agate might do.
Terra-cotta is simply earth or clay “baked.” In most of the examples known as terra-cotta, earth predominates. Pure fine clay well fired is superior to what is generally called terra-cotta. Neither can we really class with it articles made of superior Portland cement, of which, as I have said, I have seen many made at Budapest which were like the finest hard slate.
Many writers confuse majolica with faïence; others regard the latter as what we should call crockery, or such ware as ranges between glazed terra-cotta and porcelain.
Majolica consists generally of terra-cotta covered with a glaze. A glaze is a fusible substance, we may say a kind of glass, mixed with colouring matter, which is at the same time a protection and an ornament. Enamel is glass in fine powder melted, used generally on metal or by itself. The base of the paint is a substance fusible by heat which is mixed with colours also fusible. Therefore when the painting is submitted to heat it melts, adheres, and is permanent. Glazing, enamelling, and china painting are essentially the same.
Terra-cotta is not difficult to mend. I can best illustrate this by an example. A friend once gave me a terra-cotta vase from the Pyramid of Cholula, in Mexico. These are supposed to be of very great antiquity. This contained a fragment of pottery, probably a sacred relic of ruder style, and I suppose of far earlier times. The vase, however, had been broken to fragments, and the owner was about to throw it away as worthless. I begged it of him. Firstly, I put the principal pieces together, using, to make them adhere, glue with nitric acid. For finer work I should have used Turkish cement or the best gum-mastic dissolved in spirit or fish glue. Piece by piece with care I reconstructed the whole.
There was wanting, however, one piece about three inches square. I pasted with great care a piece of paper inside the vase for a back, and then poured on it plaster of Paris liquefied with water. To make this set hard, the plaster or gesso should be made with burnt alum-water and dissolved gum-arabic. This exactly supplied the missing piece.
When it was finished, I filled in all the broken edges and other cavities with the plaster-paste, which set even harder than the terra-cotta. The outer colour of the vase was of reddish rusty black. I painted the whole over with a corresponding colour; that is to say, I rubbed it in by thumb, which is very different from mere painting. By cementing and rubbing I so restored the whole that the repair was hardly perceptible. This process is carried to great perfection in Italy with broken Etruscan ware.
I may here remark as regards rubbing in oil or water colours, that it is little known or practised, but it is of great value in restoration when we wish to produce certain curious antique-looking effects. I once knew in Rome an artist who had bought for a trifle an old carved baule or chest. By rubbing in with care on it Naples yellow and brown shades, and subsequent friction, he had made it look strangely like old ivory. Mere painting, however skilfully performed, would not have given it its antique ivory look. The same artist had purchased one or two common, large, yellowish terra-cotta wine-jars. He drew on them classical figures, cut out the outlines a little with chisel and file, and smoothing the figures with sandpaper, also ivoried the whole by rubbing in colour. This was but a few hours’ work, yet the effect was startling. What had cost but a few francs would have sold for hundreds. I should add that with the aid of fine retouching flexible varnish this process could be very much facilitated. Any one who can draw or paint at all can try this experiment on any old piece of wood-carving, or on a common yellow coarse earthenware. Smooth the latter first with sandpaper, then rub in the colours. The same is applicable to old carving in marble.
All of these devices are of use to the restorer. As regards restoration of terra-cotta, the field is wide and profitable. Not only in Italy, but even in London, we may find for sale broken Etruscan vases or similar objects for a trifle, which are extremely easy to restore. These are generally of red or light yellow clay baked. If you have, let us say, a vase fractured, obtain clay of the same colour—if you cannot readily get it, take pipeclay—and colour it with a strong infusion of red or yellow, though this is not necessary if the exterior is black. Mix the clay well with glue or gum-arabic and alum-water, supply the missing portions, and let them harden. With a little care and practice, remarkable restorations may thus be made. I may here add that with this composition, bottles, decanters, and cups can be coated, which, when painted or rubbed in, exactly resemble Etruscan or other ancient pottery. To prevent cracking, they should first be painted with thick, coarse oil paint mixed with sand or umber, which forms a ground. Let it dry—the longer the better—and then rub in, thinly, the gum and clay. There is another composition of blanc d’Espagne, or whiting, and silicate of soda, which sets even harder, but which is a little more difficult at first to work, which may be used for such restoration. This can be directly painted on glass for a ground.
Majolica or Faïence can generally be sufficiently well mended with acidulated glue, but as the latter often communicates a dark stain, it is better to use for fine ware, or any which is to be used, the so-called Turkish cement. The best quality of this is made of the finest quality of gum-mastic dissolved in spirit. It is so tenacious that in the East gems are frequently directly attached by means of it to metal, and they will often break sooner than separate from it. Most chemists have for sale, or will prepare for you, some form of it. The silicate of potash and whiting can also be supplied by chemists; they should be mixed with great care, so as to form a medium paste, and then used rapidly and with skill, because this cement hardens very quickly. It is, however, a very powerful binder, and sets as hard as glass.
Having put together and cemented the broken pieces of a cup or vase, they must be kept in place till the cement dries. This is effected by means of many contrivances, regarding which the operator must employ some original inventiveness. Firstly, the pieces can often be simply tied, or attached by pieces of tape, or parchment, or paper glued on. In other cases india-rubber bands are useful. Again, bits of wood, or sticks and wires, are the things useful. A bed of wax is generally a sure guard. It is best to do this with great care, and not impatiently rely on holding the pieces together with the fingers till they stick. This is often the most difficult part of the whole operation; therefore it should be done well and deliberately. And here it may be remarked that, as in surgery, the most complicated cases of fracture may be studied out and adjusted; for which reason I dare say that skilful surgeons would be good menders of crockery, just as good astronomers are always good riflemen.
When the broken pieces are adjusted and all is dry, there remain the chips, hollows, ragged edges, and “hairs,” as the French call them, or lines of juncture, to be filled and smoothed. This is done with the cement which you employ, according to the quality of the material, either plaster and gum-arabic, silicate and whiting, or powdered chalk. Some experts succeed with white of an egg and finely powdered quicklime, which holds firmly, but which requires practice to amalgamate. Fill the cavities carefully, pressing the cement well in, as the Romans did, with a stick or point. When all is smooth, paint over the blank spaces and varnish with Sohnée, No. 3, or with a slight coating of silicate. Fine copal varnish is rather tougher or less brittle.
