Glue rounds of felt to the feet of all things not furnished with castors if you would save polished floors from marking. A brad or two, driven upward, the heads well sunk, will add stability. Old soft hats will furnish the rounds. Instead, you may use a contrivance now in market, which is practically the same thing, also cheap and convenient.
V
MAKING WHOLE
Rickety Furniture: Scrape or file away old glue from loosened joins, cover with fresh glue very hot (see section Renovators). Tie fast together or put in a vise, protecting the jaws of it with thick paper, and let stand two days. Reinforce then underneath with iron—a light angle iron for corners, strap iron with holes punched along each edge for straight breaks. Small light metal hinges often answer admirably. Screw everything firmly in place, then scrape away oozing of glue outside, sandpaper, and refinish.
A jagged break needs glue extra thick and hot. Brush it well into broken fibers, both ends, press them together, fasten firmly, let harden, scrape away oozings, and screw on strap iron with holes an inch apart in the edges. Put it inside or underneath, and if it shows, as on chair or table legs, paint to match the wood, and varnish when dry.
Fine brads, driven in alternately, slantwise, on the under side, will hold cracks fast, but not so fast as strap iron. Hinges set in an angle need a little wood gouged away so they may lie flat against the wood. Fill gaps in a splintered surface with putty colored to match.
Glass and China: No cement ever made at home or commercially will bear long soaking in hot water or suds. Hard usage is also impossible. Notwithstanding, mending is well worth while, wherefore save the pieces, and especially save tiny splinters. Otherwise your mending will be vain. Twice a year have a mending-day, saving up breakage against it. Work at a steady table set in good light but not glaring. Have a white table cover, a bowl of hot water, a cup of alcohol, plenty of clean rags, several camel’s-hair brushes of varying size, a tumbler of water to hold them when not in use, plenty of twine, tying-tape, new rubber bands in variety, a pair of swinging weights, and on the floor, out of the way, a box half full of damp earth or sand. You need in addition squares of deal or cardboard for setting out of the way mended things. Also a pound of putty mixed stiff and, if mending ornaments, gold paint and colors in powder.
With a simple clean fracture, as across a platter, wash edges very clean, using a brush and suds, rinse in hot water, then coat thickly with pure white lead rubbed thicker than cream in raw linseed oil. Set the larger fragment, break up, perpendicularly in the box of sand. It must stand plumb. Fit the other piece to it, and hang evenly across it the swinging weights, which are but a strip of strong cloth doubled up into pockets at each end and filled with buckshot or pebbles, which must balance accurately. Their use is to make the join firm and fine—in fact, barely visible. Leave standing several days, then file or sandpaper off surplus lead. Lead-mending is the most durable of all.
Mend thin china with white of egg and quicklime. Beat the egg stiff, coat clean edges thickly with it, dust with powdered unslaked lime, press hard together at once, and fasten firmly. The lime sets as in mortar. Sandpaper the break after a week. This is a good cement for opaque glass as well.
Hollow things, as cups, bowls, etc., should be set over crumpled paper upon a round of cloth, with a drawstring in the edge just big enough to cover them halfway. Draw up the string very carefully after mending, and fasten. The secret of good mending is to have things held fast.