A Manual of Mending and Repairing; With Diagrams

by Charles Godfrey Leland

Metal-work, especially in iron, requires so much forging and so many appliances that it is to a certain extent beyond the ordinary mender, who must in most cases have resort to the smith or artificer. But there is still much within the capacity of the amateur to effect, and this I will describe.

One of the commonest requirements in repairing trunks and many other objects is to make a strap or strip of metal hold either to a surface or to itself. This is to be promptly effected by riveting. If the iron band on a trunk is broken, you cannot well nail it again into its place. A nail will not hold in the thin side, possibly of pasteboard. To learn how to repair in such a case, take a piece of common hoop iron, lay it on a block of wood or a board, and with a fine nail or brad-awl and hammer knock a hole in it. Then take a rivet or any flat-headed tack, put it through the hole, lay it with the head of the tack down on iron or stone if possible, and then give the point a blow, a little sideways. The result is that the point will be flattened and the tack firmly held. The result will be the same if the rivet passes through two thick pieces of metal. In this manner the two ends of an iron hoop for a box are fastened. Therefore, if we take a piece of tin or sheet-iron, put it in the trunk against the side, and bring down the broken strip on the outside, we can, with a little care, rivet it. It is advisable, when this is done, to paste a strong piece of muslin or leather over the tin to prevent it from cutting anything in the trunk. These riveted strips are far better for surrounding and holding many bundles than cords. They are better for books, because they do not leave marks on the edges, neither do they untie nor are they hard to fasten, requiring no knotting.

Riveted bands, corners, or bent pieces of sheet-metal are more generally applicable to broken furniture than is generally supposed. The plate thus applied can generally be concealed either by chiselling a place for it or by hammering it into the wood, and then cementing and painting it over.

Wire is also very useful for mending of many kinds, either in metal or wood. To manage it we need a pair of cutting pliers or pincers, as well as the long-nosed and flat pliers. Thus, to attach two bodies—for instance, the two parts of a broken gunstock—begin by fastening one end of the wire in one piece, and wind it round both, drawing it as tightly as possible with the flat pliers. When united, fasten the other end by driving it under the twist or into the wood. This also can be so adroitly treated that the wire, flattened with a file and hammered down, can be concealed under paint and varnish. By means of wire passed through holes made with long brad-awls or fine gimlets, picture-frames can be firmly repaired. In many cases the wire should be brought round and the ends fastened or wound together; in others, make a double ring in one end of the wire and nail it down, then pass the wire through the hole and fasten the other end in the same way. Many kinds of broken implements may be thus mended. Endeavour to get strong, flexible wire for such purposes.

Boxes containing goods will be doubly strong when protected by strips of iron nailed round them. Hoop-iron is generally used for this purpose.

Soldering is, however, the best and most usual means of repairing all kinds of metal-work, and this is very far from being so difficult as is generally supposed; indeed, a lady-writer on metal-work goes so far as to declare that it is fascinating. As every tinker and tinman knows how to “sodder,” and will willingly give instruction for a trifle (children, indeed, often behold the whole process admiringly for nothing), and, finally, as it is most unlikely that any reader of this work should be in a place where neither tinkers nor tinmen are to be found—for I have read that a gipsy tinker was once discovered mending a kettle seated in the shadow of the Great Wall of China—it is hardly necessary to describe in detail processes which any one can take in at a glance. The principle is this:—As in cementing glass, the glue which binds requires powdered glass to be mixed in it, so that it may establish a quicker and closer affinity with the glass; so to unite two metallic surfaces we must have a flux or some fusible substance as an intermediary. For this purpose various substances, such as resin and borax, are employed with the solder, which is a compound of metals, which melts very easily, takes a firm hold of other metals, and sets hard at once. There are many varieties of it, adapted to different metals. It is generally sold in small sticks for use.

I lay some stress on the fact that there should be some one in every family knowing how to repair, especially in metal, because there is no household in which there is not damage of tin and iron ware, trunks, kitchen utensils, and often even of jewellery, which a clever youth or young lady could easily restore. A pin is detached from a brooch. You could repair it yourself in five minutes, at a halfpenny’s expense; but no, it must be sent to a jeweller’s to be mended for a shilling. It is the same with earrings and chains and bracelets and clasps and securing-rings. When they become shaky you fasten them with thread. It will hold for the present, of course; and then comes an advertisement in the Times: “Lost—Twenty-five Pounds Reward!” All because you never learned how to repair or solder.

But, as ’tis never too late to mend, and no one should be a mend I-can’t, or go begging to others to do for him what he can do for himself, I trust that reflection on this subject will induce many to become practical repairers. If you have a valuable coin, do not take half the value out of it, as most people do, by boring a hole through it. Make a simple twist and eyelet of a bit of silver wire and solder it on the edge. Do not tie a gold chain with twine; mend it properly. Rivet your broken scissors, and when hinges come out screw them on again. If there were really anything difficult in all this I would honestly say so, but there is not, and people who have received some education learn how to do it all with ease in a short time.

A recipe for a cement to attach metal to any other substance is made as follows:—