The most thorough process of all is to unite the fragments with a vitreous or metallic flux, such as the silicate—there are several of these—and then have the work baked or fired. It can then be painted with porcelain colours under glaze, and fired again. As this is very delicate, difficult, and expensive, few amateurs will care to try it. It is, however, perfect, and by means of it the most complete reparation can be effected. The Japanese do this simply with the blow-pipe, by means of which they fix enamel powders even on wood. This use of the pipe is also difficult, but the ancient Romans are said to have employed the process with most minor work. As a thread of glass will melt in a candle, and as fine-glass powder is equally fusible, it can be understood that under the flame of a blow-pipe the latter can often be melted so as to avail in restoration.
Crockery, or Faïence, and Porcelain.—“Crockery,” by which we commonly understand such ware as that of the blue willow plates, is far superior to terra-cotta, since its core or basis is thin, and very hard, and its gloss of a different description, and more incorporated with the body; or it is of a single superior body.
Porcelain differs entirely from the other two kinds of fictile ware, being an elaborate mineralogical compound, its base being kaolin, a friable, white, earthy substance, requiring great care in its preparation, and petunse, or feldspar, which is united with the kaolin. The result is a very delicate and beautiful diaphanous ware, or one through which light passes to a limited degree. Both crockery and porcelain are far more difficult to mend, owing to the impossibility—particularly with the latter—of making fractures disappear.
The first and most simple process of mending both kinds of ware is to make small holes with a drill along the edges of the fracture, and then, adjusting the fragments, bind them together with wire. M. Ris-Paquot claims that “the honour of this discovery belongs properly to a humble and modest workman named Delille, of the little village of Montjoye, in Normandy.” But the archæologist will say of this claim, as the English judge did of a similar one, that the plaintiff might as well apply for a patent for having discovered the art of mixing brandy with water, since there was probably never yet a savage who had wire, or even string, who did not know enough to mend broken calabashes, jars, and pipes by this solid method of sewing. From the time when large earthen punch-bowls were first used in Europe, we find them mended with silver wire. It is needless to devote whole pages with illustrations, as M. Ris-Paquot has done, to show how to effect such mending. The holes are made with either a bore or hand drill, such as can be bought in every tool shop. If the reader will obtain one and experiment with it on any penny plate or broken fragment, he will soon master all the mystery. The wire is made fast by a turn with a pair of nippers or pincers. Before fastening, wash the edges of the ware with white of egg in which a very little whiting, or finely powdered lime or plaster of Paris, has been mixed.
I may here observe that the wire for china-drilling should be half round, or flat on one side. To prepare this, take brass wire, say a length of about two feet, and, holding an old knife, draw the wire firmly and steadily against it.
There are endless cements for sale by chemists, all warranted perfect, to mend glass and china, and most of them do indeed answer the purpose very well, for nature has given us not a few materials wherewith to repair accidents. Thus, even boiling in milk will often suffice to reunite broken edges. But I believe that of all, the Turkish cement already described, which is made of gum MASTIC (a term improperly applied in France to putty, by Americans to lime-plaster on houses, and by Levantines to spirit with resin in it), is the most adhesive and resistant to heat, cold, or moisture.
The art of mending does not consist so much of knowing what to use for an ADHESIVE (since, as I have said, every chemist’s shop abounds in these) as in skill and tact with which fragments are brought and kept together, missing portions supplied, and in knowing the substance with which to fill a blank. There are cases in which, when a hole has been knocked in a china or glass plate, it can be drilled out round, and a disc of the same substance or colour, or even of another, inserted. This is almost an art by itself, and by means of it very singular and puzzling effects may be introduced; as, for instance, when a number of holes are drilled in a white china plate and then filled with discs of coloured china, agate, coral, &c. In the East, turquoise and coral beads are often thus set into porcelain, as well as wood. The mastic or acidulated glue is used to make the objects inserted hold firmly.
As the smoker, when he breaks his pipe across the stem, has it repaired with a short silver slide or tube, so when a china jar is broken across the neck, the reparation can be concealed by a silver collar, which is sometimes a great improvement; as, for instance, when the head of a china dog, or even of a china man, is taken off. But in a great many cases, or in all where this kind of concealment is advisable, it may be made, like Cæsar’s wife, beyond suspicion, by making the collar or concealing ornament, or leaf or flower, of silicate and whiting so as to resemble the ware itself, which can be done very nicely.
Silicate of Soda is sometimes sold in the form of a dry solid, which is placed in a little vinegar, and warmed. When dissolved it can be used ad libitum. It is often used as a glaze for stone.
There is a curious old story about mending broken crockery by means of magic—or rather by deceit—which, though not of a practical nature, is at least amusing. It is partially told in a book published about 1670, entitled Joco-Seriorum Naturæ et Artis Magiæ Naturales Centuriæ Tres. It happened once in Mergentheim that there was a great fair, when the whole courtyard of the palace was full of earthenware vessels for sale ab assidentibus muliebibus (by attendant women). Seeing this, the Prince of Mergentheim went about among these women, and so arranged it that they divided all their stock into two parts, or exact duplicates, half of which they hid away, while the other half was exposed for sale. While at dinner the Prince spoke much of magic, and professed to be able to produce such a delirium in people’s minds that they would act like lunatics. “Thus, for instance,” he said, pointing casually out of the window, “you see all those women. I can drive them mad at once.” Whereupon one who was present wagered a handsome carriage and four horses that the Prince could not do it. The latter smiled, waved his hand, and uttered a spell, when lo! all at once the market-women began, bacchantium more—like raging Bacchantæ—to attack their crockery with sticks and stools, and hurl it about, and dash it to pieces.
The one who had betted the chariot protested that it was a trick arranged beforehand. The Prince replied, “Well, the pots are all broken. If I can mend them again by a spell, wilt thou then believe?” The other said, “Most certainly.” Then the Prince waved his wand and said, “It is done. Let us go down into the courtyard and see.” And when there, sure enough they found the pots all whole again—at least they discovered others exactly like them in their places.
The legend continued that the Prince, though he kept the carriage and horses as a trophy, liberally paid for them. The author of the Tres Centuriæ, who does not record the secret of the little arrangement, declares that he does not know whether it was all done by a fraud or by magic. If it was the latter, I regret that the incantation by which broken crockery is mended is now lost. The most powerful spell known to me is Recipe Gummæ Mastichæ duæ unciæ cum Spirito Vini fiat mixtio—that is, mastic cement. It is generally combined with sturgeon’s bladder glue.
This cement answers very well for glass. One of the old recipes, which was very good indeed, is thus given by Johannes Wallburger (1760):—“Take finely cut and a little powdered sturgeon’s bladder” (still sold by all chemists), “soften it all night in spirits, add to this a little clean and powdered mastic, boil it a little in a brass pan. Should it become too thick, add a little spirits.” This may be also used for many other purposes.
