FURNITURE POLISH Holes in Furniture. — To fill up cracks or holes in furniture, make a thick glue size by boiling pure white glue with water to the consistency of milk or thin cream. Mix with fine sawdust from the same or similar wood to make a stiff paste. With this fill the holes and cover deep cuts and rough surfaces. When dry, thorough ly scrape down with an edge of bro ken glass and polish.
To Color Mahogany Furniture. Use cold-drawn linseed oil colored with alkanet root or rose pink, or a mixture of equal parts of both. Put the coloring matter in an earthen ves sel, cover with the oil, and let stand a day or two, stirring frequently. Rub on with a soft cloth, and let stand several hours before polishing.
French Polish. — This consists in rubbing shellac or other varnish on the surface of the wood with a cloth, instead of laying on a coating with a brush. The object is to get a very thin coating of varnish with a high polish and hard surface, not so liable to scratch as a thicker coat would be.
French polish is most suitable for hard woods. To prepare a porous or coarse-grained wood for French pol ish, give it a coat of clear glue size. Let dry, and smooth with very fine sandpaper, followed by a cloth mois tened in water and dipped in fine dry pumice or rotten stone. This fills up the pores, and thus prevents a waste of time, polish, and labor.
To finish with a French polish any previous coating, all varnish should be removed and the surface given a smooth, dead finish with sandpaper, followed by a cloth moistened and dipped in fine pumice or rotten stone.
To apply the varnish, moisten a small square pad made of several thicknesses of flannel sewed or quilted together, and apply the middle of the cloth to the mouth of the bottle. Thus the pad will take up a small quantity of varnish, but sufficient to cover a considerable surface. Then lay the pad on a piece of soft linen cloth, double the whole back over the edges, and close it up at the back of the pad to form a handle. Apply a little raw linseed oil with the tip of the finger to the middle, place the work in a good light, and rub quickly and light ly over the surface with quick, light, circular strokes. Always work from
the center outward. Continue until the varnish becomes nearly dry. Mois ten the pad again, but without the oil, and give two additional coats. Moisten the pad slightly with oil, and finish with two additional coats of varnish. Lastly, wet the inside of the linen cloth with alcohol before taking up the varnish pad, and rub over the whole surface. Polish with oil and alcohol, without varnish, using a clean linen cloth. To give a fine French polish, soft clean linen must be used and the atmosphere must be entirely free from dust. Use no more varnish each time than can be rubbed to a high polish, and continue rubbing un til the rag seems dry.
To Prepare French Polish.—Mix 4 ounces of shellac, 1 ounce of gum arabic, and i ounce of gum copal. Bruise and mix the gums with 2 ounces of powdered glass. Cover them with 1 pint of alcohol and cork tight ly. Let stand in a warm place, shak ing frequently until dissolved. Strain through silk or muslin.
Or dissolve 1 ounce of gum shellac and i ounce of gum sandarac in 1 pint of alcohol.
Or dissolve Si ounces of shellac in 1 pint of naphtha.
Or mix 1 ounce of pale shellac with 2 drams of gum benzoin, and cover with 4 ounces of wood naphtha. Cork tightly and let stand in a warm place, shaking frequently until dissolved.
Or mix 1 pound of shellac with 1 quart of wood naphtha.
Or shellac, 8 ounces; mastic, ounce; sandarac, i ounce; copal var nish, i gill; alcohol, 1 quart. Mix, cork tightly, and let stand until dis solved. Pour off the clear liquor.
To apply any of the above, moisten a pad of cotton wool with the polish by laying it on the mouth of the bot tle and inverting the bottle. Cover with a linen rag, apply a drop of cold linseed oil with the finger to the cen ter of the rag to keep it from stick ing, and rub with light, firm strokes and uniform pressure in circles, work ing from the center. Finish with a few drops of alcohol or turpentine on a clean linen rag.