TO PRESERVE HATS.
Hats require great care, or they will soon look shabby. Brush them with a soft camel-hair brush, which will keep the fur smooth. Have a stick for each hat, to keep it in its proper shape, especially if the hat be wet: put the stick in as soon as the hat is taken off, and when dry put it into a hat-box, particularly if not in constant use, as the air and dust soon turn hats brown. If the hat is very wet, handle it as lightly as possible; wipe it dry with a cloth or silk handkerchief; then brush it with the soft brush.
VARNISH FOR WAINSCOTTING, SMALL ARTICLES OF FURNITURE, BALUSTRADES, AND INSIDE RAILING.
Take gum sandarac, 6 oz.
shell lac, 2 oz.
colophonium, or resin,
white glass pounded,
clear turpentine, each 4 oz.
pure alcohol, 32 oz.
Dissolve the varnish according to the directions given for compound mastic varnish.
This varnish is sufficiently durable to be applied to articles destined to daily and continual use. Varnishes composed with copal ought, however, in these cases, to be preferred.
Another.
Melt over a moderate fire, in a very clean vessel, two ounces of white or yellow wax; and, when liquefied, add four ounces of oil of turpentine. Stir the whole until it is entirely cool, and the result will be a kind of pomade fit for waxing furniture, and which must be rubbed over them according to the usual method. The oil of turpentine is soon dissipated; but the wax, which by its mixture is reduced to a state of very great division, may be extended with more ease, and in a more uniform manner. The essence soon penetrates the pores of the wood, calls forth the colour of it, causes the wax to adhere better, and the lustre which thence results is equal to that of varnish, without having any of its inconveniences.
COLOURED VARNISH FOR PLUM-TREE, MAHOGANY, AND ROSE-WOOD.
Take of gum sandarac, 4 oz.
seed lac, 2 oz.
mastic,
Benjamin in tears, each 1 oz.
pounded glass, 4 oz.
Venice turpentine, 2 oz.
pure alcohol, 32 oz.