A strong but coarser adhesive, especially for crockery and stone, can be made as follows:—Take old and hard goat’s milk cheese, and warm it in hot water till it forms, by pounding, a mass like turpentine. Add to this, while grinding, finely pulverised quicklime and the well-shaken white of eggs.
I do not hesitate to give a variety of such recipes, because in every one the artist will find valuable suggestions for other purposes than simply glueing broken articles together. This latter is a valuable “filler” for many purposes. Glue was formerly made into a strong cement by boiling it for a time in water, but before it had become incorporated with the water, the latter was poured off and strong spirits substituted and stirred well in.
A very popular old cement for crockery, of which there were several variations, was made by mixing glue, turpentine, ox-gall, the juice of garlic, and sturgeon-bladder, tragacanth, and mastic. All of this singularly smelling mixture was put into a pan and boiled in strong spirits, such as whisky, then kneaded on a board under a roller, again boiled with more spirits, yet again rolled, and this was repeated a third time, and then cooled till it could be cut into cakes. When these were to be used they were again steeped in spirits. But with this cement, glass or metal could be most firmly attached to wood. I confess that I have never tried it, but it was evidently a very strong cement.
Another of these somewhat complicated recipes for crockery, glass, and porcelain, which I find in the Tausandkünstler, 1782, is as follows:—Half an ounce of finely cut sturgeon’s bladder, two teaspoonfuls of alabaster powder or gypsum, quarter of an ounce of tragacanth, one teaspoonful of silberglatt, two of powdered mastic, two of frankincense, two of gum-arabic, one of Marienglas, one tablespoonful of spirits of wine, one of beer-vinegar. Boil it and stir, and apply. Any drops sticking to the mended article may be removed with vinegar. When it is to be used again revive it by heating, adding spirits of wine and beer-vinegar. The gum-frankincense is here worth noting.
A common cement for mending broken glass or china is prepared as follows:—To two parts of gum-shellac add one of turpentine; boil them over a slow fire, and form the mass into small cakes before it dries. To use it, warm with a lamp. To mend ivory or wood, take a cake and let it dissolve in spirits of wine.
A very strong cement is made as follows:—Take one ounce of finely powdered mastic dissolved in six of spirits of wine and two ounces of shredded sturgeon’s bladder dissolved in two ounces common spirits; add one half ounce of gum-ammoniac as it hardens; warm it when it is to be used. This is as strong a cement as can be made.
Defects, cracks, and repairs in porcelain, &c., may often be concealed as follows:—Paint the spot with silicate of soda, not too much thinned, and dust it over before it dries with bronze powder. This will set so hard that it may be polished with an agate burnisher.
It is also possible that many of my readers have heard of gesso painting, an art perfected by Mr. Walter Crane. This consists of painting with plaster of Paris in solution, with the point of a brush, depositing the soft paste in relief. The same principle is applicable to painting in silicate and whiting on glass surfaces. By means of it decoration can be given to any glass bottle or other object.
Lime enters into the composition of many cements, the simplest being the mortar formed by its admixture with water. But the quality of this is very much determined by that of the lime. The chunam of India, which resembles white marble or a fine white stone, is made of sea-shells burned to lime. A wonderfully hard, fine, white cement used by the Romans for their best mosaic-work, and which set with great rapidity, was made of shell-lime with the white of eggs. I have found the same composition worthless when made with inferior stone-lime.
A good cheap cement for porcelain and glass is combined as follows:—
| Starch or wheat flour | 8 |
| Glue | 4 |
| Purified chalk | 12 |
| Turpentine | 4 |
| Spirits of wine | 24 |
| Water | 24 |
Pour a part of the spirits and water mixed on the flour and chalk, add the glue, boil it down till the latter dissolves, and stir the turpentine into the whole. This can be used to make artificial wood with shavings or sawdust.
A very good cement for porcelain, and one which is colourless, is made by cutting the finest clear gelatine into bits, and dissolving it in vinegar of 50°, stirring it in a porcelain vessel until well mixed. When cold it will harden, but softens under the influence of heat, when it may be applied to the broken edges of the porcelain, which are to be pressed together. It will be perfectly hard within twenty-four hours. It is to be observed that the art of keeping such joined pieces together is the most difficult problem in mending. This cement is widely applicable to many objects, and also admits of considerable modification and additions, like all cements. As it is colourless, it may be combined with ivory dust, or white powders of baryta, magnesia, whiting, &c., to form artificial ivory with glycerine. With sturgeon’s bladder it makes a still stronger cement.
Lehner observes that glue has the property, when combined with acid chrome salt (sauren chromsalzen), of losing its solubility when exposed to the light, so that it can be used as a cement for broken porcelain and glass. If the juncture is to be invisible, take the purest white gelatine; otherwise the cheaper gilder’s glue will answer. To prepare the chrome glue, dissolve the gelatine or the glue in boiling water, then add the solution of double chromic acid alkali, or the red chrome alkali of commerce, stir it well up, and put it into tin boxes.
The formula is:—
| Gelatine or gilders’ glue | 5-10 |
| Water | 90 |
| Red chrome alkali | 1-2 |
| Dissolved in water | 10 |
To use, warm the cement, apply it to the broken glass, which must then be exposed for several hours to the sunshine.
Cracked bottles are mended by a very ingenious process, described by Lehner. The bottle is corked, but not tightly, and then exposed to heat about 100° centigrade. Then the cork is driven in tightly, which causes an expansion of the cracks, which are at once filled by means of a finely pointed brush with the silicate. Removed to a cooler place the glass contracts on the as yet fluid silicate, and the fractures are mended.
A very strong, clean cement for porcelain or glass is made as follows:—
| Well-cleaned | glass powder | 10 |
| ” | fluor spar powder | 20 |
| Silicate of soda solution | 60 | |
This must be very quickly stirred and applied. This is one of the hardest and best cements, and it resists heat and other influences so well that when very carefully amalgamated it may be applied to the manufacture of many useful articles. The same may be made with the substitution of white pipeclay for fluor spar, or with the addition of the same in somewhat larger proportion. Pipeclay or any good clay can also be combined with glycerine to prevent its drying. With gelatine and a little glycerine it will harden and not crack.
This requires careful amalgamation and rapid work.
To prepare very fine glass-powder for this cement, heat any glass till red-hot, then drop it into cold water. It may then be reduced in a mortar to an impalpable powder.
