Year: 1873

AMONG the objects that are most easily
made, and that afford the greatest con-
venience, are book shelves. When fami-
ly possesses a hundred volumes or So
and most families own as many as this
the books are a source Of constant an
noyance. When they are allowed to lie
ON their sides on tables, if we wish to con-
suit one we are frequently obliged to toss
over the whole of them; they accumulate
dust. and get shaken, soiled and injured
generally, all which might be avoided by
the use of few simple shelves, and these
NAV be easily made of very cheap ma
terial and very simple construction. The
hest material is pine, since it is cheap and
easily worked. 1t is not generally known
that a plain pine board, if stained and
vanished, may be made to look very ike
mahogany, rosewood, or black-walnut,
and the process of staining is so simple
that any housewife can perform 1t. we
know a lady who has stained and var
dozens of pine shelves that her husband
has fitted up during his leisure moments,
and to-day they look as if they were ma
hogany. o,o,
take a pound or two of logwood chips and
boil them in water, so as to make strong
decoction. We have founi that this gives
better results than can be OBJ aimed by
using extract of logwood. Wet the board
thoroughly with this decOcti n; when
dry it will have reddish-ycllow color,
and must then be vanished with what Is
known as spirits of shellac varnish.
This varnish can be bought ready
made at the paint shops, but we
prefer to make it by dissolving good shell,
lac in alcohol. Put a quantity OF good
shellac into a wide-mouthed bottle, cover
it with alcohol, cork the bottle tightly,
and let it stand until the shellac is dis
solved. No skill is required in the appli-
cation of this varnish, which dries very
rapidly, and forms hard glossy coating
on the surface of the board. When dry
the shelf must be carefully smoothed of
with sand-paper and again vanished.
The second coat will give very bright
appearance to the shelf, but If we saad-
paper it before applying the first coat the
staining will prObablJ be removed IN
spots and the shelf will not look well.
An application of the sand-paper after the
second coat will still further improve the
finish of the wood; but this, OF course,
involves third coat of varnish. BY add
inc fine least quantity of alkali, such as
washing soda, to the logwood decoction
the pine will be made to resemble rose
wood. In all cases, however, the shelves
do not acquire their proper tone for some
months but if well done-that Is, If tht
decoction be strong, the varnish thor


oughly applied, and all roughness re


moved by means of the sand-paper-a


the end of year nine persons out OF ter


will take them for mahogany or rosewood


as the case may be. Every fiber of TIT


pine shows so that the grainis as apparen


as if the shelves were made of hard woot


and polished. The appearance is, there


fore, greatly superior to that OF any ordl
nary painted work, and the process is 81


simple that no intelligent houseseepe


need dread a failure. We have now II
mind set of shelves prepared In this wa.
by a lady whose husband, although not
mechanic, fitted up the wood work as al
amusement during the winter evenings


and they compare favorably with much


the cabinet-work that we find in market
-Ha7per's Bazar.