Fig. 4.
CHAPTER XLV.—WOOD-WORKING AND CARVING; OR, WALKING-STICKS AND HOW TO TREAT THEM.
Walking-sticks of all varieties—apple, ash, blackthorn, brier, cherry, elm, hazel, holly, oak, vine, and whitethorn—are best when cut in the winter, between November and February; the sap is then sluggish, the leaves are off, and the character of the stick can be most easily descried.
To boys who desire to carry a stick of their own choice and dressing, the following practical notes will be of value.
Never attempt to trim a stick as soon as you have cut it. Leave the branches on it an inch or two long, and hang the stick up to dry for a week or so, knob end uppermost with a weight on the narrow end. Let it hang in a moderately cool place, and when it is dry and pliable, take it down and begin to trim it. Cut off the branches you do not want, and make the crook if you do not care to finish merely with a knob. To make the crook, plunge the end for a quarter of an hour in boiling water, bend it to shape, and keep it in place by a piece of string twisted by a stick in the middle, like the spring of a jumping frog, or the stretcher of a ribbon saw. When the stick has dried in shape, trim it to taste with a sharp knife, and give it a good rub down with sand-paper. When it is smooth and presentable, if you want it to remain its natural colour, give it a coat of boiled linseed-oil, and let this dry thoroughly into it. If you want the stick to be black, boil a pound of logwood chips for an hour in a quart of water, and brush the stick over with the boiling liquor. When the stick is dry, give it another boiling coat of the decoction. When that is dry, dissolve an ounce of green copperas in a quart of hot water and coat the stick with the solution. Keep the stick away from the fire, and let it dry each time slowly and well, and you will find that the mixture of the copperas and the logwood has dyed it an intense black. After you have stained it, give it a coat of boiled oil, and when that is thoroughly dry, begin to polish it.
For the polish, mix an ounce and a half of shellac with a quarter of an ounce of gum mastic, and dissolve them slowly in half a pint of methylated spirits, or, what is better, quicker, and cheaper, buy threepenny worth of French polish from the nearest oil-shop.
Having polished the stick, finish it with a coat of hard varnish or copal varnish such as the artists use, of which a little goes a long way. Hard varnish can be bought cheaply. If you must make it, mix together an ounce of gum mastic, two ounces of gum juniper, a quarter of an ounce of turpentine, and a pint of methylated spirits. Give the stick one or two even coats of varnish, and you will find it last for many months. Some sticks do very well varnished over the oil and stain, then the polish is saved. If you want to stain a stick brown, add dragon’s blood to the polish; if you like it golden coloured, drop in some yellow ochre or gamboge. The difficulty in stick-making, however, is not in the polishing; it is in the bending and trimming.
Apple makes excellent sticks if judiciously dried. Ash sticks are best cut from saplings; when cut from hedges or pollards, they are inclined to become brittle. Like apple sticks, they require careful seasoning to be serviceable. Blackthorn sticks are heavy, and liable to splinter. They are best when cut from saplings. Brier sticks are also best when cut from saplings. Cherry sticks should be stripped of only a part of their bark, and require sand-papering, oiling, polishing, and varnishing. Elm sticks should have the rough bark left on; they also are best when taken from saplings, but it is very seldom indeed that an elm stick is fit for anything else than to be looked at. Hazel sticks are light and handsome, and do good service, no matter whence they are cut. They should be well rubbed down with sandpaper and carefully varnished. Holly sticks are as good as any. Cut them from the branch with the crook or knob attached, and let them have a long time to dry. Oak sticks are the strongest and toughest, but the most difficult to dry and trim. If you dry them too rapidly they split, if you dry them with the bark off they split, if you have the knots close together they split. If you get a good oak cudgel you can smash any stick of any other wood not exceeding it in size. Vine sticks are also of value, but they have an unpleasant tendency to warp and twist. Whitethorn sticks are like unto blackthorn sticks—heavy, treacherous, and brittle.