CURRY POWDER. (See TURMERIC.) CUTLERY, in the general sense, corn prises all edged tools ; but it is now more particularly confined to the manufacture of knives and forks, scissors, pen-knives, razors, and swords. Those articles which do not require a fine polish, are made from blistered steel ; while those which require the edge to possess great tenacity at the same time that hardness is not re quired, are made from shear steel. The finer kinds of cutlery, are made from steel which has been in a state of fusion, termed cast steel; no other kind been susceptible of a high polish—(see STEEL. can then be made so as to be to iron with great ease. Table-knives are mostly made of shear steel. The blade is first rudely formed and cut off. It is next welded to a rod of iron about half an inch square, so as to leave as little of the iron part of the blade ex posed as possible : of the iron attached to the blade enough is then taken off from the rod to form the bolster or shoulder and the tang. To give the bol ster size, shape, and neatness, it is intro duced into a die and a swage placed upon it ; the swage has a few small 'blows given to it by the striker. The die and swage are called prints. The blade is now heated, and the proper anvil finish is given to it : this is termed smithing. It is again heated red-hot, and plunged down into cold water. It thus becomes hardened and requires to be tempered down to a blue color, when it is ready for the grinder.
Forks are a different branch of manu facture; they are made of small rods of steel, drawn out flat at one end to about the length of the prongs. The shank and tang are heated, and the form given by a die and swage. The prongs are then formed at one blow by a stain , which weighs about 100 lbs., and falls from a height of 7 or 8 feet upon the heated end of the rod: a fly-press re moves the metal left between the prongs. The forks are then annealed, which sof tens and prepares them for filing. The inside is then filed ; they are then bent into form and hardened, by heating and plunging them into cold water. The tempering is done by exposure to the degree of heat at which grease inflames. Almost all razors are made of cast steel, the quality of which should be very good, the razor's edge requiring great hardness and tenacity. The tempering is usually performed by placing them on the open fire, in a sand bath, or an oil bath, or a bath of fusible metal of 8 parts of bis muth, 5 parts of lead, and 8 of tin heated up to 500° Fahr. Razors are ground crosswise, upon stones from 4 to 7 inches in diameter ; a small stone being needful to make the sides concave : they arc then smoothed and polished.
Pen-knives have three stages in their manufacture : 1st, the forging of the blades, the spring, and iron scales ; the 2d, the grinding and polishing of the blades • and 3d, the handling, or fitting up of all the parts.
The finest kind of cast steel is used in the manufacture of ladies' scissors ; the larger scissors have a blade of iron, with steel edge.
The various processes of grinding and polishing are performed by machinery, moving in general by the power of steam, or a water-wheel. The grinding and polishing of, cutlery is the most ruinous occupation to health and life at which any man can be occupied : few who com mence to work at it early in life, reach forty years of age.
The manufacture of handles is carried on often in the same establishment with the steel work. According to the tech nical phraseology applied, all handles are called hafts in which a tang of the knife passes into a hole in the handle, and is there fixed ; while the handles which are formed of two flat pieces riveted to a central plate, as in pen-knives, are called scales.
The workmen who engage in this em ployment confine themselves each pretty nearly to one kind of material. The pearl-handle makers procure the shells from the shores of India and Africa ; these shells are about six inches in dia meter, and are so extremely hard that they have to be wetted while being cut with a saw, to prevent the saw from be ing softened by the heat. This is a dirty occupation, and is accompanied by a " very ancient and fish-like smell," elicited by the heat from the shell itself. The pearl, or rat-her mother-of-pearl, is cut up into thin slices, to be afterwards used for the scales for pen-knives, razors, &c. Ivory handles are made by sawing up elephants' tusks into the most useful pieces they can make, by means of a cir cular saw. If the ivory is for scales, it is cut into veneers ; but if for hafts, it is cut into small oblong pieces, which are afterwards brought to shape by hand, polished, and for the reception of the tang. Bone handles are similarly made by cutting with a small circular saw, and then filing into shape ; and the same may be said of ebony and fancy wood handles generally. Saw-handles are cut out of wood, which, after being planed to the proper thickness, is fixed in a vice, cut with a very fine saw, smoothed with files and glass-paper, pierced with rivet-holes, and riveted to the saws. Metal handles are of course made in a way similar to other articles of metal.
Horn handles have a peculiarity in their mode of manufacture, which places them in a distinct rank. When horn is made hot, it becomes so soft and ductile that it may be pressed into moulds ; and this circumstance is taken advantage of to give an ornamental device to horn handles, except stag's horn, which is left in its natural state. The tips or solid parts of the ox-horn and buffalo-horn are made into hafts, while the other parts are made into scales. The mould for pressing is in two halves, which close together like a pair of pincers; and this mould has the device on each of its halves. The mould is heated in a :fire ; the piece of horn is cut nearly to the re quisite size, and put into it ; and the mould is pressed in a powerful vice, whereby the horn receives the impress of the device.
There is also a good deal of skill shown in staining horn, bone, and ivory, or in bleaching them ; as also in studding and ornamenting them in various ways. CYANIDE OF POTASSIUM. This salt, so much used now in the electrotype processes, is prepared, according to Lie big's formula, by mixing 8 parts of pounded prussiate of potash, sharply dried, with 3 parts of pure carbonate of potash, fusing the mixture in an iron crucible, by a moderate red heat, and keeping it so, till the glass or iron rod with which the fluid mass should be oc casionally stirred, comes out covered with a white crust. The crucible is then to be removed from the fire; and after the disengaged iron has fallen to the bot tom, the supernatant fluid, still obscure ly red hot, is to be poured off upon a clean surface of iron or platinum. After concretion and cooling, the white saline mass is to be pounded while hot, and then kept in a well-stopped bottle. It consists of about 5 parts of cyanide of potassium, and 1 of cyanate ofpotash. For most purposes, and the analysis of ores, the latter ingredient is in no ways detrimental.