Earthenware tubes or pipes which are to be exposed to intense heat may be luted or joined with the following cement:—
| Peroxide of manganese | 80 |
| White oxide of zinc | 100 |
| Silicate of soda | 20 |
“This does not melt, save at a very high temperature; and when melted it forms a glassy substance, which holds with extreme tenacity” (Lehner).
To prepare caseine cement for crockery or marble, it may be observed that we should always take fresh white cheese and macerate or knead it thoroughly till only pure CASEINE adding to this one-third of powdered quicklime and blending the two ingredients very thoroughly we get a very strong glue. An admixture of 10 parts silicate of soda also forms a powerful cement.
The following for tile-work and common brick-crockery, or terra-cotta or porcelain, is very highly commended by Lehner, who says that anything mended with it will sooner break in another place than where it is cemented:—
| Slacked lime | 10 |
| Borax | 10 |
| Litharge | 5 |
The cement is mixed with water, and the tile or crockery, &c., heated just before being mended.
I cannot insist too strongly on this—that no one is to expect that by simply taking recipes, as written, compounding and applying them, there will be a successful result at the first trial. We must always have the best material, often fresh, and generally attempt the application more than once. Perseverando vinces—“By perseverance you will conquer.” Not only must the quality of the ingredients used be of the best, but the composition be made exactly in the order in which they are given. The same substances often give very different results, simply because the order of combination in the two was different.
To repair pavements:—
| Calcined lime | 10 |
| Purified chalk | 100 |
| Silicate of soda | 25 |
This hardens slowly. It can, when mixed with small sharp-edged fragments of broken stone, be used to form pavements, or as a bed for mosaics. For the same purposes, or for cementing marble slabs, a cement known as that of Böttger may be used. It is made thus:—
| Purified chalk | 100 |
| Thick solution silicate of soda | 25 |
This becomes (Lehner) in a few hours so hard that it can be polished. It is the principal, and almost the only, cement used by M. Ris-Pacquot, or commended in his work on mending crockery. It admits of a great variety of modifications. It is very superior as a bed for mosaics of all kinds. It forms, like the preceding, also a good bed for scagliola and ceresa.[1] I would here say of the latter, that I could wish to see it more generally used for mural or wall ornament, since any one who can paint a face or decoration boldly and largely in oil or water colours will find it very easy. It admits of rapid execution, and is striking from its brilliancy. Everything in it depends on having a good bed to which it can easily adhere. I may here observe that beds like these which set hard and fine are also adapted to fresco-painting, in which the difficulty is to select colours which, when absorbed and dried, do not fade. Most paints made from mineral substances combine with silicate of soda.
I may here remark that a curious and easy art, very little known, consists of carving or cutting low reliefs on tiles or terra-cotta or brick-like ware, which, when outlined or in relief, can be glazed in colour with silicate of soda; also with many other cements.
A common and good CEMENT FOR PORCELIAN OR GLASS is made as follows:—
| Calcined gypsum or plaster of Paris | 50 |
| Calcined lime | 10 |
| White of egg | 20 |
This must be quickly mingled and rapidly used, as it sets very rapidly and becomes extremely hard. It makes an admirable bed for mosaics or ceresa.
When plaster of Paris is simply combined with burnt alum in water, the objects mended with it require several weeks to set or adhere. Gypsum combined with gum alone holds firmly, but does not resist water (vide General Recipes).
Cements for luting or closing chemical apparatus:—
| Dried clay | 10 |
| Linseed-oil | 1 |
This endures heat to boiling-point of quicksilver.
A more resistant fireproof is as follows:—
| Manganese | 10 |
| Grey oxide of zinc | 20 |
| Clay | 40 |
| Linseed-oil varnish | 7 |
Of the oil only so much is needed as to combine the mass to a paste.
A LUTING for very high temperatures:—
| Clay | 100 |
| Glass powder | 2 |
Another CEMENT:—
| Clay | 100 |
| Chalk | 2 |
| Boracic acid | 3 |
Lehner has in his work on Cements many valuable suggestions as to mending porcelain. Firstly, that in such mending, the adhesive be applied with care, in as even and as thin a coat as possible; to which I would add, that the unskilful amateur is apt to daub it on irregularly and carelessly, with the impression that the more cement there is the better it will stick, which is just so far wrong that every superfluous grain is just so much of an impediment to good drying or adhesion. Again, the inexpert daubs it on with a stick or “anything,” when a fine-pointed brush or hair-pencil should be used.
Broken china which is to be mended should be carefully covered away so as to protect it from dust, which is hard to clean off. Beware of fitting the pieces together again and again, as is often done.
If the broken china was used to contain milk or soup, &c., it should be laid in lye to dissolve all the fatty substance, and then be washed with clear water. Painted porcelain cannot, however, be laid in lye, which would ruin all the colours; in this case wipe them clean with dilute acid.
The great difficulty in mending is to bring the pieces together and keep them so till the adhesive dries. Lehner recommends that when objects are small and costly, a mould of gypsum be constructed round them. In most cases putty or wax is far more manageable. As before remarked, indiarubber bands are chiefly to be relied on; even if not capable of holding permanently, they aid greatly in tying with cord.
In the Manual of F. Goupil, rewritten by Frederick Dillaye, the following method of restoring broken vases, &c., is commended:—
“Form a solid mass of clay in the form of the original object. Then place on it, one by one, the fragments in their place, keeping the clay moist. When this is done, paste over the exterior strips of paper, in sufficient quantity to hold the whole firmly together. Then remove the moist clay, and paste strong slips of paper” (or thin parchment) “over the interior so as to hold the whole. Then” (when dry) “carefully moisten and remove the outer coating.”
The author mentions that this is only applicable to vases the mouth of which is wide enough to permit the hand to be introduced. I would here, however, add, that even when it is too small for this purpose, the restoration can be equally well effected as follows:—Make the core of wet clay, or, better, of beeswax, then paste over it thin tough paper. Cover this with gum-arabic solution, and set the pieces on it. When dry, melt out the wax or clay.
Fish-gum, colle de poisson—that is to say, what is generally called sturgeon’s bladder, which includes the bladder of several kinds of fishes dissolved—is best for glass, marble, porcelain, and all kinds of mending where the cement should not show. This, when combined with oil, is said, if mixed with cloth-dust and fibre of wool or silk or cotton, to spin up into thread.
MENDING GLASS
WITH SEVERAL ALLIED PROCESSES
APPROVED CEMENTS—SILICATE OF SODA
“Glück und Glas
Wie bald bricht dass.”
“Good luck, like glass,
Soon breaks, alas!
