9. Troweled stucco, which is a very neat kind of work, used in dining-rooms, halls, ice., when the walls are proposed to be painted, must be worked upon a floated ground, and the floating should be as dry as possible before the stucco is applied. In this process, the plasterer is provided with a wooden tool, called a float, consisting of a piece of half-inch deal, about nine inches long and three wide, planed smooth, with its lower edges a little rounded off, and having a handle on the upper surface. The stucco is prepared as described above, and afterwards well beaten and tempered, with clean water, for use. The ground intended to be stuccoed is first prepared with the large trowel, and made as smooth and level as possible ; and when the stucco has been spread upon it, to the extent of four or five feet square, the workman, with the float in his right hand, and a brush in his left, begins to rub it smooth with the former, having first sprinkled it with water from the latter : this he does in small portions at a time, and proceeds, alternately sprinkling and rubbing the face of the stucco, till the whole is reduced to a fine even surface. Ile then prepares another square of the ground, and proceeds as before, till the whole is completed. The water has the effect of hardening the thee of the stucco, and, when the floating is well performed, it will feel as smooth as glass.
Rough-casting, or rough-walling, is an exterior finishing, much cheaper than stucco, and therefore more frequently em ployed on cottages, flirin-houses, &c., than on buildings of a higher class. The wall intended to be rough-cast is first pricked-up with a coat of lime and hair ; and when this is tolerably dry, a second coat is laid on, of the same materials as the first, but as smooth as it can possibly be spread. As fast as the workman finishes this surface, he is followed by another, w ith a pail-full of rungh-east, with which he bespat ters the new plastering, and the whole dries together. The rough-cast is composed of fine gravel, clean washed from all earthy particles, and mixed with pure lime and water, till the whole is of a semi-fluid consistency. This is thrown from the pail, upon the wall, with a w ooden float, about five or six inches long, and as many wide, made of halffinch deal, and fitted with a round deal handle. While, with this tool, the plasterer throws on the rough-cast with his right hand, he holds in his left, a common whitewasher's brush, dip ped in the rough-cast also, with w hidh he brushes and colours the mortar, and the rough-cast he has already spread, to give them, when finished, a regular uniform colour and appearance.
arc either plain or ormunented ; and sometimes they embrace a portion of both classes. The first thing here to be attended to, is to examine the drawings, and measure the projections of the members : if they project more than seven or eight inches, brackethng must be resorted to. This consists in fixing up pieces of wood, at the distance of about eleven or twelve inches from each other, all round the place proposed for the cornice, nailing laths to them, and covering the whole with a coat of plaster, allowing in the brackets for the stuff necessary to form the cornice: in gene ral, about one inch and a quarter is sufficient. A beech mould
is next to be made of the profile of the intended cornice, by the carpenter, of about a quarter of an inch in thickness, with the quirks, or small siukings, of brass. All the sharp edges are to be carefully removed by the plasterer, who must also open, with his knife, all the points that he finds incompe tent to receive the plaster freely. These preliminaries being adjusted, two workmen, provided with a tub of putty, and a quantity of plaster of Paris, proceed to run the cornice. Be fore they begin, however, to use the mould, they gauge a screed upon the wall and ceiling, of putty and plaster, cover ing so much of each as will correspond with the top and bot tom of the intended cornice. On this screed, one or two slight deal straight-edges are nailed, adapted to as many notches, or chases, made in the mould, for it to work upon. The putty is then to be mixed with about one-third of plaster of Paris, and brought to a semi-fluid state by the addition of clean water. One of the workmen, with two or three trow elfuls of this composition upon his hawk, which he holds in his left hand, begins to plaster over the surface intended for the cornice, with his trowel, while his partner applies the mould, to ascertain the parts where more or less may be wanted. When a sufficient quantity of plaster has been laid on, the workman with the mould, holding it steadily and firmly against both the ceiling and the wall, moves it back wards and forwards, which removes the superfluous stuff and leaves an exact impression of the mould upon the plaster. This is not indeed effected at once, but while he works the mould to and fro, the other workman takes notice of any de ficiencies, and fills them up, by adding fresh supplies of plas ter. In this manner, a cornice of from ten to twelve feet in length, may be formed in a very short time; indeed, expedi tion is essentially requisite, as the plaster of Paris occasions a very great tendency in the putty to set ; and to prevent this taking place too rapidly, it is necessary to sprinkle the composition frequently with water from a brush ; as they generally endeavour to finish all the lengths, or pieces, be tween any two breaks, or projections, at one time, to secure the truth and correctness if the cornice. lu cornices of very large proportions, and in cases where the orders of architec ture are to be applied, three or four moulds are requisite, which are applied in the same manner, till all the parts are formed. Internal and external mitres, and small returns, or breaks, are afterwards modelled and filled up by !rand; an operation upon which a dexterous plasterer much piques himself.