A Manual of Mending and Repairing; With Diagrams

by Charles Godfrey Leland

I would add to this, that where heavy pressure or hand-rolling can be applied this becomes really hard. Also note that any light, dry wood of fine texture can be dried and powdered for this purpose. The paste, even with common fine glue, can be used for very fine repairing. By sifting and pulverising, the dust may be made as fine as flour. A little calcined and powdered glass adds to its strength.

To make panels for furniture, walls, or boxes, take firstly a thin panel of seasoned wood, fasten two strips of sheet-tin across the back to prevent warping, and make or apply the cast to this. Very beautiful work can thus be produced very cheaply.

It may be here observed that this principle of mixing a powdered substance with glue or gum or an adhesive runs through all the arts of mending. The powder of cocoa-nut shells, slate, of paper, plaster of Paris, of leather, clay, lime, fine sand, and many other substances, can all be combined with adhesives, acids, or chemical solvents in such a manner as to form what may be called generically cements, or substances, or pastes, which become hard. Any glue or gum, or liquid which will make two surfaces adhere, can be mixed with most organic or inorganic hard substances in powder so as to form a paste which, when dry, forms a solid, hard substance, because the grains of the powder are thereby cemented together. Most of these yield to the action of water, but there are a few which resist both water and fire, all of which will be described in this work.

Broken ebony can be filled in cracks with a very neat and dainty paste or cement made as follows:—Take dried rose-leaves, or any others as soft, steep them in just enough water to soften them, add of gum-tragacanth and gum-arabic just enough to make a paste, and sufficient ivory black to give it an ebony colour. Macerate the whole in a mortar. In the East a few drops of otto of roses or of geranium are added. From this heads are made, also medallions, or any other small objects. The composition sets very hard, and much resembles ebony. I have made many small objects of it myself, and can testify to its excellence. It is in this manner that the black rosaries from Constantinople are made.

A very good cement for filling cracks in furniture or other woodwork is made as follows:—One part of finely powdered resin and two parts of yellow wax are melted together, and to this is added two parts of finely pulverised ochre, or other suitable colouring earthy substance. This is an excellent cement in all respects, except that it yields to great heat. For all such repairing sawdust and glue is much to be preferred.

In repairing furniture, remember the screws hold much more firmly if they are just dipped in boiling beeswax or turpentine. If you are not accustomed to screwing or nailing, just make a hole with a brad-awl, else you will find the screw or nail going out of the side of the box, or in some other undesired direction.

Clamps, or pieces of wood connected by screws, ties, or elastic bands, are indispensable in much glueing pieces together. They are, however, easily made. A good clamp can be made by bending over the two ends of a strong piece of wire. Hammer the ends into the wood.

Glue is more elastic when mixed with a little glycerine. This should be borne in mind when mixing glue with sawdust to form artificial wood, and, in fact, in many manufactures and combinations where it is specially desirous to have a certain degree of toughness or flexibility in the object made.

To utilise waste matter is allied to mending, which is only preventing waste. For this purpose common wood-shavings may be used for a pretty art. Take good shavings of any wood, and after moistening them with glue or gum tragacanth and arabic, press them flat. Trim them with scissors into leaves, or make them into flowers, and attach them together. Then pour over them liquid plaster of Paris, in which there is gum-arabic and alum dissolved. Take a bush, or plant without leaves, and gum the leaves to it or to its twigs. Cover bare places with the gypsum. When dry varnish the whole. A Professor Heigelin, in Stuttgart, once had an exhibition of such work. Frames can be decorated in this manner. Paint, gilding, and enamel, or bronze powders, can, of course, be applied. Shavings combined with weak glue submitted to pressure form artificial wood or boards, which can be improved by further combination with waste-paper. Made with a solution of alum it is fireproof. Its strength will be in proportion to the pressure applied. It can often be employed in repairing when suitable wood is wanting, and has the advantage that it can be turned to any shape.

The reader can easily satisfy himself by experiment that these artificial woods made from sawdust or shavings, combined with adhesives, are very easy to manufacture, very cheap, and, when properly made, extremely strong. When strong pressure or rolling can be applied, the quantity of adhesive may be diminished. Linen or muslin rags, cotton-wool, or any textile fabric can be added to the shavings, as well as waste-paper of all kinds. Anything fibrous or stringy will aid in the binding.