Yet skill can bring it so to pass
As to mend a fortune or a glass.”
—Old German Proverb.
Putty is naturally the first cement which suggests itself in connection with the mending of glass, since this latter material is most familiar to the world in the form of windows, although in many places—as, for instance, Florence, where it is called mastico and pasta—it is little used or known. The word is from the French potée, which also means a potful. It is very useful, not only for setting glass-panes, but for filling holes in wood, and forms a part of certain mixtures as a cement for moulding ornaments. It may be weak and brittle, or else strong and very hard, according to the manner in which it is prepared. It is commonly made by combining chalk in paste, with water, with linseed-oil; other powders are also used. In America it is made with pulverised soap-stone and oil. Its excellence depends on the quality of the oil and the care with which it is kneaded. It should be kept in a damp cellar, in wet cloth or under water. Should it dry and become brittle, fresh oil must be added.
“To take hard old putty from glass window-panes, cover it with a mixture of one part of calcined lime, two of soda, and two of water” (Lehner). Oxide of lead combined with oil makes an excellent but yellow putty. It sets very hard.
The white or grey oxide of zinc combined with linseed-oil or linseed-oil varnish makes a cement which is used for making glass adhere to wood or metal.
Thick lacquers, such as copal or amber, may be used instead of common varnish with better effect, and the composition is better when calcined lime or oxide of lead are added. The excellence of the cement depends on the degree to which the ingredients are amalgamated or rubbed in together; and this rule holds good for all similar mixtures.
Varnish, or heavy or “flat” lacquer of copal or amber, forms of itself a strong adhesive, with the only drawback that it takes a long time to dry.
A very good cement for glass (Lehner) is as follows:
| Gutta-percha | 100 |
| Black pitch (asphalt) | 100 |
| Oil of turpentine | 15 |
This is a glue of general application, and specially good for leather and mending shoes.
The reader who would thoroughly study the subject of glass may consult Die Glas-Fabrikation, a very admirable work by Raimund Gerner, glass manufacturer; A. Hartleben, Vienna and Leipzig, price 4s. 6d.
Small triangles of sheet tin or iron are often used to fasten panes.
The mending of broken glass is in most cases much the same as that of broken crockery or porcelain. The cement made from mastic, or mastic combined with sturgeon’s bladder, or generally of silicate with whiting, is the proper adhesive. As silicate of soda is simply liquid glass, it can be employed to fill spaces or to make glass; but, owing to its sticky nature, it is hard to manage. This may be often effected by first preparing a layer of soft paper, on which successive coats of silicate are laid. When dry the paper can be washed away.
Silicate of Soda has become of such importance that a French work on mending fictile ware is almost entirely limited to its use as a binder, when combined with whiting. Water-glass was long supposed to be a modern invention, till some one found it described in Van Helmont’s works, A.D. 1610. But I have found it also in the Joco-seriorum Naturæ, 1545; in the Magia Naturalis of Wolfgang Hildebrand, which is of the same time; and, finally, by Paracelsus (Liber de Præparationibus), where he describes it as Destillatio Crystalli. And the author of the Joco-seriorum speaks of soft glass as a thing which had been treated by several writers.
According to Wagner there are three kinds of soluble glass—(i.) the soluble potash glass, 45 silex, 3 charcoal, 34 carb. potass.; (ii.) soluble soda glass, 100 pts. quartz, 60 cal. sulp. soda, 15 of charcoal; (iii.) double soluble glass, 100 quartz, 22 cal. soda, 28 carb. potass., 6 wood-coal. Water-glass combines well with any “indifferent” powder, such as powdered glass, to make a strong cement. To powder glass, heat it red-hot, drop it into cold water and pulverise it. It will become as fine as flour, and in this state combines with gum-arabic, or glue, or gums to make a powerful glass-mender. Mixed with powdered glass, oxide of zinc, or whiting, powdered marble, calcined bone, plaster of Paris, wood-ashes, &c., it can be worked like putty. Mixed with colours it is used for stereochrome painting, a kind of fresco.
Missing pieces of glass, such as leaves from a chandelier, can be easily replaced with water-glass, and all cracks or defects glazed over with it.
This mending is allied, however, to certain processes in art which are so interesting that I venture on a description of them.
A great deal of mending and restoring in glass can be effected by means of the blow-pipe and spirit-lamp or gas-flame. Difficult as this may sound, it is not only an easy, but also a very curious and entertaining, occupation. In any city an expert or workman may be found who would give a few lessons. I have very often been impressed with the fact that so little artistic invention or originality is found in glass-work. Even the far-famed Venetian work is extremely limited, and “mannered” or conventional, compared to what it might be.
The following is an old recipe for repairing glass:—Take finest powdered glass, best mastic, with equal parts of white resin and distilled turpentine. Melt all well together. To use, gradually warm it and then apply.
Quicklime and white of egg, intimately rubbed into one another on a flat surface, make a good cement for ordinary glass or pottery.
The cement of gum-arabic is much stronger when made as follows:—Take gum-arabic and dissolve it in acetic acid (vinegar) instead of water. It must be melted in a hottish place, as it will in that case be much better. The finest quality of sheet-gelatine makes a transparent glue, invaluable where colour is to be avoided.
To mend a cracked Glass Bottle or Decanter.—Heat the bottle, pressing in the cork, till the hot air within expands the cracks, which must be at once filled with the liquid glass. Then, as the water-glass is driven in by the pressure of the outer air, as the bottle cools the cracks are closed.
You cannot well mend a broken looking-glass, but something can be done with the large pieces. Varnish or paste a piece of paper and lay it on the quicksilver. Then with an American glass-cutter, price one shilling, or a diamond-cutter, divide them into squares for small mirrors. Two of these of equal size can easily be converted into a folding kaleidoscope (not described by Brewster in his work on the Kaleidoscope). Lay the two pieces face to face, and paste over the whole, on the quicksilvered side, a piece of thin leather or muslin. When dry, with a penknife, cut a slit down between the two on three sides. It will then open and shut like a portfolio. This may serve as a travelling, looking or shaving glass, but it is very useful to designers of patterns. Place the glass upright on a table at a right angle, or more or less, and lay between the mirrors any object or a pattern, and you will see it multiplied from three to twelve times, according to the angle. Beautiful variations of designs can thus be made, ad infinitum. They may be used as reflectors, when placed behind a light.
Take such a piece of looking-glass and lay a piece of paper on the back, and then with an agate or ivory point write or draw on it, but not as hard as to break the silvering. Then turn it to the sun or a strong light, and let the reflection fall on a white surface. Though nothing be perceptible on the face of the mirror, the writing will appear in the reflection.
