Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1871-08-10
Scientific Notes,

To INITIATE lNLAYNa OF SILVER
STRINGS, &c.-This process is sometimes
employed in the stocks, &C., of pistols,
and if well executed has very good
effect. Carefully draw your pattern
upon the work, and then engrave or cut
away the different lines with sharp
gouges, chisels, &C., so as to appear clean
and even, taking care to cut them deep
enough, and rather under, like dove
tail, to secure The composition after
wards to be put in the channels. The
composition to resemble silver may be
made as follows Take any quantity of
the purest and best grained tin, melt it
in a ladle or other convenient receptacle;
add to it, while in fusion, the purest
quicksilver, stirring it to make it in
corporate when you have added enough,
it will remain in stiff paste if too soft,
add more tin, and if not sufficiently fluid,
add quicksilver grind this composition
on marble slab, or in a mortar, with a
little size, and fill up the cuttings or
grooves in your work, as you would with
a piece of putty let it remain some
hours to dry, when you may polish it off
with the palm of your hand, and it will
appear as if your work was inlaid with
silver. Instead of tin you may make
paste of silver leaf and quicksilver, and
proceed as above directed you may also
for the sake Of variety in your work, hold
it at moderate distance from the fire,
which will give your strings a good
gloss.
LAcoUERING is the application of trans
parent or colored varnishes to metals, to
prevent their becoming furnished, or to
give them more agreeable color, Their
basis is properly lac but other varnishes
made by solutions of other resins, and
colored yellow, also obtain the name of
lacquer. Strictly speaking lacquer is a
solution of lac in alcohol, to which is
added any coloring matter that may be
required to produce the desired tint
but the recipes that have been published
in various scientific journals contain
apparently a great many useless articles.
The following is simple compound {;
Take 8 OF. of spirits of wine, and | OF. of
annatto, well bruised mix these in
bottle by themselves ; then take l OF. of
gamboge, and mix in like manner with
the same quantity of spirits. Take seed
lac varnish, what quantity you please,
and color it to your mind with the above
mixtures. If it be too yellow, add
little from the annatto bottle if it be
too red, add a little from the gamboge
bottle if the color be too deep, add a
little spirits of wine. In this manner
you may color brass of any desired tint /:
the articles to be lacquered may be
gently heated over q charcoal fire, and
then be either dipped into the lacquer or
the lacquer may be evenly spread over
them with a thin brush. Tile Cabinet
Maker.
CAST STEEL THAT HAS BEEN BURNT or
spoiled by overheating can be partially
restored by heating it over and quench-
ing in water four or five times, each of
less extent than the first overheating and
decreasing; hammering the steel till
nearly cold, to give the greatest conden-
sation before hardening. Some prefer
the steel thus recovered for cutting-tools,
the treatment really produces a remark
able change, as fragment of the same
bar in the spoiled state will be extremely
coarse, and another of the restoration as
extremely fine.