152. To clean Harness.—Having washed off the wet dirt, sponge the harness clean, and hang it up to dry. Next, brush it with a dry, hard brush, and clean the brass ornaments.
For this purpose, mix a quarter of a pint of turpentine, with two ounces of rotten-stone, two ounces of finely-powdered charcoal, and a quarter of a pint of droppings of sweet oil; apply this paste with leather, and polish it off with powdered charcoal.
Or, clean the brass ornaments with the following mixture, which is used in the Royal Mews: dissolve one ounce of oxalic acid in a pint of water, to which add a pint of naphtha. To give the brass-work a fine color, powder some sal-ammoniac, moisten it with water, and rub it upon the ornaments; then heat them over charcoal, and polish with dried bran and whiting.
Or, wash the brass-work with a strong solution of roche alum, and polish it with tripoli.
To restore the color of harness, clean it, and brush over it the following mixture:—boil half a pound of logwood chips in three quarts of soft water, to which add three ounces of galls bruised and one ounce of alum.
153. Oiling Old Leather.—A practice is common of wetting harness, &c., before it is to be oiled, under the idea that it soaks in the oil better for wetting. No two things are less capable of union than oil and water. The leather appears soft after the above practice, but a dry day will soon show how hard the leather becomes when the water it has imbibed has evaporated, and how rotten the heart of the leather is, although the outside appears yet oily. If leather be dry and then oiled, the quantity of oil consumed will tell whether the leather has absorbed the oil or not. If it have, it will last for years, if it be oiled thoroughly every spring. The most durable stuff to nail up garden trees, is leather soaked in oil, and then drained before use. Old shoes and harness will thus be of use when no longer of service to the body.
154. General Washing.—Counterpanes, blankets, bed-hangings, &c., should be washed in summer, as they will then dry quickly, and be of good color.
By putting linen and cotton stockings to soak the night before they are to be washed, much soap and labor will be saved.