Glass is engraved as metal is etched; with this exception, that, instead of sulphuric or nitric acids, fluoric acid is used. Both glass and china can also be directly etched with a steel point, aided by emery powder; which latter art I have never seen described, but which I have successfully practised. It is fully set forth in my forthcoming work on “One Hundred Arts.”
Malleable glass, or at least that which does not break easily when let fall, is prepared by dipping the objects made from it, while quite hot, into oil. I conjecture that panes of window-glass thus prepared would not be broken by hail, as I have observed that plate-glass is not.
It sometimes happens that goblets of thin glass—especially those which have had a peculiar kind of annealing or tempering—ring beautifully when blown on so as to vibrate them. The effect is almost magical on one who hears it for the first time. I mention it that the reader may, when he finds old Venetian or any other thin glass goblets for sale, see if there be not among them a finely ringing one. An organ could be thus made to play by wind. With regard to music on glass, take any ordinary bottle, and by rubbing on it a cork a little wetted you can, with a little practice, produce a startling imitation of the chirping, and even warbling, of birds. I knew one who could thus imitate to perfection nightingales and call forth responsive songs. The effect depends in a degree on the quality of the cork, and also that of the glass. With a violin-bow very musical sounds may be drawn from the edge of a pane of glass. It seems as if these methods might also be developed into musical instruments. It is well known that tubes of glass suspended when a candle is placed beneath them give forth musical sounds, often of great richness and strength. There are also the musical glasses, which may be played in two ways, either by rubbing the edges with a wetted finger or by filling the glasses more or less with water till an octave is formed, and then tapping them with a stick of wood. All of which has, indeed, nothing to do with mending glass, yet which may not be without interest to those who wish to learn all its qualities.
Among Glass Cements in common use which can be recommended are the well-known Polytechnic, also the Imperial Liquid Glue (no heating required), Hayden & Co., Warwick Square, London. There is also a very good glass cement made and sold by Keye, filter-maker, Hill Street, Birmingham.
The Venetians made ordinary glass goblets very beautiful by painting on them in relief with a substance which I suspect was in some cases a form of silicate, or else with a kind of paint which was not enamel, yet which seems to have been partly vitreous. It rather resembles oil paint with glass powder, but I doubt if it was this.
Working in glass implies the mending and restoration of stained-glass windows; that is, of painting on glass and a study of designs. Of all this there is almost a literature. Among other works I can commend A Book of Ornamental Glazing Quarries, by A. W. Franks, £1, 1s.; Divers Works of Early Masters in Ecclesiastical Decoration, by Owen Jones, £3, 10s.; Westlake’s History of Stained Glass, vol. i., Fourteenth Century, 13s. 6d.; vol. iii., Fifteenth Century, 18s., published by Batsford, 52 High Holborn. At Rimmel’s, in Oxford Street, the reader can generally obtain these, and all works on similar subjects at prices much below the original cost.
A mending cement for glass is made as follows:—
| Common cheese | 100 |
| Water | 50 |
| Slacked lime | 20 |
This is found in many books of recipes. It must be observed that the cheese is to be for sometime carefully pounded with the water till quite soft, and the lime then very quickly stirred in. This is not only useful to mend glass, but can be applied to many other purposes. The cheese is best when fresh.
Caseine (or pure cheese) can be combined with ease with liquid silicate of soda (Lehner), and thus forms a very strong cement for porcelain or glass, or any other material. Fill a flask with one-fourth of fresh caseine to three-fourths of silicate, and shake it thoroughly and frequently.
Another formula is as follows:—
| Caseine | 10 |
| Silicate of soda | 60 |
This must be used very promptly, and the article mended dried in the air.
A CEMENT which may be used in several combinations is made by dissolving fresh acidulated caseine (made by adding vinegar to milk, and carefully washing the deposit) in a very little caustic lye. It must be kept corked in bottles.
These caseine or cheese or curd cements hold well, but do not well resist water, except in powerful combination.
The excellence of cements depends to a great degree on the quality of the materials and the scrupulous observance of care in making. Thus for the following, for glass:—
| Glue | 200 |
| Water | 100 |
| Calcined lime | 50 |
in which we have one of the commonest and oldest formulas, the value depends on “the make-up” that is, the glue must be left in cold water for two days, then boiled in a balneum mariæ, or a double kettle, in lukewarm water; that is, it must not boil, or the glue will be weakened.
The so-called Diamond or Turkish Cement, for glass or any other fine work, has been known since early times as incredibly strong. Its formula, according to Lehner, is as follows:—
| I. | Sturgeon’s bladder | 20 |
| Water | 140 | |
| Spirits of wine | 60 | |
| II. | Gum-mastic | 10 |
| Alcohol | 80 | |
| III. | Gum-ammoniac | 6 |
These are three separate portions, No. I. being prepared by warming and filtering. The gum-ammoniac is reserved from the others, and added after they are mingled.
A strong base for a cement for glass, as well as wood or stone, is made by gradually stirring finely sifted wood-ashes into silicate of soda, or strong acid glue, till a syrup-like substance results. In America the best ashes for this purpose are those of the hickory. Perhaps beech wood yields them equally good.
There is a Diamond Cement which is of special value to attach gems to rings or metal, to make coral or pearl or ivory adhere together, and, in short, for all fine work where a very strong adhesive is required. It is as follows:—
| Sturgeon’s bladder | 8 |
| Gum-ammoniac | 1 |
| Galbanum | 1 |
| Spirits of wine | 4 |
The sturgeon’s bladder is cut into small pieces and steeped in the spirits, and the rest, in solution, then added. It must be warmed again when used.
As this cement will bear long exposure to moisture before being at all injured by it, it can be used as a medium for painting on glass, and thereby producing effects very little inferior, either as regards beauty or durability, to glass itself. The experiment can be easily tried, as any chemist can make up the recipe. When finished, the painting can be coated with liquid silicate of soda, which will give it all the property of glass.
A lime cement for glass is made as follows:—
| Calcined lime | 30 |
| Litharge | 30 |
| Linseed-oil varnish | 5 |
Jewellers’ cement. Extremely strong:—
| Fish-glue solution | 100 |
| Mastic varnish (pure) | 50 |
The fish-glue must first be dissolved in spirits of wine.
To join Glass and Metal, &c.—Stir slacked and powdered lime in hot glue. This sets as a very hard substance. It can be extensively modified and varied for many substances, and used for painting.
