Waterbury evening Democrat., 1905-07-12

i0CtAoAo ioi E lnIoAiuS- oA
 Wax Finishing-Planing Ends.
 BY JAMES RITCHEY.
 Qnstructor in Woodworking and Pattern
 making, Armour Institute of Tech
 nology, Chicago)
 Copyright. by Joseph B Bowles)
 Shellac yarnish, or snellac, as 1t is commonly called, is solution of shel- lac gum in alcohol. Pure grain alco- hol only is used for the best grades, wood alcohol being substituted in the cheaper grades. These cheaper grades should be avoided, because they de- teriorate rapidly and do not produce a good finish, besides being very hard to spread evenly with the brush.
 Shellac varnish must be brushed on quickly, since the alcohol evaporares rapidly. It must also be diluted with alcohol when necessary, until it will flow freely and spread evenly.
 Shellac varnish alone makes an ex- cellent finish for either soft or hard pine or for white maple, without the use of a filler. Three to six coats will be needed, and each coat, when dry, must be sandpapered smooth with No. 0 paper before another is applied. The last coat is not sandpapered, but instead the surface is cut down even and smooth with powdered pumice stone and oil A good quality of ma chine or lubricating oil is the best for this purpose and should be used freely to keep the pumice stone wet and to prevent it from gathering into Jumps on the rubber or on the surface of the work. If the surface is fiat use small block of pine wood. or better of cork. over which several thicknesses of can ton flannel have been wrapped After cutting of the higher projections dis pense with the block and hold the cloth in the fingers only. The pumice will cut faster without the block, but greater care must be taken to avoid rubbing over and cutting the shellac from the corners and angles of the piece being rubbed.
 Shellac will not take a high polish like varnish and is usually finished and polished with the punice and oil alone. To work rapidly they must be used free ly and the condition of the surface ex- amined often during the process by simply wiping of small section with the finger or soft cloth.
 Patching Varnish.
 When rubbing varnish to an even and smooth surface. even experienced rubbers will sometimes rub through that is, rub or cut of all the varnish down to the bare wood To patch such spots requires time, patience and care. The first coat Gin recoating) must be put on so as to cover the bare spots only, but as the shellac is very thin for some distance around the spot. the sec ond coat must be spread around the first, and the third still farther on, adding a coat each day. but sandpapering between coats with great care to avoid scratch ing the rubbed surface of the shellac near by.
 Copal varnish.
 Copal. or furniture varnish, as it IS more often called. is made of gum copal. boiled linseed oil and turpentine, combined by heat. being boiled togeth- CT and strained, after which it is al- lowed to settle and ripen. often for sev- eral months. before il is ready to use.
 This varnish. unlike shellac. dries very slowly. owing 10 the oil which it contains. so that each coat requires from two to four days to dry and harden.
 IL must be used quite thin. so that it will run freely from the brush. turpen- tine being added for this purpose. or. better. the varnish may be slightly warmed by placing the varnish cup over (not inl a vessel of hot water. This last method. when convenient is greatly 70 be preferred. as the raw turpentine when added will destroy much of the smoothness and gloss Of the vsrnish
 Copal varnish is applied directly to the surface of the filler. and each sue cessive coat must be sandpapered smooth with No. . paper before another is brushed on. Three. four and even six coats will be needed. according 10 the quality of the finish desired. After the last coat has become dry and hard the whole is rubbed down even and smooth with punnic stone oil may be used as described for shellac. but as copsl is an oil varnish. ii will resist much faster if water is used with it in water. and the pumice stone will cut place of oil. The surface produced will be equally smooth. but will have 10 polish or gloss.
 After cutting the vsrnfsh to ia smooth. even surface all pumice must be care- fully wiped of with a mois; sponke and the new surface of the varufsh allowed to dry and harden for one or two days. after which all remaining particles of punice are removed and the new surface of the vsrnish is polished by using fine powdered rotten stone and oil on a soft vad of canton flannel
 When polishing with rotten stone the last or finishing polish is best pro- sBc~d by small circular strokes of the polishes. and when the required polish has beer river 10 the surface sIr -a-