Harper's Household Handbook: A guide to easy ways of doing woman's work

by Martha McCulloch-Williams

Rubber bands help mightily. String half a dozen strong ones on a tape and tie about the neck or base of anything so rounding strings slip. Join the broken part, then put another tape through the bands, and lift it steadily until you can fasten it about the neck or over the top. The bands must be the same size, and draw equally. After tying the tapes set a weight on top of the broken thing. Loop rubber bands around broken-off handles, set them in place, then string a tape through the bands, draw them together, and pass the tape twice around the body of the vessel.

Build up shattered things bit by bit about cores of putty covered with wax paper. This if shape admits taking out the putty. Narrow-mouthed things had better have cores of absorbent cotton wound with wax paper. It can be picked out bit by bit, using a hook. Putty likewise can be dug or rasped out, but not so easily. Things very badly broken need to be mended in sections, joining scraps and fitting in splinters. Fill cavities outside and in with either soft putty or plaster mixed with white of egg. A backing of putty inside seams makes them secure. Keep clean fingers while mending. Also keep broken bits clean. If a mend fails, soak off cement and begin over. White lead must be taken off with turpentine. But failure with it is rare.

If a handle-break goes through in a vase or ewer fit inside the hole a lump of putty, then cement edges, and press together, holding something against the putty and spreading it all over the break. Hard, it makes an indestructible join. Water will not affect it; still, such a vessel had better be kept for show.

Glass: Mend glass as directed for china, but use white cement, gum arabic, or sugar syrup (see section Renovators). Press breaks hard together and fasten firmly. If it is possible to expel every bit of air, the break will be scarcely visible. For colored glass rub dry color smooth in a little white cement and apply with a very fine brush. Repair breaks in gilt glass, after mending, with gold paint. Do the same for gilt china, and touch up with matching colors any flaws in the pattern.

Mending Bric-à-brac: Mend broken ivory with a few drops of fish glue such as shoe-makers use. Press very hard together, wipe off oozings clean, fasten, wrap in cotton, then in paper, put in a vise and screw firmly but not too hard. Metal ornaments can be either soldered or repaired with sealing-wax and resin, melted together over boiling water and applied very hot. Join broken bisque and clay figures with white of egg and powdered unslaked lime unless it is possible to get from a potter a little regular luting. Mend torn or loosened leather with fish glue, and put under heavy weight.

Mending Books: Take out of the covers, press square and solid, then paste over the back a strip of stout thin muslin, letting the edges project unpasted an inch either side. Dry under pressure, so the muslin will be fully rounded. Turn back the loose muslin accurately along the edge, paste it plentifully on the outer sides, then lay on the cover, press firmly in place, and dry under weight. When dry, paste in new fly leaves double fold. Paste the outer one to the cover, the inner one only lightly to the book. Removing old fly leaves spotted or defaced makes a better job of it.

Mending Lamps and Candlesticks: Fasten loose lamp collars with white of egg and plaster; make as thick as putty and use quickly. Solder broken metal parts. Dust with powdered resin, lay on the stick of solder, and apply the hot iron. Tinkering thus needs only a little knack. It enables you to stop leaks in zinc or tin—as pipes, shields, and so on. Cooking-vessels are quite another story.

Mending Rubber: This is a parlous business at best, still can be done. Get the best rubber cement, have the break very clean, apply, and let harden for a day at least. Breaks in hose, tubes, and so on had better be cloth-covered—after mending, of course. Indeed, the life of such things is trebled by covering them neatly before they break. Cut strips of cloth wide enough to go round, allow half an inch for turned edges, fold down, and whip together around the hose or tube. A big pipe can have a cover of canvas stitched up. Covering protects the surface and takes up a large part of the water strain. Fill breaks in rubber footgear with rubber cement, let harden, then put inside over the break a piece of strong, thin cloth, shaped to fit and coated upon one side with fish glue. The glue goes next the rubber; after it has hardened it takes the strain.

Darning: Darning is an art, so much so one may well say there are torn things not worth a darn. If they are woolen things, mend with rubber tissue, smoothing the tear with a warm iron, then laying on the tissue and fixing it with a hotter one. Press again on the right side, and clip close any loose fibers.

Linen, Silk, and Stuff: Lay under the break stiff paper spread with net matching in color, press with a warm iron, baste before lifting lightly, take up and baste again about the edges. Match thread to fabric; use a fine needle, go back and forth with very short running stitches, catching the net below, but taking only as deep hold in the outside as will make a firm mend. Beware puckers. When finished, cut away surplus net and press on the wrong side, then under a cloth on the right. If a tiny hole is to be filled in, tack it smooth over stiff paper, then with ravelings of the stuff or thread exactly matching go over the warp way, setting thread for thread, barely catching at the ends, then weave in cross threads, same as the original fabric, and press. Or the hole can be cut to a tiny square after basting on paper and a matched square inserted and darned in all round. This had better have net under it so the join may not pull apart.