Cement for glass:—
| Gum-arabic | 50 |
| Sugar | 10 |
| Water | 50 |
| Oil of turpentine | 10 |
The gum, sugar, and water are first carefully combined, and then the turpentine well stirred with the mixture.
Salle’s cement for glass:—
| Muriate of lime | 2 |
| Gum-arabic | 20 |
| Water | 25 |
Not commended by Lehner, as being too soluble. To close bottles:—
| Powdered resin | 6 |
| Caustic soda | 2 |
| Water | 10 |
To be thoroughly mixed and left for several hours. Before using, stir well into it eight to nine parts of calcined plaster of Paris. This will in half-an-hour take firm hold or “set,” and is waterproof. A good filler for cracks.
The reader who desires to be perfectly informed as to glass in all its relations can obtain, by application to J. Baer, Rossmarkt, Frankfort on the Main, Germany, a catalogue which is perhaps the most extensive on the subject ever published.
Coloured or stained glass windows may be repaired or made by the following process, which has the advantage of being quite as durable as any in which the colours are burned in:—Take two panes of glass, and paint on one your pattern with fine varnish and transparent colour mixed. When dry, go over the whole, with a broad, soft brush, with a liquid mastic cement, which must be quite transparent and thin. Any transparent strong cement will serve, but it is advisable to use the mastic in all cases as a narrow border and at the edges. If you have an engraving, especially one on very soft spongy paper, take a pane of glass, cover it with a coat of varnish, and just before it dries press the engraving face down, on it. When quite dry, with a sponge slightly damped and the end of the finger, peel away all the soft paper, leaving the lines of the engraving. These may now be coloured over, with even very little skill and care. A very good effect may be produced, so that a very indifferent artist can in this way produce very tolerable pictures. Then, to better preserve this, double it with the other pane.
By painting and shading also on this second pane, as I have discovered, very beautiful and striking effects of light and shade can be developed, so that this forms, as it were, a new art by itself. This will remind the reader of the porcelain lamp-shades, which so much resemble pictures in Indian ink; but the effects of the double panes are more singular and far more varied. There may be even a third pane employed. As the materials for this art are far from expensive, and as it is extremely easy, I have no doubt that it will be extensively practised. Protecting one glass picture by another is not a new art; but I am not aware that the obtaining a series of lights by thus reduplicating the panes has been practised.
A modification of it is as follows:—Cut out several panes, corresponding to the size of the two glass covers, of quite transparent paper or parchment, prepared by rubbing with oil or vaseline, lard, or the like. Paint on these the required modifications of the picture. The advantage of this is, that a great many shades can thus be given in a thinner space, creating an astonishing effect. As this is not at all a mere imitation of stained glass, and as it produces effects not to be found in the latter, it may rank as an art by itself. The chief of these effects is relief, especially shown in the human figure. But the most extraordinary are the variations of chiaroscuro which it affords, by availing himself of which the artist may create or obtain striking suggestions for oil or aquarelle pictures; for these transparencies can be so infinitely and ingeniously varied that no one can fail to derive from them many ideas.
This may be tested by simply preparing any picture, say of a statue, a castle on a rock, or a face. Cut out from sheets of the same size in very transparent paper a series of shadows adapted to it, and adjust them. They may be all in monochrome or one colour, or in many hues. They may range, with proper care, from almost imperceptible shadow to opaque black. By beginning with only two stencils or shaded pictures—for as regards these the artist must be guided by his own skill—and gradually increasing the number, the proper adjustment will soon be found. I advise the beginner in copying to proceed from monochrome to two colours before attempting many. Teachers in aquarelle will find that such copies are—after a certain degree of proficiency shall have been obtained—much superior to those commonly used, as they come nearer to nature.
The most perfect form of this curious art is an improvement which, I believe, is my own invention. This consists of introducing leaves of painted mica between the two glasses. In this way four grades or tones of colour and light and shade can be made in a picture. Mica-leaves can be made into one by using mastic cement. Rub the edges with emery-paper to roughen them.
As I have already intimated, the materials for this work are so cheap and the process so easy, that all which I here assert may be at once verified by the outlay of a few shillings, with a few hours of time. It is, in another form, the same thing as arranging lights around a statue in a dark room, but adapted to all kinds of pictures.
As a Latin poet has declared, “It is an easy thing to add to arts,” when a beginning has once been made (“Inventis facile semper aliquid addere”), so I will add to this a curious discovery in glass made by me in Venice a few years ago. I was being taken by Sir Austin Layard over his celebrated glass-factory. It was he who, with the aid of Sir William Drake, first revived the almost forgotten manufacture of glass in Murano. While standing with him by a furnace watching a workman skilfully forming ornaments in glass, it suddenly occurred to me that the Chinese were said to have possessed in remote times an art, now lost, of making vases or bottles which appeared externally to be quite plain, but on the surface of which, when red wine was poured in, patterns or inscriptions appeared of the same colour. It at once occurred to me that this could be perfectly effected by making a bottle, on the interior of which the ground should be of considerable thickness, say half-an-inch, while the inscription or pattern would be no thicker than ordinary window-glass. Then if the whole exterior were to be lightly ground on a wheel or sandpapered, the difference between ground and pattern would not be perceptible until red wine or some highly coloured fluid were poured in, when the pattern would at once show itself.
Sir Austin Layard was so much struck by the suggestion that he sent at once for his foreman, Signore Castellani, who said that he had heard of such bottles, but always supposed it was a fable. He, however, at once admitted that they could be made as I proposed, but added that the expense would be so great as to render the invention practically useless.
It has, however, since occurred to me that such bottles could be made, and cheaply, as follows:—Take a Florence flask, and divide it into two parts with a diamond, using a saw for the bottom. Then on the sides within place the ground. It could be made of silicate of soda and powdered glass or flint, or even of white wax, hardened with powdered glass. Close the bottle with silicate, and grind the whole.
When any glass has been broken and mended, the fracture still discernible may be thus concealed by grinding the surface, and in many cases by surrounding it with a ring or tube of metal, also by one of silicate, or with an ornament formed with it.
A glass stopper when too large can be easily filed down to fit. Should the neck of the bottle be too narrow, it can also be enlarged by the same process. When the rim of a goblet is fractured, it can be ground down on a grindstone. I have done it with a file.
A pane of glass can be somewhat rudely cut into shape with a pair of strong scissors, under water. In this, as in other things, practice leads to perfection.
An old method of effectually closing bottles of wine was as follows:—The edge of the opening on the top was ground down on a stone, and a small disc of glass was exactly fitted to it. Heat was then applied till both were in partial fusion and the cover was welded to the bottle. A little powdered glass would aid the fusion, or it could be effected with silicate without heating. The process is the same as using glass stoppers, rather sunk in, and sealing up with silicate.
