VELVET, a rich kind of stuff, all silk, covered on the outside with a close, short, fine, soft shag, the other side being a very strong close tissue. The nap, or shag, called also the velveting, of thiS stuff, is formed part of the threads of the warp, which the workman puts on a long narrow-channelled ruler or needle, which he afterwards cuts, by drawing a sharp steel tool along the channel of the needle to the ends of the warp.
VE!.slitERING, or VANEtRING, a kind of inlaying, whereby several thin slices or leaves of fine woods, of different kinds, are applied and fastened on a ground of sonic common wood. There are two kinds of the one which is the most common and more ordinary, goes no fur ther than the making of compartments of different woods ; the other requires much more art, in representing flowers, birds, and the like figures. The first kind is properly called veneering ; the latter is more properly called marquetry. The wood used in veneering is first sawed out into slices or leaves about a fide in thick ness e. the twelfth part of an inch. In order to saw them, the blocks, or planks, are placed upright in a kind of sawing press. These slices are afterwards cut
into narrow slips, and fashioned (livers ways, according to the design proposed ; then the joints having been exactly and nicely adjusted, and the pieces brought down to their proper thickness, with se veral planes for the purpose, I hey are glued down on a ground or black, with good strong glue. 'rhe pieces being thus join ed and glued, the work, if small, is put in a press ; if large, it is laid on a bench co vered with a hoard, and pressed down with poles on pieces of wood, one end of which reaches to the ceiling of the room, and the other bears on theboard. When tile glue is thoroughly dry, it is taken out of the press and finished ; first with little planes, then, with divers scrapers, some of which resemble rasps, winch take off the dents, Re. left by the planes. After it has been sufficiently scraped, they polish it with the skin of a sea-dog, wax, and a brush, or polisher, of shave grass ; which is the last operation.