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
anu most families own as many as this


the books are source of a 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


may be easily made of very cheap ma
terial and very simple construction. The
! best material is pine, since 1t is cheap and
easily worked. 1t is not generally known
that plain pine board, If stained and
vanished, may be made to look very like
mahogany, rosewood, or black-walnut,
and the process of staining is so simple
that any housewife can perform it. 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.


To stain shelves mahogany-colOr
take pound or two of lOgwOOd chips and
boil them in water, so as TO make a strong
decoctiOn. We have foun that this gives
better results than can be % 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 q quantity of good
shellac into 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 I'm 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 off
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 prObabl, 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
ing the least quantity of alkali, such as
washing soda, to the logwoOd decOction,
tuC plIC Will UC IuduC W IcScHtUlc TOStc
wood. In all cases, however, the shelves
do not acquire their proper tone for some
months 4; but if well done-that is, if the
decoctiOn be strong, the varnish thor
oughly applied, and all roughness re-
moved by means of the sand-paper-at
the end of year nine persons out Of ten
will take them for mahogany or rosewood,
as the case may be. Every fiber of the
pine -hOws so that the grainis As apparent
as if the shelves were made of hard wood
and polished. The appearance is, there
fore, greatly superior to that of any ordi-
nary painted work, and the process is so
simple that no intelligent houseseerer
need dread failure. We have now in
mind set of shelves prepared in this way
by lady whose husband, although not
mechanic, fitted up tne woodwork as an
amusement during the winter evenings.
and they compare favorably with much of
the cabinet work that we find in market.
-Harper's Bdzdr.