A broken champagne bottle is not easily mended, but I have seen one curiously utilised. The bottom only had been broken, and it was cut off round and evenly with a file. Within it there hung from the cork by a cord a very large nail or small bolt of iron. Thus prepared, it made a capital and appropriate dinner-bell. Here in Italy I have often seen bells made of crockery or terra-cotta; their tone is better than would be supposed.
WOOD-SHAVINGS
IN MENDING AND MAKING MANY OBJECTS
“In human industry, there is on an average a loss of fifty per cent. in labour or material.”—Observations on Art, by Charles G. Leland.
There is no country in the world in which the art of mending is so much required as in the United States of North America. The reason for this is the extraordinary and sudden changes in temperature, causing the expansion and contraction of cells and fibre, especially in wood, which results in cracks. Thus seasoned furniture and carvings, which have remained unchanged for centuries, it may be for a thousand years, in any part of Europe, shrink and split very often within a month after being placed in a drawing or dining room in Boston or Philadelphia, as I know by sad experience. Thus I have known a very beautiful Italian mandoline, three hundred years old, richly inlaid with ivory, to so shrink and warp in America that a professional mender declared that nothing could be done with it. The sounding-board had curled up like a scroll and split, and the mosaic or inlaying had fallen out in bits.
Patterns cut from Wood-Shavings.
In such a case, carefully detach the warped piece or pieces, and dampen the concave side carefully with a sponge till it resumes its flatness or usual form. When this is attained, take very thin shavings of a firm wood, as thin as they can be shaved, and glue them transversely, or grain across grain, to the under or plain side of the board. This will probably prevent all warping in future, especially if the best mastic and fish-glue is employed. It may here be noted that where the shavings cannot be obtained, thin parchment or even note-paper may be used, and that good, strong varnish, or not too thin, may be used for a binder. There are many cases in which parchment or paper are preferable to wood in repairing, as being less liable to warp or crack.
Wood-shavings, which are as yet but little utilised in art, have, however, before them “a great future.” Combined with glue, or other binders, they can be made, even under the hand-roller, into boards, which have the advantage that they can be moulded, curved, or turned to suit many emergencies which would require a great deal of saw or carving work.
It is not unusual to employ veneers, or very thin sheets of wood, as a guard across the grain where shrinking is to be apprehended, as in tablets for painting on or panels, and it is a great pity that this very cheap precaution is so little used. But there are very few cases in which shavings are not as applicable, and they have the great advantage of being obtainable wherever there is a plane and wood.
Holes or defects in wood—for example, in American shingle roofs or the clap-boarded sides of houses—can often be more cheaply and readily repaired with shavings and glue (into which oil is infused) than by any other means. And it may be observed that such a coating of shavings and glue, laid on to a new roof, is the cheapest and most effective protector against rain or sun or frost.
In certain work wood-shavings can be advantageously combined with paper to give a solid, smooth surface and firm body. Here the paper-paste, with or without sawdust, is first forced into the cavities, and the shavings superadded.
Shavings and glue are excellent for the temporary repair of boats, and if the mending be properly executed, it will be as durable as the original wood. It would be an easy matter indeed to make a canoe entirely of shavings and glue. If the hand-roller be well used and thoroughly applied, the result will be a very firm fabric.
Pattern to be cut out of Shavings and applied with Glue to a Panel.
It may be worth knowing in the wilderness, that where a backwoodsman has a plane (and he can always make one if he has a chisel, which, again, can be made out of a knife-blade) he can make shavings, and with these and some kind of binder—even clay—he can lay a dry, hard floor, when perhaps boards are not to be obtained. The substratum may be of beaten clay or stone. If of sufficient thickness and well rolled, such a floor as this would be impervious to damp.
Any surface can be very well veneered with shavings and glue. Smooth the surface by pressure or rolling, and when dry glass-paper it. Veneers are often not to be had; shavings may be got in every carpenter’s shop.
Not only very strong and elastic canes, but even bows of a superior quality, can be made of shavings. The Indians in Pacific America make the latter by pasting and pressing one shaving on another with great care. It may be understood that where the grain, as in a piece of wood, runs altogether in one way, it will split with the grain. But where it is not uniform or connected, and is very powerfully incorporated by pressure with a good binder, we may easily have a very elastic and tough fabric, not so likely to split as wood. Thus we can make from hickory shavings a wood less liable to warp or split than the original wood itself.
Wood-shavings and glue are admirably adapted to repair broken boxes or any other articles of wood, especially for smoothing over roughly mended surfaces and covering knot-holes or other defects. In all cases when possible use the roller, and when pasting one piece on the other cross the grains.
Musical instruments, such as guitars, violins, and mandolins, are very easily repaired with shavings and glue; and this is, indeed, in many cases, the very best means of reparation, since, while a piece of wood may or may not injure the tone, the shavings always give a good vibration. And where it is quite beyond the power of any ordinary amateur, say a lady, to set in a piece of wood or apply one, or to get it of a proper thickness, anybody with care can paste on thin shavings—the thinner the better—till the defect is repaired. In many cases parchment or paper will answer just as well, and I have myself thus perfectly mended violins which were apparently beyond all bettering, and got to the stage of lasciate ogni speranza, or hopelessness.
There are, however, many cases of badly fractured objects in which the owner gives up hope, because it seems impossible to make a beginning. Now, “whatever can be made can be mended” is true of everything except morals, and even in these there is more to be done than men wot of. And in a great number of these cases parchment strips, thin linen tape, or especially wood-shavings, can be used with success. Bring the broken edges together if they warp apart, and attach them with the strip and strongest cement; that is, with small pieces of the “fastener.” Do not attempt to do everything at once. When the edges are united and the binder dried, fill in all crevices or holes with a suitable paste or “filler”—not too much at once, in certain cases. Then, as will generally be required, cover the surface with thin shavings and binder; as it dries, file or glass-paper it smooth. The shavings will make, with mastic and fish-glue, in many cases, a far better repair than could be effected with a piece of wood or parchment, because they will never split, like the former, if they are applied lying transversely or crossways, nor stretch like the latter.
It may depend, in many cases, on what wood the shavings consist of. As I have observed, even in the bush a plane can be made with a chisel or a piece of a table-knife blade, set in a wooden block; but elsewhere any carpenter will easily supply what is wanted, ad libitum.
The paste or filler of wood-powder or paper-pulp will be found described in other chapters.