Care of Brushes: All manner of brushes, especially floor and vegetable ones, should be washed clean, scalded by dipping to the back, no deeper, in boiling water, then dried, brush down, in open air, and kept dry. Whisk brooms should hang the same as full-grown ones, likewise hearth brooms. Stand clothes and hair brushes bristles down—this so they may not collect dust. The safest wash for them is gasolene, letting it come only to the back, not over it. Hot borax soapsuds, likewise used, clean without loosening the bristles.
Renovators—Filler for New Wood: Sift twice together half a pint of powdered corn starch and as much whiting. Stir gradually into a half gallon of raw linseed oil mixed with the same quantity of turpentine. Take care there are no lumps and keep well stirred while putting on.
Oil Stains: Use the same mixture of oil and turpentine. For cherry put into the gallon an ounce of Indian red, stir well through, test, if too pale add more color. If too deep, add oil and turpentine. Work with the wood grain in putting on any sort of stain.
Mahogany Stain: Four parts Indian red, three parts burnt sienna. Mix dry and stir evenly through the oil and turpentine. Use half sienna for a dull tone. To make stains dry quickly add a pint more turpentine and half a pint less oil.
Walnut Stain: Use burnt umber, an ounce to the gallon. A little dry ocher mixed with the umber gives a livelier tone. Red or yellow, or both, can be put in, but must be very well mixed.
Oak Stain: Raw umber is the basis of oak stain; proportion and mix like the others. Antique oak requires burnt sienna mixed well with a very little lampblack, also to have two parts of turpentine to one of oil. Apply it with a sponge or swab of cotton waste and rub into the grain lines, leaving the spaces between bare.
Wax Finish for Stained or Hardwood: Melt over boiling water half a pound of yellow beeswax with half a pint of sweet oil. Beat hard a minute, take from fire, add half a cup of turpentine, and beat until nearly cold. Keep covered in glass or earthenware. Apply soft, but not liquid, with a clean flannel, and polish by rubbing until hot.
Dancing-wax: Used on Colonial ballrooms. Melt together over boiling water a pound of yellow beeswax and half a pint of filtered neat’s-foot oil. Add resin the size of a walnut melted in half a cup of new unsalted butter. Beat well, take from fire, stir in a cup of turpentine, and keep covered. Apply soft, and polish with hard rubbing.
Furniture Polish No. 1: Equal parts of sweet oil, choloroform, and alcohol shaken hard together, rubbed on quickly, then polished by rubbing until hot.
Piano Polish: Shake hard together equal parts of sweet oil, turpentine, and vinegar. Add a very little naphtha, apply with silk or flannel, and rub hard afterward.